One Toe Over The Line

I mentioned last week that I was experimenting with keeping a few knitting books on my ereader.  It's not the right experience for every book.  I don't think I could bear to end my life-long love affair with riffling pages and affixing sticky notes.  But it works surprisingly well for some pattern collections, especially those I might reference regularly.

I downloaded Wendy Knits: My Never-Ending Adventures in Yarn as a trial run.  I was immediately taken with the generic, toe up sock pattern.  Not that I was ever going to knit a sock from the toe up, mind you.  I knit a lot of socks.  Oodles.  But I've always been a dedicated flapper and the very idea of a short row heel made my head hurt.  I knit very nice socks.  Who has the time to be learning a new way to knit heels?  And toes, for that matter...

Well, it seems that I do, at least at the moment.  With the recent bout of back to back storms, I've been sitting at home more than I've been teaching the next generation.  I worked literally a day and a half this past week and I have a bad feeling that there is another snow day looming in the immediate future.  I finally gave in and did my provisional cast on.  I was trapped inside and going a little stir crazy anyway.  Why not add a some "heel crazy" to the mix?

The toe-up sock requires two short row endeavors so there was ample opportunity to traverse the learning curve.  Some lessons I learned very quickly.  For example: if it takes you half an hour to "unzip" your provisional cast on, then you have probably done it wrong.  I taught kindergarten.  I've done my share of wintertime playground duties.  I know a stuck zipper when I see one.

Other questions didn't resolve themselves quite so quickly.  I came perilously close to going online and polling the knitting community regarding the best time to ice down my hands.  Should I do it right after screwing up the first heel?  Or wait until the third try?  Would taking a therapeutic dose of pain relievers before starting eliminate the need for ice altogether?  What is the best course of action here???

Of course, I eventually figured out that knitting probably shouldn't hurt and that, like the cast on, I was probably doing something wrong.  I finally reviewed a few online tutorials for instruction.

Finally, after days of snowbound knitting, I ended up with this:

Not bad...if you squint and think very positive sock thoughts.

It is fair to say that these will never be "clog socks."  They might be "church socks" since they are very Hol(e)y in places, though.  At first I found myself disparaging the short row, but then I recalled how I used to have to stitch up the heels of my socks back in the day.  There was always a gap after I picked up the stitches.  Now I don't need to do that because I knit very nice flappy heels.  I've no doubt I can come up with a neater way to do this with practice.

In spite of the flaws, I'm not displeased with the result.  The toe-up sock goes pretty quickly and when you're done...you're done.  No weaving of toes, just one little strand of yarn.  And I'm pleasantly surprised by the fit.  It's really a nice sock, if not a perfect one.

I started the second today.  In the event of further weather, I will have something to work on while I wait out the snowflakes.  At this rate, I should be able to replenish my dwindling sock supply in short order!

Actually, if this weather pattern persists, I imagine I'll be able to meet my sock needs for life.

SA