Firestarter, the horror

Firestarter: Horror
Originally uploaded by elemmaciltur

Last Friday, when I was knitting the Firestarter, I was in denial. I noticed that something was wrong....but kept knitting. Two rows further, I saw that I twisted the middle cable too early. I told myself that I could live with it. Seven rows further, I decided that I could not and put it away for a while.

This evening I thought that I would be able to fix it by just dropping down the cable stitches and knit them back up again....

....yeah, not fun at all. I picked up about two rows and gave up on it. The combination of braiding/cabling with the twisted stitches aren't the easiest to fix...especially not with a circular dangling down and trying to knit with two DPNs in a very confined space with small strands of yarns going everywhere.

I ended up just pulling out all the needles and frogged back...and painfully picked up and knit all the stitches again.

But alas, I picked up the stitches wrong again. And this time I decided that I definitely can live with it. Because I know that if I have to rip this back again, the sock will definitely be sent into the same pile my Vinnland's living in right now.

Just for an FYI, I frogged this sock totally once already and re-knit the whole thing. So, this is my second time knitting it up.

Finally...

I stopped talking and started my sock! After all the hemming & hawing I decided to go with my "Puck's Mischief" STR. I had considered the "Metamorphic," but I'm really liking the more muted/tone-on-tone colorways for this sock; plus I didn't feel like hand-winding 360 yards into a center pull ball without even a swift to aid the process.


I am so happy with this!! The pattern does seem to be written a little strangely at times, though. It might just be me (goodness knows I almost never follow patterns), but it really seems like you have to reread a few times & figure stuff out. I suspect I tossed an extra row in before I began the first row of the chart, but I don't think it will make much difference, and I noted it on my pattern so I would remember. I also noted where I increased from 29 to 30.

I think I'm going to crank this out asap, and if everything goes well, make one out of the Trekking for my Harvest pal after all. I'm still a little bit conflicted, but after looking at the pattern more, I realize that my biggest worry (altering it to fit her foot) is unfounded -- it's written for her shoe size. We shall see; I don't actually have to finish that sock until December! I doubt I'll take anywhere near that long to decide & knit, though. I'm too excited!

Take 2!

I frogged my first attempt on size 2.75 mm needles using the original 60 st count and casted my STR medium weight back on size 3.00 mm needles using a 54 st count. No fat pooling. I can see my twisted stitches so much better.

Once I got used to the chart notation, I could cruise through the travelling stitches. (I will however note that I've gone through the experience of knitting Cookie A's Twisted Flower pattern so a sock pattern that only has one chart can seem comparatively easy. )

Keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't just jinx myself just now and that when I get to the gusset that it all works out, especially since I don't have the same row gauge.

Ready, set...GUSSET!

I made it, I made it through those traveling stitches. It all started making sense. Now for the gusset - I am so stoked.



I am so amazed by everyone's progress. I have enjoyed the challenge of this pattern and can't wait to continue forward. I think I could almost watch TV and knit the guesset after that interesting chart - we'll see. My picture is a little wonky - I think because of the way I rearranged the stitches to center the charted rows, so I can't really wiggle it on my foot for size, since my foot is not square:) But it seems like it is sizing up nicely and I am happier with this more solid yarn to capitalize on the design. Knit on!

Finally some progress

Firestarter: Progress
Originally uploaded by elemmaciltur

Yeah...well, I could have got further than this, but this is how far I got.

You see, I've been spinning a lot more and knitting on the Swallowtail Shawl. Last night, I decided to pick up the Firestarter and promptly I made a mistake in the second repetition of the cabling, which I noticed by the time I finished the third repeat.

Of course, I could have just frogged back to the mistake and fix it but for some reasons, I wasn't happy with the looser gauge at the toe, so I frogged the whole sock last night and re-started. I knit it back today to where it was last night....but now the drop spindle is calling to me again. :-p

Redirect

So I cast on my Firestarter using my Socks that Rock (STR) mill end (the thought now is that it's the Marbles colorway). The short row toe is okay, but it did remind me why I don't like them as my ends look messy. Next time I'm going back to my prefered Judy's Magic Cast On. (Also using 2 circs 'cause I didn't have a 2.75 mm circular that was long enough.)

Unfortunately, this colorway is starting to do that fat striping thing that can happen with STR. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I think it's obscuring the cable twists.

I guess I can call this a swatch and frog. My only problem now is that I'll have to swatch some other sock yarns first. Maybe a more semi-solid medium weight STR (but I don't want to use the colors I do have)? Dream in Color Smooshy? My Wollmeise, but then, which one? The only 2 that I think I'd want to try are Rhabarber and Raku-Regenbogen.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board.

I've finally started!

Here's my progress:

(Like my fancy-schmancy marker?) I'm using STR in colorway Farmhouse. This pattern is addictive! I'm supposed to be working on some other socks for a swap, but I can't seem to put Firestarter down. I'm definitely hooked.