What I Learned From My Clown Sock

Socks are forgiving. I cast on 64 instead of 68…I worked the heel flap on 34 stitches and ended up with only 30 stitches for the instep. But you know what? It’s still a recognizable sock. It still fits on my foot. (Or at least it did the last time I tried it on.)

Socks are not scary. I think I have now sort of internalized how to knit a simple sock. (Especially if I can remember to cast on the right number of stitches.) Do your leg, work the heel flap on half (or thereabouts) of the stitches. Figure the turning of the heel by knitting a few more stitches than half, then turning and going back to the point where you have the same number of stitches on both sides. Pick up the stitches for the gusset and decrease until you have the same number of stitches as you cast on (or thereabouts). Work the foot and, when it’s long enough start decreasing for the toe, every other row until about half the stitches are gone and then every row until you’re down to about half of that number. I will, however, still need to consult my book for Kitchenering.

Stockinette socks knit up fast. The last socks I did…the Charades for my friend Beth…had a row of plain knitting followed by a row with lots of stitch manipulation. I was lucky if I could get four rows knit in the car on the way to work. With stockinette…8 to 9 rows on the same commute.

So, it’s not the prettiest sock in the world. And it’s not the most perfect sock in the world. But it’s been a nice little teaching sock.

In other news…except for the shower doors, our bathroom is now complete. And it looks gorgeous. We aren’t really using it yet. I think if we are telling Jeff to take the wrong door and use it somewhere else if he can then we shouldn’t be using it. That way he can say that the door was installed but never used. So we aren’t showering in there. But I do go in every so often and play with my window and look around happily.