I've been a knitting fiend since August of this year when I took my first socks class at the local Yarn Shop... and a few days ago I started a pair of socks with some really fun yarn that is a rainbow of bright primary colors. (Mardi Gras by Jitterbug) My original plan was to do a reverse stockinette stitch for the main part, so I cast on my stitches and set about knitting. After finishing the cuff I began to stitch in the main part of the leg and realized that I wasn't going to like the end result because of how the stitches were being stretched at the points where I was changing needles (with knitting socks I use 3 double pointed needles and knit with a 4th needle).
So I frogged it (a term I have pulled from many years of cross-stitch -- you ripppit rippit rip it) and began again, cast on, knit the cuff and thought "AHA!" I can knit the leg inside out (do a regular knitting stitch) then when I get to the heel I will flip it back to the right side and turn the heel and then flip it inside out again to do the foot then flip it right side out to finish it off with the toe... but alas, when I got to the bottom and went to turn the heel, I realized that my logic was flawed (because I am still a newb remember!) and that if I did what I had planned, there would be a sizeable hole.
So... more frogging. At this point I thought, I'll just do it and make sure that I pull the stitches extra tight around the ends and I would even rotate the stitches around on the needles, so that I don't end up with those stretched stitches/bumps/seams... so I started again, got to the heel, turned it just fine and got well into the foot when I noticed that I was still getting that bumpy/stretchy/seamy bit... but because of my rotating the stitches, the seam was now in a spiral down the foot. I held up the sock to see if Andy noticed it (because I had decided to just live with it if he couldn't see it) but alas, sure enough he noticed...
So... more frogging.
By this point it is New Years Eve -- I'm winding my yarn back onto the ball... We had finished a lovely dinner (filet mignon and sauteed mushrooms and baked potatoes -- with bread from Panera to snack on while we waited for the steaks). I had been feeling like I was coming down with a cold ever since before Christmas Eve... I was sleeping a lot more and just feeling really groggy and yucky but nothing more than a sore throat happened up til New Years Eve. I woke up and felt yucky, but ventured out to the store to pick up materials to make chicken soup, the steak dinner, and some other bits and pieces.
We played Ratchet and Clank (trading off turns every other planet) and then right at midnight (literally had about 60 seconds to get the right channel) watched the clock turn over and the madness in NYC... then we were up for about another hour playing before finally hitting the sack.
By that point I was feeling really naff and had frogged my sock so many times I was beginning to wonder if it was going to actually get made!!
I restarted it about 11pm and knit on it until 1am -- doing the zigzag pattern from my christmas present from Mom & Dad (a knitting calendar that has a different pattern for each day of the year (it's one of those perpetual calendars... no year... just flip the day over).
And tonight I finished turning the heel on sock one -- with the zigzag stitch (that you can't really even see because of the craziness of the color changes of the yarn) ... and I'm quite seriously contemplating
Yes...
Frogging it.
SPIT-don't you dare frog it again. Just put that sucker away and go back to it later. I've got some wonderful yarn (alpaca) and I keep starting new patterns and frogging it because I don't like how it looks. I'm throwing it to the basement for a few weeks then I'll try again. You do the same and we'll remind each other that we have yarn we need to use if we can find it that is.
Posted by: sock princess at January 3, 2008 4:17 PM