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.'Brainless' Knitting.



Yarn: Novita Nalle Aloe Vera #391
Needles: 2.5 mm

This was the first time ever I knitted socks toe-up. I had a partial skein left of Novita Nalle Aloe Vera yarn and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I knew I wanted to knit socks with it, but wasn't sure if I had enough yarn. The yarn is not in production anymore so I couldn't go and buy a new skein. I decided to try and knit toe-up socks, so I could make the cuffs shorter if I ran out of yarn. This was the short version. Continue reading if you want to know more.

I picked the 'brainless' pattern I found on Ravelry. I thought the name implied that they were really easy and no thinking at all was required (or alternatively that they were so complicated and hard it's just brainless, but after looking at the sample knit in the photo, I decided this couldn't be the case). So I started to cast on stitches as was instructed and even though I had to keep checking the pattern notes every couple of rounds or so (hmm, not so brainless after all), everything went really well. Until I reached the heel of the first sock and realized my skein of yarn was starting to look really small. After a moment of panic and despair I decided to finish the heel and weight the sock as well as the yarn I had left to see how much I had left. If I had enough yarn for the second sock, I could make the legs using a different color yarn or maybe make ankle socks or something (I really like things to be symmetrical). Otherwise I would have to come up with some kind of plan B.



OK, back to work then. I finished the heel and put the live stitches on a piece of scrap yarn. I carefully weighted the sock and the leftover skein and came to the conclusion that the yarn should be enough for the second sock and I might even have something left for the legs and cuffs. What a relief!

Knitting the second sock, I might have taken the name of the pattern a bit too literally and started to knit somewhat brainlessly. I guess I thought I was now a master of toe-up socks having knitted one already and forgot to look at the pattern or count my stitches. Somewhere along the foot I realized I had skipped one or two rows in the toe chart and was 4 stitches short. A quick fix, and a couple of "m1":s later I had enough stitches on my needles. 



I continued the brainless knitting style I had now adopted and only remembered to compare the lengths of the socks after already starting the gusset increases on the second sock. The second sock was visibly and noticeably longer (like almost 2 cm) than the first one. What the...? A short moment to regroup and problem-solve, and the culprit for the size difference was located: I had made one cable repeat too many for the second sock even though (I thought) I had counted them many times. As the yardage was scarce to begin with I was forced to unravel the extra cable and start the gusset again.

I had some yarn left to make a couple of centimeters long cuff, so the socks are now ankle length. I had some problems with the bind off as well: first I didn't have enough yarn left for it, and had to unravel a couple of rows. Then my bind off was too tight and my foot didn't fit through it. Unravel again. Third time lucky, but the yarn doesn't really take well to unraveling and re-knitting and it started to get really fuzzy.

Probably not the prettiest pair I have ever knitted, but they do fit the intended purpose of sleeping socks. I'm not totally traumatized by toe-up socks but will rather knit regular top-down socks in the future anyway.     

It's been a really warm day again. The cats are feeling lazy.

A sneak peek to something I finished yesterday evening. It's blocking now, more photos coming soon. I'm so in love with the colors!

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