I MAKE LUCKY SOCKS! St George won the Grand Final, as did Collingwood. Hurray for my lucky sock knitting skills!

Starting date is calculated in Vancouver time, not in local time - thought it would save confusion for the Ravelympics!

CO 56 sts. Going to use the single yarn, double knot cast on and see how we go for elasticity. I think for members of my family I’ll down the stitch count for the top (but I’ll see how they look and feel on my skinny legs first!) All left leaning decreases worked k2tog tbl.

Rereading techknitter’s tute on Jogless Stripes.

Planning on doing the stationary jog. Going to do the heels and toes in solids…so for this one I’ll have white heels and toes, for Midge’s I’ll have black heels and toes and for Dad’s I’ll have red heels and toes. Each cuff will start on the opposite colour (red here, white for Midge, black for Dad). Hopefully all this planning will make sure I have enough wool for all three pairs in the planning!

February 13: Going to do 4 row stripes, stationary jogless jog. Cast on still needs extra practice but it’s good enough and will hopefully even out after washing. Doing ribbing all in one colour (don’t like the effect with the purl stripes…). 12 rows for the cuff, started the stripes. 4 row stripes.

February 14: Technically they’re St George Illawarra socks (my father in law’s rugby team)…but while knitting them they’re reminding me of Where’s Wally, so that’s their new name. :)

We had a quick try on to make sure they’re the right size, and all seems perfect :) Can’t get good photos of the colours thought…the red keeps on being overexposed. Then again, most of the photos are being taken on a phone with very few settings! Hopefully I’ll get some good shots at the end. Almost up to the heel (which will be an Eye of Partridge heel, just because I think it’s pretty and want to try it out!)

February 16: Started heel flap on right side row. 28 sts by 28 rows for flap. Heel is turned. Trying to sort out where my colour change will occur, as I don’t want it on the sole. Saved 10 sts unworked on each side of the heel turn to begin with. Turned heel (ending purl side), then knitted across, picked up 16sts, knitted across instep, then picked up another 16sts.

Knit one round after picking up sts and changing round start point. Then gusset decreases every other round (alternating with plain rounds) until 14sts on each needle. k2tog k1 for dec @ end of needle between gusset and instep, k1 k2tog tbl for dec at start needle. Jogless join n line with non decrease round…

February 18: Finished gusset decreases - 20 rounds total, ending with a decrease round (so that makes 10 decrease rounds!) Still deliberating on the toe but think I’ll try an anatomical toe out…they’re for an adult and I think they’ll be comfier if I shape them. Plus I want to try it out!

February 20: Working out how long the toe will be and how long to knit for. Decided not to do an anatomical toe after looking at my partner’s feet. He doesn’t have the right shaped foot for an anatomical toe (whereas I do), so I’ll just take a guess that his dad has similar shaped feet and make a rounded toe.

February 22: Finished off the first sock. Here are the details - 12 rows + ribbing before heel (ending on red stripe). 14 stripes after heel, starting on white, ending on red. Then 4 rounds white (i.e. another white stripe (this takes it to 8 1/2” before toe…another stripe made it around 9”; toe is approximately 1.6” long), but it blends into the toe) before decreases. Decrease to 36sts every other round - 10 rounds total (5 decrease rounds, end on a plain round). Then decrease to 16sts total every round - another 5 rounds. Then knit across needle 1 again and graft toe. So far I’ve got 171g of red left and 163g of white - so I should be able to get all my socks done with the three colours based on those numbers :)

February 28 (well, in Vancouver it’s still the 27th!): Trying to get it all finished. Somehow my jogless joins have ended up in line with my decrease rounds for this sock. I think I might have knitted two rounds before starting the decreases, but I’m not sure (I was distracted by the baby…) Doesn’t matter, sock looks pretty much the same, so I’m just continuing on. One row difference in the gussets won’t be too terrible, if that is the case. It does all look the same though, and as I’m going on how many stripes I’ve got before I start the toe, it’ll all end up the same length anyway.

All done in time! YAY!

Didn’t weigh yarn beforehand…socks weigh 141g, only seem to have used 130g from the balls…so the extra 10g may have been extra yarn on the ball. Will still have plenty left!