FO - Toe-Up Eye of Partridge Heel Socks

I haven't slept in about 34 hours, and somehow these socks fit that mood just right.



Crazy socks? Don't mind if I do.



Pattern: Generic Toe-Up Slip-Stitch Heel Formula (PDF) by Sarah Keller, free pattern posted at Knot Another Hat Blog.
Size: women's 9
Yarn: Regia Color 4-ply, 75% wool 25% polyamide, fingering weight, color 5346
Needles: Knit Picks 6" nickel-plated DPNs, size 1.5 (2.25mm)
Modifications: used Eye of Partridge in place of slip stitch in heel

Started: February 1, 2008
Finished: March 8, 2008

Almost everything about these socks was a new technique for me.



I started with a figure-8 cast-on, which was a lot easier and more straightforward than I thought it would be. I was following the instructions exactly, so I started with 8 stitches. I think if I were to do it again, I'd use 12 or 16, since I was increasing to 72 stitches circumference for these socks.



I enjoyed the gusset shaping and toe-up heel flap. It gives the sock a more comfortable fit than a short-row heel, though I wish the heel flap were longer.

Eye of Partridge is a really easy stitch. You simply alternate knit and slip stitches between rows (you could think of it as staggering every other row by one stitch). This heel flap started with a slip stitch. To make it Eye of Partridge, I worked as follows:

Row 1: Slip 1, *K1, sl1* - Repeat from * to end of flap.
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Slip 1, K1, *K1, sl1* - Repeat between *'s to end of flap.
Row 4: Purl

Alternate Rows 1 & 2 for heel flap.

(Other descriptions can be found here, and this page has directions and a nice chart.)



Lastly, I finished them with 2x2 ribbing and I used a stretchy bind-off, which I learned about in a Ravelry forum. Essentially it goes:

Knit first 2 stitches. Insert left needle through loops of stitches on right needle and knit them together. With one stitch on the needle, knit the next stitch, then knit these two together. Continue thusly all around cuff.

It made for a very nice, comfortable bind-off, and it's a rather neat solution for toe-up socks.

I think the most obvious and prominent feature of these socks is the yarn. In the skein, it really looked pretty tame, but as I began knitting it, it started flashing these crazy color sequences.



Eventually they pooled together into psychedelic designs that traveled all over. Whereas normally I hope variegated yarn doesn't ever do stuff like this, I found myself rooting for it. When faced with one awesome Shazam sock and the possibility of a mismatch, yes, I actually did find the same color sequence for the beginning and tried to get them to flash in the same way.



Though these two skeins were from the same dye lot and looked identical in balls, one had definitively more white than the other. At first this really bothered me, but as I look at them, I don't think normalcy is the real goal at hand here.



(By the way, these are most definitely wear-around-the-house socks, whatever super powers they may bestow upon me.)



I had a lot of fun knitting these because the color was constantly changing every few stitches and leaving wacky hallucinogenic trails in its wake. I kind of love these socks because they are so, so weird.



(And yeah, all these pictures enlarge.)



Now I think I'd better take some medicine and attempt to rest, before these happy feet dance their way straight to the insane asylum.

Previous Entries on this Project:
- Colorful Frogging
- About those resolutions...