Keeping me on my toes

This pattern has been a lot of fun so far. Pretty easy to memorize the pattern stitch and it flows nicely.  The only issue I'm having right now is if I'm going to have enough yarn for each sock.  So I've been thinking of how to solve this issue.  Easiest one - do the heel and toe different colours and that should give me enough yarn.  There's only one little thing wrong with that - I've already done my heel (sigh) - so that would mean I would have to tink back (good lord not that) to the heel and redo the rest of the sock and finish with a different coloured toe.

I am tempted to just continue until I run out of yarn and go from there and make a decision then if needed. I picked up this yarn tonight along with a few other fibre goodies.  It's a good match for the pink in the sock.  It was hard to find a colour - they've got the fall colours out in the yarns now and blue isn't in the fall palate for some silly reason LOL.

I walked into a deal and a half at Micheal's tonight.  I had a coupon for 40% off one regular priced item.  I decided to pick up some Sock Ease and used the 40% off for that skein; the yarn I picked for the toes was 4.49 so I picked up 2 of those and they had Bernat handicraft on for 1.99 so I grabbed two of them.  The cashier decided she liked me and put another discount on my purchase - So I managed to get 5 skeins of yarn for just over $20.  What's nice about the pink and olive green I picked up is that those skeins are over 600 yarns and most socks use around 300 yards - I might manage to get 2 pairs of socks out of each skein . how cool would that be??  So in this bundle of yarn I got here, I'm looking at the future of 5 pairs of socks and 2 dishcloths There is a really cool pattern included in one of the Bernat skeins that I am definitely going to make.  I will definitely be getting back to my afghan blocks soon as these socks are done :)

Ravelry link - Midnight Oil Socks

Burning the Midnight Oil

I can just imagine that I left everyone thinking I was frothing at the mouth, eyes spinning, ripping my hair out, and steam coming out of my ears and totally losing my mind.  I definitely felt that way.  If I had printed out the pattern, I would've taken a match to it.  Instead I frogged the whole thing with total and complete glee  LOL  But happier times have prevailed :D

I wanted a simple pattern that looked complicated.  Something with texture without having to do cables (I love cables,, but am not in the mood for doing them right now); you know - increases, decreases and YO type things.  Took me three or four hours of sifting through what felt like a million patterns, but was prolly just a hundred or so and I found the  pattern that fit my mood perfectly!

Designer Photo

They've got a nice flowing design reminiscent of candle flames.  Easy to memorize - Just have to watch out for the sneaky dropped stitch that always happens. I contended with one already and just ripped it back.  This time I'm being super careful and have caught the little buggers before they breed issues.  I'm super excited about making these.  I've had a few super busy days and haven't managed to get much knitting done at all - I'm gonna start to growlz if this keeps up.  I've two doctor appointments tomorrow, but hopefully I can knit afterwards - although there's a few things in the yard that needs to be done if the rain holds off and let's things dry out - not going to complain to much about that, we've had a super dry summer and the rain is much needed.  Just wish I would let me get my stuff done outside first LOL

This pattern is looking great so far and really shows off my yarn nicely!  I know I know .. I said that bout the last pattern and it would've happened if I didn't have so many issues with it.

Pfft I'm over this!

This pattern has just bout rendered me speechless, frustrated me to no end, confused the hell out of me and almost made me not want to knit. And that doesn't happen often. I officially give up on this pattern.

First there were all the issues with the cuff and then finally settling for ribbing instead.

Then there's an issue with this pattern twisting, it was stated that this only happens with the cuff - when you don't pick up the first stitch and join it with the cuff stitch exactly.  Well since I'n not using the cuff, I shouldn't be having the twisting issue right?  I noticed some ppl had reversed the stitches to compensate, but I found that out when I started to do the heel turn

Then there was the struggle with the poorly written short heel turn instructions.  I found a more user friendly tutorial on Silver's Sock Tutorial and on Laura Chau's blog and was able to move on from there.

What finally did me in was finding this GAPING hole after I had gone a few rounds past where I started working the whole sock again.  I honestly thought I had dropped stitches when I put my project in my bag, so I picked up what I thought were dropped stitches, and the noticed I had 20 stitches on my needle instead of 16 - so tinking I went, and then I finally realized that I would not likely be able to fix this.  Add to that the twisting sock and I have just had it with this pattern.

I'm really disappointed that the designer didn't include pics of the cuff set up, the heel turn and Lord knows what else since I'm stopping here - time to pick another sock pattern!   Buh Bye Nutkin!

Relapse time

Me thinks my heeling moment had a relapse. Bah!  I knew it was going to good to be true LOL

I thought I was doing it right, and followed it step by step .. apparently not since I should be working over 32 stitches (16 on each needle) and this is way more than 32 stitches.

The pattern reads:

1. Knit all sts until there is one st remaining. Turn the work.
2. On the wrong/purl side, yarn over and purl all sts until one st remains. Turn.
3. On the right/knit side, yarn over and knit up to the stitch/yarn over pair. Turn.
4. On the wrong/purl side, yarn over and purl to the first st/yo pair. Turn.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until 10 sts between the st/yo pairs remain (each needle will have: one st on the end, 10 st/yo pairs, and 5 sts toward the center). This occurs on a k row. 

I've been doing the repeat of steps 3 and 4, but  according to step 5, my number of stitches  should remain the same, but they aren't.  So tinking back and will figure out where I went wrong.  I'll read up on forum posts and other blog posts and see if anyone else had the same issue or maybe I'm reading the steps wrong . well I am reading it wrong, but I'm wondering how it's supposed to go ..

sigh

Addendum:  Should I have 25 stitches on each needle???  10 st/yo pairs would be 20 stitches right?  

That Heeling Moment

Right now I'm doing a combination of the *knitterhappydance* and a cross of giggling and cackling all at the same time.  I know .. the mental image of that one is almost awful LOL  All you need to do is add moonlight and burning feathers hee hee.

The reason for the knitter joy?  Simple, I've nailed it. Or mostly I accepted that there are going to be larger holes in places due to where the YO was done - and I'm good with that.  It's a mindless repeat with the YO and the SSK moving over one stitch each round in order to create the texture of the pattern.

I'm almost at the point of starting the heel turn.  Silly me got into the mindless repeats so much that I forgot to mark how many repeats I've done, but that's simple enough to figure out.  I just count the number of pattern repeats :)

I should start the heel turn in 2 more rounds.  I'm pretty excited about this!  Loving the way the colours are coming out in this yarn.  And looking forward to having another pair of socks that will be great for my winter boots and the bloody snow.

Bloody Hell - Tink time ..

This is what makes me loose my noodle. I manage to get to the 3^rd repeat and BOOM, I find a mistake!  FFS  Bloody Hell!  And since I was only 20 rows in I would just frog the whole thing.  I'm freeken tired of frogging the whole thing - my option - tink back 4 rounds to get to that hole and bloody well fix it properly.  I tried to ignore it, but I can't .. my OCD just twitches sideways and I can't let it be and just sit there - I've been trying and it mocks me on each round .. so I'll try the tink method and try to fix it - please don't make me frog this one .. pretty please.

I should have this sock almost done by now - but nope .. nada .. nyet ,.  nin .. nil ... FECK

ARGH!!!!!!

Nutkin Reversed

A name change for these socks might be a good idea.  I finally beat the cuff and got it to where I liked it - then as I went along I didn't like the look of it at all .. that was maybe 4 - 5 attempts to get the cuff done.

I decided to finally do ribbing instead and really like the look of it.  And I've finally gotten to see what the colour variations look like with this yarn.

For some reason I just can't seem to get past the 2nd repeat of the 10 row pattern - I end up seeing something I don't like, or lost a stitch somewhere or split yarn that's gone across 2 stitches - so I frog it.  That has happened 3 or 4 times at this point.  I should be at the heel turn by now, but Nooooooo i'm back to the beginning.  I'm currently at Row 3 on the first repeat of the pattern - let's see how far I can get this time LOL

Maybe I just need to stop being such a perfectionist.  Nah .. that'll never happen.  I take pride in what I make and while a little mistake here and there is 'fine' - wholesale ooboos aren't

Yup - Nutkin TurnAbout, Nutkin Reversed, Nutkin Retraction, Nutkin Turnback . something like that

Ravelry link - Nutkin Reversed