The Knitting Fiend

Did any of you notice I didn’t who any on going projects last week? Well, I only knit a little; I got exactly one sock done. See that sock to the left? That’s it. Last week’s knitting. (Well, I also got a swatch done.)

Sounds pretty lame, right? After all, I finished my Olympic sweater in two weeks.

Well, I have an excuse. Jim went on business travel and I tagged a long. I took loads of photos too! See Christopher Columbus to the right? I snapped the camera when I strolled by him in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Yeah! I was in San Juan! Why did you see articles anyway? Well, to minimize the risk that anyone strange person reads blogs waiting the learn people are going on vacation, I “pre-blogged” on Saturday. Then, I just posted each day, checking the blog as I went. Paranoid? Maybe. Still, ain’t the web great!

Will you see more photos of San Juan? I don’t know. I need to sort through the photos to see if there are any worth showing. If I find any decent ones, I’ll post them next week. Meanwhile, I’ll focus on important things: The Sock.

The sock to the left is a type of chevron sock, but it’s neither a Jay Walker nor a Elann Chevron, nor a “Sock it To Me Chevron Socks”, nor a Kim Salazar’s Pine Tree sock. I examined all the patterns, borrowed features from each, wrote a sockulator (to be published) and cast on on the airplane. I knit down to the heel turn, and paused, to give myself time to photograph some details to link to the sockulator. Then, I finished the sock. I’m going to call them “ZigZag” or maybe just “Zags”(clever, huh?)

Ok, so which sock is it most like? Well, none really. All five socks are chevron socks, so of course, they are similar. Some features are found in all the socks; I mean, they are socks for heaven sake! Some are shared by a few of the socks, but not others. Some specific features are in mine only.

Ok, so what specific features make a “Zag” a “Zag”?

I happened to knit mine at a stockinette gauge of 6 st/ inch and chevron gauge of 7.5 st/inch, using a thicker yarn than others use. I like thick socks. When the sockulator is written, it will calculate in a range of gauges. So, the gauge doesn’t make a Zag a Zag.)

I used lifted increases for the increases; that’s unique to my sock. It makes a straight line down the center of the sock. Other socks used yarn overs which leave holes; Jaywalkers use a “kfb, kfb”, which make a relatively inconspicuous increase.

I used a “slip 1, k2 tog, psso” for my double decreases– that’s like the “Sock It To Me” socks and the Elann Chevrons. This double decrease makes a bold crosshatch. (If you like to make both the decrease and increases create bold straight lines, you can substitute “slip 2 as to knit, knit 1, pass 2 over” for the double decrease. That’s what Grumperina did with her JayWalkers. I’ll probably knit the second sock of the pair that way to show the difference in appearance. I guess if you do those, I’d call them “Straight Zags”; the others would be “Crossed Zags”.)

But, the method of increasing and decreasing affects the decorative appearance of the leg. I’ll get on to the features that affect fit.

When I read Grumperina’s pattern, I really liked the chevrons covering the instep and the fact that she did the math to make the sole and instep of the JayWalkers the same width. I hear you say, “Well, of course! The top and bottom of the foot should be the width!” Well, in a chevron sock, the chevron stitch narrows down. If you don’t knit more stitches on the top of the foot, it will be narrower than the bottom! The Jaywalkers and my Zag socks are the only ones that have different numbers of stitches on the top and bottom of the foot.

To work this out for my sockulator, which works over a range of gauges, I did the math and coded the formula.

I also decided on heel flaps. Now, when I wear socks with heel flaps, I like the flap to hug my heel to be snug. The same gauge mis-match between stockinette and chevron can make the heels a bit baggy if you don’t adjust stitches for the heel. So, I charted to based the heel flap on the number of stitches on the sole of the foot instead of the instep. This is unique to my sock.

How does the sock fit? Well, the lone sock fits me just fine. I’ll show you more detail when I finish the second sock. I’ll also get the sockulator published so people who want these socks in smaller or larger sizes, thicker or thinner yarn can knit them.

As I knit, I’ll be remembering how I enjoyed the 80F weather in San Juan!