That's what I get for ignoring that little voice in the back of my head...

Remember that post where I was almost done with the second sock?  (You know what's coming, right?  Cue Ominous Music.  Yep.)
I'd been knitting the foot portion of the sock, trying to ignore that little niggling voice in my head that kept trying to tell me that Something is Wrong.  "No, no."  I kept saying to myself.  "It's really fine.  The fact that this sock seems shorter than the first one is clearly an optical illusion, since I've knit the same number of rows of the pattern stitch from the point of the gusset to the start of the toe.  I know this because I've counted them 14 times.  Not that I'm worried that there is a Mistake somewhere or anything.  I just like compulsively counting rows of knitting.  Especially with my hands over my ears: one, la la la, two, la la la, three, la la la..."
Eventually, though, even I can't maintain that level of denial.  The second sock is clearly shorter than the first, despite my best efforts to stretch it.
Once I stopped looking just at the knitting after the gusset, and looked at the gusset itself, I found the problem.
Here are the socks, lined up sole to sole:

The one on the right is First Sock.  The one on the left is Second Sock.  See the problem?  Count the rows in the gusset - which is easy to do, since they're conveniently knit in stripes.  A fact I ruthlessly ignored in my denial.

Honestly, I could just cry.

No Lambies Yet, and Other Mid-March Updates

(And how did it get to be the middle of March, anyway?  Did we skip a week or so somewhere?  Why wasn't I told?)
 I've been spinning a bit here and there.  My long-draw is slowly improving as I get more practice, but I still haven't put in enough time with it for it to seem easy.  Not proficient, by any means.  (Is there such a thing as antificient?  Still antificient...)

 And still unable to get a good pic of that fiber.

 Still knitting.  I only seem to get a row or two done a night, but patience is rewarded.  (Eventually...)  I'm this close to finishing the toe of sock #2:

  

And it's time to think gardening.  The damn snow will be gone soon - Spring is going to come.  (I keep telling myself that to keep my spirits up...)                                                                                                              

Tomato seedling are happy little things.  Notice the white marker in the lower left corner - I cut up the lid from a sour cream container to make plant markers.  Usually we use the cut-up container itself to make markers from, but this year I had more lids than containers, so I'm testing the lids.  (Write on them with pencil, rather than pen or marker.  Ink fades in the sun, pencil does not.  Just a little tip from your Auntie Mango.)

Last chance for entries in the great LambWatch of 2012.  I really am going to close entries this time!

Okay, quick show of hands

How many people thought I'd have to rip out the first version of the toe?

Yeah.  I guess that was pretty predictable, hunh...

Someone cover me - I'm goin' in!

Time to attack the toe. 
Someone's gotta do it...

Fraternal gussets

It occurred to me that yesterday's photo of the gusset was taken from the other side of the sock than I'd shown previously.  Because there's a surprise in the gussets - one is black

 

and the other is green.

 

Because the 48 stitches of the sole could only be divided into an even number of stripes, the first stripe and the last stripe (from left to right) are opposite colors, which meant the gussets wouldn't match.  I knew that going in, and knew that I could do some fancy number juggling to compensate, but I decided it just wasn't worth it.   I plan to knit the second sock with the sole stripes reversed, so that the socks will mirror.  Then for the pattern it will be knitter's option whether they knit matching or mirrored socks.

I'm also trying to figure out the topology of turning one sock inside out.  Would it then match or mirror?  (I'm an empiricist, dammit.  I'll have to knit the second sock, then play with turning one inside out...)

You say you want a resolution

We-eell you kno-o-ow, we all want to knit a sock...  (Sorry.  Channeling old Beatles songs lately.  It's either a function of my age, or some sort of mental protest against all the "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" that's already spring up.  Grrr.)

So, the gusset has resolved.  (Which is where all that resolution came from.)  (Again, sorry.)  I like the stronger lines I got by working it this way.

Double-knitting, for me, seems to involve a lot of mental chanting.  "Green/black-green/black, black/green-black/green".  Over and over, in various combinations.  It's the only way I've found to keep going without getting hopelessly confused. 
Makes it a little hard to have a conversation, though...  "Hey, sweetie, green-black, I stopped green-black at Agway black-green this black-green morning and green-black they had green-black a new black-green kind of black-green chicken feed."

Madman's socks

So, I was knitting away last night on the double-knit socks.  Madman looked over and asked "Socks?" 
I smiled and said "Yes."
"That looks really cool.  Can I feel it?"
And again I said "Yes."  I'm always pleased when he takes an interest in the knitting.
"Wow!  This is really thick!" he said.  I showed it off, explaining double-knitting, and showing that it was reversible.
"Oh, wow.  I want a pair of these."
"Sweetie, you haven't been reading the blog lately, have you?"

Oh, yes, that's much better

Here's the new and improved gusset - much more what I had in mind:

As opposed to the first version:

I guess I should have rotated one or the other of those photos...

Gusset, Rip, Repeat...

And repeat again.

I decided that I didn't like the way the gusset was going to resolve when I finished the decreases (naturally, I was almost at that point when I realized it), so I ripped it back to the picking-up-stitches part and started again.
And then realized that I'd made a grievous calculation error (because apparently I can't count past four without making a mistake) and had to rip it out again.

On the silver-lining side, I'm getting very good at picking up the two layers of gusset stitches...

A-Gusset We Will Go

Hi Ho the Derry-O...

As the Heel Turns

I've turned the heels on the Double Knit Sock -

so the stripes have started on the sole.

Actually, I'm a bit further along, since I've now got the gussets going, but no photos yet in case I change my mind and have to start over. (What I visualize isn't always what I end up with. Knitting is a lot like life in that respect...)
The heel turning went a lot smoother than I expected, and picking up stitches for the gussets involved a lot less swearing than I was prepared for, too.
I had some truly spectacular words all lined up and everything. Pity they were wasted. Oh, well, better to be over-prepared than surprised, I guess.

Heels checks? Check.

I've started work on the heel flap. Checks R Us...

(The flash throws off the colors, but no flash does, too, and is blurry besides.)


I briefly considered running a couple of horizontal stripes before starting the checks, echoing the top border, but decided against it. The checks start nicely right off the tops of the zigzags.

One thing I like about knitting a checkerboard on a heel flap is that it makes it really easy to count the rows...

Plotting and Planning

Step 1: Find a pen that works.
Step 2: Find a pen that works for longer than a minute.
Step 3: Take the only working pen in the house and start a shopping list. (First item: pens.)
Step 4: Start drawing socks. (Actually, I cheated - I found an image on the internet, reduced the size, and traced it a whole bunch of times. All's fair in sock-knitting.)
Step 5: Start filling in sock outlines with permutations of stripes, zigzags, and checkerboards.


(You'll notice that the 'filling-in' sort of petered out towards the end. Not to mention coloring in checks...)
Though I like some of the short row heel options (top row), I think that'll wait for another design. I'm more intrigued with the flap/gusset heel configuration, though it's going to be harder to wrap my brain around. I think I have it figured out how to do it (it works in my head, anyway), but I'm questioning my ability to write it out in a fashion that a normal person would be able to follow.
At this moment, I'm favoring the one in the bottom row, second from the left. Still have to decide if I want wide or narrow stripes on the sole.

When I get it done, I might be calling for test knitters. You don't necessarily have to be normal to volunteer...

Ooops...

Totally forgot to post yesterday. Which means I blew NaBloPoMo in the first week.
*sigh*
I think I'll play a Get Out of Jail Free card, and ignore it.
Intention is nine tenths of the law, right?

Still knitting on the double-knit sock. It looks the same as the last photo, only longer, so I won't bother with another pic yet.
Will have to start making decisions about the heel soon. Short row? Flap and gusset? And patterning - the checkerboard or a stripe pattern? And then what about patterning on the sole?
I have the day off tomorrow and plan to do some sketching of options. As slowly as double-knitting progresses (since I'm knitting two stitches for every one, after all) I've got time to consider, yet.
All options are still open...

Actual knitting content

Not much has been accomplished on the knitting front lately. Other than a test-knit for a friend (and I don't know if I'm allowed to show it or not. I'll wait for the go-ahead from her, then I'll be pleased to show off a wonderful pattern!), the needles have been pretty quiet.
I do have another project underway which I can show. (And I had to finish a pair of socks that I'd started last year, in order to free up the needles.) (And, duh... it occurs to me that I should probably take a picture. I'll get on that. Soon.)
This started out as a Crimbo present for Madman, but I realized there was no way I would get them done in time without knitting them under his nose. So I've decided they're going to be an Ice-fishing present, instead. Ice-fishing presents don't have to be secret.
Here's a shot of the knitting in progress:

And I'll just flip the bottom up so you can see the inside:


Yeah. Double-knitting. Socks, to be exact. Because I'm clearly not crazy enough.
I'm going to be designing this pattern as I go. Madman needs really warm socks - and what could be warmer than double-knitting? And I need to knit socks for him (cuz, you know, love and all that), but he's always been resistant to hand-knit socks because the purl bumps bother the bottoms of his feet. Double-knitting = no purl bumps. Win-win, right?
Well, except for the crazy part...