Pattern: Whitby from Knitting on the Road by Nancy BushYarn: Reynolds Soft Sea Wool (100% wool), color 915, two skeins
Needles: one 32" US 2 (2.75 mm) Knit Picks circular
Started/Completed: June 25/July 2
Mods: adjusted the toe a bit so I could kitchener
If you want your socks to knit up quickly, knit them in a DK-weight yarn! I'd used this yarn before for Aidan's sweater and found it to be delightfully soft and bouncy, so I knew I had to knit a pair of socks out of it. These fit the bill, with just enough patterning to be interesting but little enough that I was able to memorize it easily.
There's a 3x3 cable running down both sides of the instep, which I thought would pull in the sock a lot, but it's surprisingly stretchy. It will be interesting to see how these feel in shoes come fall.
I will say that although the yardage on this yarn appears to be small for socks, I had a fair amount left. The legs are about 7", and you'll remember, of course, that I have rather long feet. (An example? Nancy Bush says to begin the toe after completing 17 cable crosses; I completed 19 and still had to knit several plain rounds before starting the toe.) I suppose it helped that I knit on larger needles and at a larger gauge than usual, too.
The one mod I made was to the toe. The pattern called for the finish to the toe that some have so eloquently described as the cat butt toe -- in other words, decreasing down to a small number of stitches, pulling the remaining yarn through them, and pulling tight. I'm just not a fan of that toe, in look or in fit, so I did a regular toe and grafted. I do love to graft!
