Mackintosh Socks - Finished!

I finished up the second sock on Halloween, while we were watching The Abominable Dr. Phibes with Vincent Price.  It is a very campy movie, but I love Vincent Price.  I haven’t cast on my next pair of socks, but I do have the yarn caked up and I have the pattern mostly set up in knitCompanion.

Pattern:  Mackintosh by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

 

Mackintosh Socks - Take Two - One Sock Done!

The first sock worked up pretty quickly.  I took this project to work with me, and used knitCompanion on my phone.  It actually worked quite well, and I will probably continue to take my sock projects to work.  They are small and easy to work on at my desk.  Because of the patterning they don’t make good mindless knitting for reading documents, but they work great during meetings.  The pattern calls for a plain stockinette stitch heel.  I think if I were to do these over again I would work a slip stitch heel, but overall I am very pleased with how they came out.  They are very comfortable and fit well.

Pattern:  Mackintosh by Janel Laidman

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Yarn:  Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock

Mackintosh Sock - One Sock Done!

I finished up the first sock yesterday afternoon.  The cuff is not super long, so there were no issues with the fit - it never got up to my muscular calf.  Overall I’m very pleased with the fit.  I think the reason the yarn feels different from other sock yarns I’ve used is the fact that it does not have any nylon, it just feels springier.

Pattern:  Mackintosh by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Alisha Goes Around Tracks of the Bison Fingering

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

Mackintosh Socks - One Foot Done!

I finished up the foot of my right sock last night.  There is an error in the pattern on the heel turn, as it states to “Continue in this manner, decreasing the number of stitches worked before the M1 on each row until you p8 (12) M1p,” but on the purl rows you’re working an odd number of stitches, and you have to go until you p7 (11) if you want to get the required stitch count of 30 stitches between the markers.  Initially I was working wraps on my turns, and when I started working the last rows where you work the wraps I tried an experiment where I worked the wrap with the next stitch, instead of the stitch that it wraps, which often looks messy on the wrong side.  I did like the look better on the wrong side, but then I had that last wrapped stitch before the marker and I couldn’t figure out what to do with that one.  So I ripped back to the start of the heel turn and did German Short Rows instead.  I found the double stitches easier to see than the wraps and they work in beautifully.  I also did lifted increases for all of my make ones, working them on the stitch before the stitch that I turned on.

I have been neglecting some of my other projects, apparently socks can make me an (almost) monogamous knitter.  I have a nice little collection of hand knit socks, and for a while a vanilla self-striping sock project was my work project, but I haven’t been wearing them much, until lately.  I like having colorful, unusual socks to wear, and it is getting harder to find what are now called novelty socks that aren’t mostly synthetic fibers, and I really don’t like wearing synthetic fibers (they irritate my skin), so I have been wearing more of my hand knit socks.  I had forgotten how comfortable they are.  I see a lot more socks in my future, which is good, because I have a lot of sock yarn, and a lot of sock patterns (there was a time when I was joining a lot of sock clubs).

Pattern:  Mackintosh Socks by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Alisha Goes Around Tracks of Bison Fingering

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)

 

Mackintosh Socks - Cast On!

This one took a couple of tries to get a result that I was happy with.  This is another pattern from the Art &  Sole Sock club by Janel Laidman.  As can be seen, it is knit from the toe up, and it comes in two sizes small (8” circumference) and large (10” circumference).  I started out working as per the pattern, with a symmetrical toe, casting on 24 stitches (12 on each needle), and working the increases to get to the stitch count of the large size (based on my experience with the Damselfly socks).

But when I started working the foot after completing all of the increases I was just not happy with how it was fitting.  This yarn is a bit different from other sock yarns that I have worked with.  It is Alisha Goes Around Tracks of Bison Fingering, and it contains no nylon.  It is 90% Merino, 10% Bison, and it just behaves a bit differently.   So I frogged and started over.  This time I decided that I would tackle the asymmetrical toe shaping, so I pulled out my notes from Damselfly and cast on on 34 stitches (17 on each needle) and then worked two sets of increases where I increased on both ends, and then continued with increasing only on the right, as this will be for my right foot.  When I got to 30 stitches on each needle I stopped working any increases, having determined that for my foot (at least) the small size was going to fit me perfectly.  I will see what happens when I get to the cuff, I may need to do some increases there, but fortunately the cuff charts make it easy for me to do that.

This is the club yarn that came with the pattern, and it did take some damage from bugs, but I decided to cake it up and see how bad the damage was.  It turned out to not be too bad.  I have two good sized cakes (40 grams & 30 grams), plus some smaller balls.  Given how much yarn a typical sock takes, and the fact that this pattern is toe up, I decided to use the yarn.

Pattern:  Mackintosh by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Alisha Goes Around Tracks of Bison Fingering

Needle:  US 1.5 (2.5 mm)