I’d hate to think about what my knitting would look like without the internet

I was speedily knitting up my New Year’s Day socks last night… I had finished the Eye of Partridge Heel the night before and I had just turned the heel when I thought … maybe I should try these on JUST TO MAKE SURE they fit? Because flint knits had just told me she couldn’t wear socks like this because they couldn’t fit over her instep. Pshaw! I thought. How could they… not… fit…?

Shit.

Even Trixie is not happy about this.

The real bummer about these not fitting (besides the fact I was really convinced that they would work, because the LABEL SAID SO, even though I didn’t swatch or anything) is that I was totally going out on a limb here and knitting this pattern up in this yarn because I loved them both so much, and I wanted everyone, EVERYONE to start knitting them as well. And I knit them on small 1’s (2.25mm) because I was afraid they’d be too big to fit into my clogs (like, my Jaywalkers) if I knit them up on size 2’s. It seems a lot of sock yarns are meant for needle sizes 2-3 (or at least the ones I find) but these are too bulky to fit in my shoes. Luckily, though, doggedknits suggested I could just knit them up on the same neede size and just add in a few extra stitches between the cable repeats (and even rib them, for more stretch). Yaaay!

So, these will be frogged. But not today. Perhaps not even this weekend. But soon.

I do have an (almost) FO to share though. I (almost) finished my February Baby Sweater!!! I’m going to Soak(TM) it today and attach the buttons, but I can’t wait until later to blog about it. I want. to. blog. now. Here’s a spectacularly craptastic shot, which I took at about 11pm one night last week. (I am nothing if not expedient, eh?)

So. I know TONS has been written about this “pithy little pattern” but I’ll just take a few seconds to contribute what I’ve learned.

First of all, REMEMBER TO MAKE THE BUTTON HOLES! I had to rip this thing back to make one once, and I STILL forgot to make one at the end. (I’ll be using AnnyPurls’ tutorial on after-thought buttonholes to try and insert one (click the photo above if you want to see where it’s missing).)

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way. I lost track of where I was in all the garter stitch up top. So I had to rip back to fix that. So. Pay attention! Ha!

Then I misunderstood her directions regarding when to divide for the sleeves. Luckily I found this post on the Zimmermania blog:

“On EZ’s directions, it states “at 4 1/2 “, work 25 sts, then work back and forth….” Should it be 4 1/2 ” from the beginning of the gull pattern or 4 1/2″ from the edge of the collar?”

…

“Definitely 4 1/2″ from the beginning of the garment, and yes, cast off using the purl stitch on the right side (outside facing you) of the garment.”

Um, yah. More ripping.

THEN! I decided to knit up the sleeves in the round (No seams! Why didn’t EZ do this?) but I should have checked Ravelry first, because once I did, I found that you’re apparently supposed to knit up the BODY first, then go back and pick up stitches for the sleeves. Oh well. I blazed ahead until I saw THIS when I went to pick up the stitches for the body:

WTF? Can you see that? There was a bizarre strand of yarn connecting the MIDDLE of the first sleeve directly to the body stitches. I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I had knitted the first 25 stitches, then cast on 7 stitches, then knit across the next 28 stitches for the sleeve and cast on another 7 stitches, and knitted that up no problem. So I was completely stumped. This time, though, NO ONE ELSE had knitted it up how I had, and no one else seemed to have this bizarre, random strand, so I took matters into my own hand, cut the offending strand, and quickly tied a bunch of tight little knots everywhere to keep the whole thing from unwinding.

(Click on the photo to see the knots.) Then I just kept on knitting as quickly as possible! It seems to be holding together just fine so far! *Cross fingers!*

So! After all this, I would say it (eventually) is a rather fun and fast knit (once you figure it out!!!). I’ll definitely be knitting this again, but I might do what everyone else does and knit the body first. If you’re trying to do your own mods, or you just don’t get what she’s written, I can GUARANTEE you’re not the only one. Miss EZ is concise, yes, but ALSO CONFUSING. (Some people love it, some people hate it. Me, I’m in the middle. I can appreciate it, but I also don’t really understand why her patterns are written sooo concisely, when the rest of her books, the journal part, are so verbose???)