Damselfly Socks - One Sock Done!

I came down with some sort of bug over the weekend, so took most of yesterday off and finished up the first sock.  It was not without its adventures.  First there was the heel chart.  The way the stitches are worked on the cuff you start with the instep stitches, so when you get to the part where you need to start working the heel flap you have just finished knitting the stitches on the back of the leg.  It is implied from the instructions that you start working the heel stitches with a right side row, but that means that you need to work across the instep stitches first, which is not mentioned.  In addition, the chart for the heel stitches has all of the row numbers on the right hand side of the chart, as it would be if you were knitting that chart in the round, instead of back and forth as required.  It was also stated in the instructions that you need to slip the first stitch of each row, but that was not reflected in the chart.

I decided to start with a wrong side row on the heel stitches, just turning my work and starting the chart.  I also only worked 31 rows, instead of 32 so that I would end after working a wrong side row, as required.  The instructions for row 2 of turning the heel also seemed a bit off to me when I started working it, so I used the instructions for the small size.

When I pick up stitches for the gusset I always just pick up as many as I can (ignoring the instructions) to ensure that there are no holes and then decrease them away as appropriate.  I did consider decreasing even further, down to 66 stitches, as without the cables to pull the knitting in I was a little concerned that the sock might end up a tad loose on my foot.  In the end I kept the 70 stitches and it all worked out fine.  

My next little hiccup was when I got to the toe decreases, the pattern instructions are definitely wrong there - they don’t have any decreases for the instep stitches, at all.  With this pair of socks I also decided to do the toes a little different.  Instead of symmetrical decreases I decided to work the decreases to match the actual slope of my toes.  I totally free styled the decreases, trying the sock on every other row to check what I was doing, but did write them down so that I can replicate them on my right sock.  I also did the Kitchener stitch grafting while I was wearing the sock.  It was a tad awkward, but doing that let me snug the yarn right away and the tension of the graft came out perfect, without having to go back and snug the stitches with the darning needle afterwards, as did the fit of the sock.

I have already cast on the second sock.

Pattern:  Damselfly by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Kelpie Fibers Taliesin MCN Sock in Tara

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)