Yopping Update #28 - You'd think by now I would learn

 Before I get to the title of this post I want to post my finished Topsy/Turvy doll.  I am so ridiculously proud of how she turned out.  Now that the Christmas decorations are put away, she alone is adorning the piano - and she makes me so happy every time I see her. 

After all the sewing together (which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be,) I turned to my tried and true cast-on when I can't think of anything else to knit - socks. 

Since CinnaofDoom posted her new sock pattern last week, Say Yes to Pie, I thought I would give it a try.  It had an afterthought heel which I think I have never done, or maybe once long long ago, and it was for a shorty sock which was good because I only had a 50g ball of Felici.  I knew that wasn't enough wool for even a short pair of socks so I rummaged around in my stash for something to use on the heel and cuff. 

Well, it was all going along swimmingly until I got to the beginning of the cuff for the first sock.  I decided to put it aside and start the second sock to make sure I didn't run out of wool.  For some odd reason I decided to make sure the striping on the socks was going to match - which proved harder than I thought as I unravelled the remaining wool looking for a good beginning place.  I found it (after a lot of dyslexic which end is which moments) and knit up to the place where you put in the contrasting yarn to hold your place for the afterthought heel.  

This is where things became a little sticky.  I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn to knit the 2nd sock to the same place as the first.  So, I frogged the first sock back to where the 2nd sock was - about 2 inches and then the nasty process of picking up the stitches again.  I had to break the remaining yarn into its individual colours and then split each colour into two equal lengths.  So, yes, I know, now I have a lot of ends to sew in.  By the time I ran out of wool I was at the cuff, but now the stash I had chosen didn't seem to be consistent enough.  I unravelled it (because it was also self-patterning) until I got to a colour that would work, and after 5 rows of that I finished it off with 5 rows of grey in my stash that matched the grey of the self-striping Felici.  I bet you think all this is why the title of my post is 'You'd think by now I would learn'.  But no....keep reading.

I finished both socks with a stretchy bind-off as suggested by the pattern and then started the first after-thought heel.  

The heel itself was easy but unpicking the row to pick up the stitches was awkward and seemed to take me forever (by the 2nd sock I had perfected  doing this - but for the first sock I was a slow learner).  

So, first sock finished!  Ta-Da!! I tried it on, worried that I might not have place the heel in the right place and I had.  Double ta-da!!.  However, the cuff was much too loose.  No problem, right?  Just unpick the cast off and re-do.  Well?????  

The problem was I had already woven in the end.  I KNOW I shouldn't weave in any ends until a project is completed, but I guess I was over-confident.  I mean I have knit at least a hundred pairs of socks.  

Well, let me tell you.  I am brilliant at weaving in ends. Brilliant!  After at least 30 minutes I finally thought I found the end, but really I had found the join for the final grey which meant I ended up having to re-knit the last 5 rows before doing the cast-off.

I was determined before going to bed to fix the cuff of the 2nd sock before starting the heel.  It proved someone easier because I eventually found the cast-off end, but it still wasn't a lot of fun.  Today I just have to cast-off again, and finish the heel. 

So there you have it - words to the wise 'Don't weave in any ends until the project is done!

I am very proud of my matching stripes though - so there is that!.  It is a great pattern, easy to memorize the textured part, but next time I knit with Felici yarn I will purposefully aim for fraternal socks!

I have been walking everyday averaging about three miles a day.  I have been taking pictures while walking as I sort of photo log of my days.  Today I think the picture was a beautiful metaphor of life.  

Life is full of 'rooty' bits

I also came across this a couple of days ago - the face on this little rock is the perfect face of determination.

Determination, or WTF?

I figure after my sock fiasco I am going to just bite the bullet and tackle another General Hogbuffer pattern - Slippery Slope Socks.  Let's see if I have learned from my mistakes.  

Hope everyone's week is safe and if there are 'rooty' bits in your path may you have the courage to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.  

Or as Dory says 'Just keep swimming'. 

One more thought - is it grey, or gray?