I took a break from knitting and got back to reading. I now miss my socks, but at least I feel like I’ve really been exercising a different portion of my brain. Last night I tried to start the OpArt blanket by Melissa Dominguez, and ended up feeling like a moron, because I was having trouble understanding the whole two circular needle method, especially because the pattern is rated “mellow” by Knitty. So I’ll try again today or tomorrow, once I’ve gotten adequate sleep. I’m just sad because I even did a gauge swatch and am so ready to start this baby. If I don’t get it the next time I try, I may just cheat and start it on double pointed needles, switching once it gets bigger. This will be my fourth baby blanket, and hopefully this one will actually be completed before the birth of the child it’s intended for!

Okay, I have no idea when I became such a perfectionist. Usually pretty good is just fine with me, but for some reason, I cannot stand to have blatant (to me) imperfections on this sock. The person I’m giving this to really wouldn’t care if I had to go back after knitting it and tighten up a few holes, but I care. I looked at my heel, and could see how nice it would have been if I hadn’t forgotten to slip the first stitch a couple of times, and had to frog it. Okay, third time’s the charm, right?

I’ve heard a lot about short row heels, but I didn’t really know what that meant until I looked it up yesterday (it seemed a little obvious, but when it comes to knitting, I don’t assume anything). I was interested in trying something new on my Monkey socks, and since I was still using dpns and knitting from the cuff down, I figured that I’d innovate with the heel. I used the marvelous Kaity‘s clear and helpful tutorial to learn how to give my sock a short row heel. Success (mostly, but the error was mine, not hers)! Then I wasn’t sure what I should do to accommodate the ankle, but both Kaity and Joy were helpful and told me that I didn’t need to add any more stitches. I’m going to go get started on the bottom of the sock now!

My sock looks so bulky, not at all like the pretty pictures I see on Ravelry, and I cannot wait to block them once they’re finished. Can you believe I actually want to block anything, much less this enthusiastically?? I think I’ve only blocked two items in my life (I should change this).

My first attempt at my Monkeys was a little off. This is my first go round knitting lace, and I’m learning by the round, but I definitely effed things up. The cuff, which is always the easiest part of any sock, was not messed up, so I frogged back to that point and then tried not the make the same mistakes again. Here’s what I had before the frogging:

As you can see, one of the holes on the fourth needle was not so much decorative as it was massive.

Luckily, this time I’m doing better. For one, I don’t have any craters in my sock. For another, I’m being consistent with my yarn overs (I was doing it wrong the first time, which is embarrassing, since I made an entire blanket that was full of yarn overs [unless those were wrong, too, but then at least they were all wrong in the same way]). Here’s the new and improved version:

Looking at these pictures reminds me that I need to learn how to use the macro mode on my new camera…

I keep doing this to myself. I don’t read the entirety of something, and it ends up biting me in the butt. For some reason, I had it in my head that the Monkey sock pattern by Cookie A. was knit from the toe up. I was apprehensive about starting toe up socks, but I figured that I would get it soon enough. So I got up this morning, Googled the figure 8 cast on, and got it after a few false starts! The tutorials on Knitty and Hello Yarn were invaluable! I was rolling, and just about the time I got to my first set of increases, I decided I should see where the sock pattern picked up. So imagine my surprise when I realized that Monkeys are NOT knit from the toe up. They’re top down, just like every other sock I’ve ever knit.

I was discouraged but not totally cowed. I googled toe-up Monkeys and found a few people who’d done it that way. Monos Locos, an adaptation by Jennifer O’Sullivan, looks interesting, but it inverted the lace pattern and removed the purls, which I did not want to do. Another toe-up adaptation, this one by Zhenya Lavy, kept the lace the way that Cookie A. had done it, but employed the magic loop, which I have yet to attempt. So that was no good for me, either. I found this web site that had a listing of Monkey KALs, and lost it, but I just used my Googlefu and found it again. Here you go! It lists various Monkey adaptations and tricks. So what was there to do but to frog what I had? Thankfully, I was relatively close to the start of my socks, so frogging was only mildly painful. Also, I already swatched this, so when I do begin, at least I know I should be on gauge.

I just checked, and it’s the Falling Leaves pattern that is toe up (and also on a magic loop). I think I may try those after I finish the Monkeys, unless I find another pattern that I like better in the meantime.

So I decided that today I would start on the Monkey socks by Cookie A. In keeping with my newfound desire to do things correctly, I was going to swatch it and then go from there. I remembered the pattern calling for size 1.5 dpns. I had no idea where to get those, but I thought I’d do the swatch on size 1 needles and go from there. So then I brought the yarn I’m going to use and the needles to work today, and looked over the pattern once more. It turns out that Monkeys are made on size 2 needles. So what I have right now is not going to cut it. I felt pretty stupid, but realized that all was not lost. I could just swatch another pattern, right? Except no, because pretty much all of the other pattern I want to make are somehow on size 2 and 3 needles. No 1s, no 1.5s. I don’t know if I just liked different patterns last night, but I’m not even sure which of the patterns I read and wanted to make even required 1.5 needles.

Luckily, I still have two pairs of socks to make (for Stephanie and Terea), and I want to prevent boredom by doing something different, so I found a pattern that requires size 1s: Spring Forward! I’m going to swatch this now and see how it comes out. Thankfully, I kept the remaining Lorna’s Laces from my last pair of Jaywalkers in my bag (I was going to use it as waste yarn when I cast on my toe). I’m using the same yarn in different colors for these socks, so I guess I really haven’t lost any time. I just hate making stupid mistakes like that.

I know that I just finished my second pair of Jaywalkers yesterday, but I really don’t want to lose my momentum. I enjoyed making those socks and the feeling of accomplishment when I finished weaving in the last strand, and I want those feelings again. Plus, I said that I would make socks for Terea and Stephanie, and I want to do that soon. Also, I know that I sometimes find sock knitting tedious and boring, so I think I’ll mix it up and make sure that I actually work on one of my many other UFOs when I need down time from the socks. I just realized that Zeeby’s bag, which I have been working on for no less than two years, is a nice, mindless project that I could easily complete while watching dvds. I have to do the same row over and over again for 11 inches, and there are no decreases to worry about, so why not?