Halfway There

The first one is done -- finally! I tell ya, knitting for a knitter is about as challenging as it gets. Every step of the way I've stopped and asked myself "Does this look OK?".

I played with gauge and swapped down a needle size. I did the toe 3 times before settling on one I liked. Then I started on the foot and decided it needed an extra increase round. I mucked around with stitch patterns and ribbings on the foot and the leg. And when all is said and done I stuck with plain stockinette. Why? I think the stripes do it all. I tried a chevron design but it just wasn't doing it for me. Maybe if the stripes were uniform. Or thinner.

I did finish off the top with a little picot edge. Just your basic YO K2tog, and then I did another 5 rounds of stockinette before binding off. Actually, binding off isn't the right word. I never bound off the stitches. I just sewed one live stitch to the purl bump of the matching row 5 rows down.

Once done sewing I stretched the top and I could feel the sewn row. So I gently worked more of the yarn through that row and it feels better now. But it looks a little fluted. A Regia booklet I have suggests pulling through a length of 1/4" elastic through the hem. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

The Yarn

I still love working with the Regia Cotton Surf. It has a healthy amount of wool in it (around 40% I believe) but enough cotton to make it feel lightweight. The ballband suggests 7.5 spi but I increased it up to 8 and I like it better. Those of you who read my blog often know by now that I tend to knit socks tighter than the specified gauge. It gives a more substantial and solid feeling to the sock and increases durability as well.

The one slight negative I'd say about this yarn is that the plies do not stick together as closely as I like. I suspect this is because it's only 40% wool. When doing decreases I had to pay attention or I'd lose a ply here and there. It's very manageable though and hasn't swayed my appreciation of the yarn. I bought this ball last year at MWSW and I will be on the lookout for any other colorways I like this year.

Yardage

Last week I posted about how I split the jumbo ball into 2 balls (one for each sock). I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is to make the leg as long as the foot. I knit until I hit that point and then continued a bit until I found a good stopping point in the stripes. I wanted the picot edge to be fairly solid. I weighed the sock when done and it weighed 46 grams. 2 grams leftover, which looks to be enough for another inch or two. So I'd say the yardage on this yarn is generous and should do well even if you did use a stitch pattern that ate up the yarn.