Friday 23 December 2011

Crisis in Confidence

I think I should just give up on this knitting lark. I am clearly no good at it. Case in point; my Pomatomus socks.

I was so excited at the thought that I would get these done this week. For one thing this will be the second pair of socks I have managed to knit both of this year! (I am not fast when it comes to socks). For another thing, I really enjoyed this pattern. Something about the way that the yarn transformed into this springy, bouncy, lovely textured garment was so appealing to me. I've had this yarn sat around for a while (it's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in a colourway called Echo, though I have no idea what colour it is. When I first bought it I thought it was grey, then realised it was too brown to be grey. But it's not quite right for mushroom either. I think we've decided to call it 'taupe' since taupe just seems to be universal for 'some kind of brown that we can't quite figure out what kind') I cast on for another pair of socks, but really wasn't feeling it. But I came across it this year and decided it needed to be Pomatomus. And it needed to be Pomatomus RIGHT NOW. Except, as usually happens, it became one Pomatomus RIGHT NOW and the other one took a bit longer (I got distr...SQUIRREL).

So this week rolls around and I'm on holiday and with my family so I can't do holiday knitting while the person I'm knitting for is still up, so I pick back up my second sock and finish it in record time (for me).

Yeay:



See the problem yet? Maybe not. I know I didn't.

I finished the sock on Tuesday evening and sewed in the ends on both socks. I decided to wear them yesterday. I'd already tried on the one I made first, so I knew it would fit and had made sure to knit to second to exactly the same number of pattern repeats etc.

But wait, what's this?



See it now?

See how one sock is a dramatically different size from the other? Desperate, I checked the pattern repeats, thinking if I had just missed one out, maybe I could tink back - I have plenty of yarn left, but to no avail. The pattern repeats are the same, it's my gauge that is off.

And how off is it possible for gauge to get?



I have one sock that comes up to normal sock height above my ankle, and one that comes halfway up my calf.

The moral of this story is:
Knit socks two a time in the future!

For FO's that worked a lot better than mine, see Tami's Amis.

And lastly, I would like to wish those that celebrate a very Happy Christmas Eve Eve. I hope that this season brings you joy and peace and everything you could wish for.

8 comments:

pinkundine said...

My last socks had a pretty dramatic gauge change too (luckily it blocked out ok - not sure if that will work for yours?)

They look great if that's any consolation!

Unknown said...

I did that by picking up the wrong needle in between the two socks. I feel your pain!

grandmastatus said...

Bummer! I have done this too. With socks AND with fingerless gloves.

Isaida said...

The socks look great, even if they are different sizes :)

I still have'nt learned to knit socks. I said in Jan 2011, my goal for the year was to learn to knit socks. Guess that goal will go into 2012! I will learn 2 at a time!

Unknown said...

Ugh that happened to me recently! I had to knit a third sock and thankfully that came out the same as the original sock. I too will be knitting socks two at a time from now on.

Amy said...

Bummer!! I have yet to knit socks but that would drive me crazy. I've been pretty lucky with other paired items - such as gloves - and have them be of equal guage and tension, but my luck socks would not work.

They are pretty though! Do you have enough yarn to knit a third?

Emma (GirlAnachronismE) said...

Can you aggressively block the second sock to make them the same size? And i hope you had a great Christmas

Kim Sonksen said...

WOW those socks are ace