The story of Spring Forward

Look what I did this weekend! That's a lot of knitting right. Can someone pull the string hanging off the sock on the left? That one is all going to disappear...

With Daylight Savings time requiring the clocks to Spring Forward, I decided to revisit the first patterned sock I ever made: Spring Forward.

Now, the first time I made spring forward I used Lion Brand Sock Ease in Lemon Candy and started with size 3 needles. Size 3 needles, were too big, the socks were too big, and after 1 complete sock, I ripped it out and started again. Then, I made the sock with size 2 needles. Size 2 needles produced an excellent sized sock, but I realized there was a problem. The yarn looked like crap. Not only did the striping make it look terrible, but you also just can't see the pattern at all. For evidence, see exhibit A.

Exhibit A from 12/2008: (you'll also notice the toe is a bit tight- hey, I was new at this

Now, as my first patterned sock (3rd socks), I was actually quite proud of these, but they did look like crap. They are still awaiting "frogging". I just need to decide what to use the yarn for instead.

Re-reading my Ravelry notes (see them here for the full story) I see that even as a novice sock knitter, these socks went really fast- just 4 days for a single sock (granted, a sock I had to rip out). And yep, second time around, they still went really fast.

Actually it went even faster. Here's the story of the next spring forwardss.

I started Friday night. I used size 2 needles, my typical sock needles and got started on the twisted ribbing. Man, twisted ribbing is slow, but I finished it Friday night. Saturday I did the first pattern repeat, and tried them on- uh, oh, this seems really big, no big deal, we'll call it the top of the calf, and change to size 1.5 needles for the rest of the leg, continue on. Uh-oh, still too big. Okay, so from the other end of the ball, I'll start a new sock, this time with size 2.5 needles, but only 55 stitches, instead of 66. I did the ribbing and the first half of the repeat- okay, this seems like it will work.

Today (Sunday) I did the rest of the leg, and figured out how the heel and instep pattern will work with only 55 stitches, a bit of play and it mostly works. The only thing I don't like is that there is only one wiggle down the middle of the foot- it doesn't have quite the same look.

The 55 stitches are a little bit tight, I think I'd want it just a bit looser- the lace probably opens too much, but it works. (So weird how first they are too loose and now they are too tight. Taking out 11 stitches is A LOT, but I also went up needle sizes, so I hoped it would work out. It mostly works out... they fit a lot like my potomatuses do- tight on the leg, but loose on the foot.)

So it looks like even revisiting them after I've mastered sock knitting, I'll never get perfect Spring Forwards- but hey, at least they are super fast!

(This yarn, Risata, is the first time I've knit socks with cotton. It's an interesting cotton/wool/elastic blend. I don't notice the elastic at all, but hopefully it will keep them from falling down. The cotton-well yep, my wrists hurt from the knitting...)