Monday, July 4, 2011

BW&PAH

I wanted to blog a bit more about my Blue Waves and Piers Afterthought Heels. This is the second pair of Waves and Piers socks I've knit, both using the Kaffe Fassett Regia sock
yarn. I do like the colors and what how well the yarn and pattern work well together. For this second pair, I dropped down to a 2.25 mm needle from a 2.5 mm to firm up the fabric. I'm quite pleased with the progress. Just a fee more rounds before I start decreasing for the toe on the first sock.


I like the forethought sock used in this pattern. It fits me well and keeps the color stripping going in a very nice manner. It involves putting stitches on scrap yarn, provisionally casting-on stitches and knitting what is essentially a toe. It involves ending with a kitchener stitch to close off the heel. I like how mine turned out.



I thought it was quite fun to have the gray/purple be used for the kitchener stitch. I did it without reading my instructions. (go me!) This is the heel not worn on a heel so you can see I do have some pointy ends that I'd eventually like to learn not to have.


Do you know how to not have those points? Please share your ideas.

The heel uses a crochet provisional cast-on using a waste yarn. Easy enough for me to do. This is my favorite provisional cast-on. It is unnoticeable when done properly. I didn't do it properly. Can you see where I did my cast-on?


My lesson learned: Use waste yarn that is about the same weight as the yarn being knit. I did not do this. Instead I used a worsted weight cotton yarn. Worsted weight is nowhere close to a sock weight yarn. I know this. Duh. I also noticed that when I tried to pick up the stitches to knit down the sock, I twisted some of the stitches. I blame this on my trying to pick these up during our Thursday night knitting where the lighting wasn't the best. I won't bother me all that much (really, I won't let it bother me because it is on the bottom of my foot and you won't see it).

I have used a smaller weight yarn for my second heel and will report the findings when I'm finished with the second sock.

I hope to have these socks finished by next week so I can think about casting on a new project for Cast-On Sunday.

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