Hanging on to Summer

Although my last post relished the fall, this post describes my attempt to cling to summer during the looming winter! I posted previously about sockdown going on in the sock knitter's anonymous group on ravelry, and here is my first completed sock of the sockdown!


I knitted the September Mystery Sock by Nancy Bush. The yarn is minestrone by Yarn Chef, in the straw hat colorway. This was my first time using any yarn by Yarn Chef, and I was pleased with it! The yarn was just a hair splitty, but I think that's because I had problems getting it wound, caused by my failure to properly secure my ball winder, which resulted in a giant knot that I really had to struggle with to undo. There is a lot of yardage in the minestrone--these are socks for my wide, size 10 foot and I had plenty of yarn leftover that I could have used to make them longer.

I really enjoyed knitting this sock and learned all sorts of new techniques--estonian cast-on, vikkel braid, and a different toe (not quite sure what the toe style is called, but it doesn't use kitchener!). I love the yellow because it will remind me of the summer, even in the middle of winter when I need to cover my cold feet up with warm, wool socks!

I did make some modifications, for sizing. They're listed below:

• CO 66 instead of 60, for my big feet.
• I only did 5 pattern repeats before starting the heel, because I like socks that are slightly shorter and was also concerned about yardage (but I shouldn't have been, I had plenty left over!)
• Because I used 66 instead of 60, I had to redo some of the math for the heel. I worked the heel across 33 stitches, instead of 29.
  
• For the heel turn: R1: k22, ssk; r2: SL, P11, P2tog; I then worked until all stitches were used.