Mustard Seed Yarn Lab

Here it is. I managed to make a Nutkin Evil Twin. Yup, it’s twisting around just like the pattern had warned it would if I did not carefully follow the directions at the cuff. Oh well. I don’t mind too much.

This is the first time I’ve done a cuff like that. It was a bit tricky. You knit 5 rows, then purl a row, then knit 6 more rows and fold at the purled row. Then, and here’s the tricky part, you knit together the live stitches with the cast on stitches, BEING CAREFUL TO MATCH UP THE STITCHES……..this I apparently did not do.

See? It twists. And when you put it one, the pattern makes it twist around your leg. Sigh…I learn through my mistakes.

This is the first time I’ve ever tried a 3 needle bind off, too. It makes a very nice toe, but puts a ridge across the top, which I actually think looks really nice on this pattern. Some people don’t like the bind off for that reason. You don’t have to do the Kitchener stitch, though….which personally I don’t mind, as I consider it to be like magic, but I know many people hate doing it.  Why are there 2 ridges across the top of my toe? Why, how very observant you are! One is because of the bind off, and the other is where I think I must have accidentally purled a row and didn’t notice until I was binding off. (The dangers of watching a movie while knitting.) But thanks for noticing.

This is also the very first time I have tried a short row heel. It was fun and easy!! Why then, did it take me 3 days to finish the heel?  Ahhh….you ARE a perceptive one, aren’t you? Well, it took 2 days of procrastinating before I started, that’s why. When I am about to learn something new, I tend to think about it a lot before jumping in. I don’t know why. But I liked the process, even more than making the usual heel, because I didn’t have to deal with picking up stitches for a gusset. When you make a short row heel, there is NO GUSSET! WooHoo! And it looks nice, although I’m not sure I like the way it looks more than the other heel.

And have I mentioned I love making socks with Berroco Sox Metallic yarn? Did you see the sparkles? (Of course you did, you noticed everything else.) It’s a joy to knit with and I haven’t run into any pooling… and I’ve got a thing for sparkly yarn!

So I learned quite a bit with this sock, finished it in about a week…would’ve been sooner if not for the above mentioned procrastinating, and now it’s time to start the second. But first…..I will start painting the kitchen. Turning a yellow kitchen green. No worries, I’ll post on that too, so you can see.