Wed 20 Aug 2008
This has not been a knitty week. The temperature dropped back down to normal on Sunday, and then just kept on going, so it’s been a great week to quilt, which is good considering how quickly the deadline is approaching. It’s been cold, wet, and rainy all week, which is just perfect for curling up under a big blanket and stitching away.
I did start a pair of socks with the new yarn (the tan and green skein). I got about 3 inches in before realizing that bamboo is another sock yarn that doesn’t stretch. I don’t like baggy socks, so I usually make them about 15-20% smaller than my gauge would suggest so that they stretch to fit just right. When there’s no stretch, that means that they’re 15-20% too small. I thought that the increases would be fast enough that a narrow toe would be fine, but not quite. The sock fits on my foot, but it doesn’t actually fit.
I pulled back most of the way and tried increasing faster, but I don’t like the way it’s looking. The yarn is really nice, and I know that toe will bug me, so tonight I think I’ll pull all the way back and start over. Or maybe I’ll play with some stitch dictionaries to figure out what I’m going to do once I get past the toe…
Ah, yes, the joys of negotiating the relative stretchiness of yarn and the need to compensate in the pattern. I hope that you end up finding the perfect stitch for it 🙂