This porridge is just right!

I know my Collette is on the way, but I also know it won't be here for probably several days yet. Doesn't stop me obsessively checking to see if the postman has arrived. On the hour.

While I wait to begin the Tilt Jacket I thought I would occupy myself with something else. Like socks. Ever since I knit my Mom a pair of those lush Cabled Socks, from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays, in BR Fourth of July, I have wanted a pair myself. The pattern calls for DK, and Fourth of July worked great. (Mom loved them!)

But... the skein I was dying to use for my current pair is Legend, in blues and greens, which is between sport and DK weight. I thought it would work, but I knit all the way down to the heel flap of the first sock, before I noticed it was going to be too small. I wanted thick, comfy slouch around the house socks, so going up a needle size wouldn't do it. I ripped, and abandoned the pattern.

As luck would have it, this came in the mail today! I didn't think I had room on my bookshelf for one more sock book, but this is one I will make shelf space for. It's just great, has loads of cool stitch patterns, and some really innovative techniques, and I found the perfect pattern for the Legend yarn - Mock Cable Waves, by Ann Budd.

The pattern calls for fingering weight, and has you cast on 80 stitches on 3.25 needles. I tried that, however, after working just half a pattern repeat it was clear that the socks would be too BIG. Beginning to feel a bit like Goldylocks here, I ripped again, and dropped down to 2.75's and it seems that now, finally, they are just right. (One of the things I like about BR yarn is that you can rip back without ruining it. It really will take abuse!)

So I'm knitting along now, and the fabric is a bit denser than I would normally knit this yarn, but I wanted thick house socks to begin with, so this works for me. The pattern has you drop a needle size again, after four inches, which is a very tidy way to achieve some calf shaping, without the fiddle of decreasing in pattern. I've never done that, always decreased for shaping, so I'm keen to see if this technique is a keeper. It sure seems easier. Will post a picture when I'm a bit further along.

Time to check the post again...