Knit the heels in white or leave it?

Knit Misti Alpaca Taos socks

Originally uploaded by earthwhisper

Knit Misti Alpaca Taos Socks

I would have finished these socks yesterday, but I ran out of yarn on the toe of my 2nd sock. Sigh… This is the first time I have ran out of yarn knitting socks for myself. My feet aren’t “that” big. I could have used a smaller CO, but when you are at the end of your second sock…most people aren’t crazy enough to go back and reknit it all.

I had some options:
1. Buy more yarn….but since I don’t have a job, that isn’t really an option at the moment.
2. Take out the toe on the first sock and use it on the 2nd sock and just knit them both smaller and gift them to my mother.
3. Take out the toe on the first sock and use it on the 2nd and then knit the toe in different yarn.
4. Reknit both socks with less cast on.
5. Find someone on Ravelry with the same knit sock yarn and beg for their leftovers… (I was tempted on this one, ha ha!)

Usually I have leftover yarn…I am boggled at how I ran out.

I chose option #3.

The yarn is really soft. It also is really “sticky” and would find itself in knots a million times. At times I hated it because of the knots. I also had 1 break and 1 thin spot in my skein. I really wondered if perhaps this skein was missing some yarn, but I don’t have a good enough scale to weigh it.

Now that I am done, I am tempted to take the heel off and knit it in white, too…and maybe the cuff. The white is just some wool sock yarn I had. It was either that or green.

I think that things are starting to look a little bit better for me on a personal level. I haven’t found a job yet, but the unemployment checks are helping.

Trekking XXL Pro Natura socks

Finally finished my father’s size 12 socks….they are pulled at the heel to show how the toe fits.

I knit the first sock, then knit the second sock and ran out of yarn at the toe. I frogged back the first and second sock to the toe and tried to divide the yarn, but when I finished the first sock again…it was my size, not size men’s 12.

So, I went through my stash and found some green Knit picks yarn that worked perfect. I incorporated 2 rows of KP yarn green colored and then 2 or 3 rows of the Trekking until I thought I had enough yarn, then finished with the Trekking. I like how it turned out and I don’t think you can tell that I ran out of yarn. Either way, I don’t think my dad will care.

The Trekking Pro Natura yarn is superwash wool and bamboo and I think the bamboo gives it a really soft feel as well as a nice drape.

A+ for this yarn!

I roughly used the Mr. Pitt’s sock pattern, mostly the CO # and the 3X1 rib….I did two different types of short row heels. Next time will not CO as many….as it really produced a very stretchy sock.

The first sock has the short row heel that I learned from a socks that rock pattern. It incorporates YO’s and then when you turn the heel you do a lot of K3tog and P3tog.

However, when I went to do the second sock, I couldn’t get it from showing these holes…some how I was doing it different than the first sock. This is weird and I redid it 2 or 3 times and got the same effect.

Finally, I tried a different method and LOVE the heal it produces and it is so easy! I am going to be lousy about explaining it, but you basically knit and purl one stitch less on each row and then after you turn the heel and go back you pull up a stitch from the row below and then knit them together. It produces no holes. I will try to find the link of the tutorial.  Here is is…it is a video!  Pink Argyl’s short row sock tutorial.

Next Up:  Socks for me…looks awesome and feels awesome, too…alpaca…yum!