Ruthless Knitting Archive

Pattern: Red Herring by Cookie A, published in the Fall 2006 Knitty
Size: Women’s medium (one size)
Yarn: Hand Jive Knits Nature’s Palette Fingering (100 percent merino wool; 180 yds per 50 g skein) in Dark Indigo and Indian Paintbrush
Yardage: 1 skein of each color. I’d guess that I used about 300 yards.
Source: Knit/Purl in Portland, OR
Needles: Knit Picks Classic Circular needles in US size 1 (2.25 mm)
Gauge: 32 sts = 4″ in Stockinette stitch
Notes: These are great socks! They fit well, they’re snazzy, and I like the yarn a lot. They were fun to knit, and the five-month hiatus between the first and second socks made them even funner.

I already wrote about these socks on several occasions, and I don’t have a whole lot more to add. I did modify the pattern slightly by making the leg shorter, because I’m just not the kind of gal who wants long socks. Also, I stretched my one skein of red yarn as far as I possibly could, but I ran out eight rows from the end of the second sock, so it has a slightly larger blue toe. If I had cared much, I might have made the toes match or striped one foot to smooth over the transition, but I don’t.

It was fun to see how much knitting I could get out of that one skein of red yarn. I would have been golden if I could have unraveled and used my swatch, but unfortunately I knit it in the round and then cut it so it would lay flat to be measured, so no dice. I suppose I should learn my lesson and stop cutting my swatches, but I doubt that I will.

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There is still time to enter the contest! So far, only Desiknitter has shown an interest in the slippers, though maybe others are intimidated by her formidable entry, which she submitted in verse. I am not surprised that the rest of you think the slippers are ugly, only that this is stopping you from trying to obtain them. Don’t you have an aged grandmother with cold feet? Someone who needs a great white elephant gift? Someone with whom you can (virtually) reenact the scene from The Office in which Phyllis gives Michael a knitted oven mitt? This is your chance, people! I’d hate for you to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.