I’ve resolved some of the technical issues at home, so I can finally upload pictures. Better late than never, right?
(Note: Since I had to use my ancient monitor to adjust the photo, and my work monitor isn’t that much better, I’m not sure how clear the details are – please let me know if I need to tweak it further.)
Pattern:
Snicket Socks by Sabine Riefler
Yarn:
Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Purple Mountain color
Needles:
US0 / 2.00mm Plymouth bamboo DPNs
Modifications:
- My gauge was 9 st/in, rather than 7.5 st/in. So I worked the pattern over 72 stitches, rather than the 60 called for in the pattern’s medium size.
- I only knit ten rows of twisted rib, rather than twenty.
- When I got to the end of the leg and end of the foot, I knit some stitches through the front loop, rather than purling them. As a result, the cables are a bit less defined at the edges, but I kind of like that.
- I replaced the short row heel with a round heel, using an eye-of-partridge pattern on the heel flap.
The pattern is not the clearest I’ve ever followed, and it has a couple of errors. For example, the written instructions for row 12 state “*p4, kr2 [knit 2 stitches through the back loop]*, repeat * to * to end of rnd.” However, given the stitch pattern’s logic, you can’t just do row 12 as written; you’d either need to slip the first stitch and then work the row as written, or start row 12 with a ktbl. I opted for the latter, ending the round in one ktbl rather than two.
Also, on the leg, there are places where the first stitch of the round needs to be crossed with the last stitch of the round, and the pattern doesn’t specify how to handle this at all. So on row 13, I slipped the first stitch as if to purl and then did the cable crossing at the end of the round. In hindsight, I probably should have slipped the last stitch of row 12, then crossed it with the first stitch at the beginning of row 13 instead. But oh well.
Finally, the chart really doesn’t match up with the written instructions. The pattern repeat is over 6 stitches; the chart has 13 stitches. Also, the first row of the written instructions starts off with “sl first st to cn and hold at front, p1, kr 1 from cn”, while the first row of the chart starts off with “kr1, p2.” So if you want to follow the chart, ignore the first three and last four stitches of each round.
On a more positive note, it’s actually a pretty easy knit, once you’ve figured out how to deal with beginning and end of rounds. Once I got past the first repeat, I didn’t really need to consult the pattern.
Over all, I really liked the yarn – Bearfoot is lovely to work with! It makes a nice, dense, warm sock on US0s. I actually really liked the fabric I got when I swatched with US1s, too, but I opted for the 0s because it was easier to adjust the pattern to that gauge.
My only problem with the yarn is that it bled like crazy during blocking. But that’s okay, I guess. The color didn’t rub off on my fingers or needles during the actual knitting. And the socks themselves haven’t faded at all. I’ll probably buy more of the yarn at some point, because it’s so pleasant to work with and it feels lovely when worn.
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