07/17/08: My mom has big ankles (sshhh… don’t tell her I said that), so I’m doing 2x2 ribbing on size 1 needles. She wants ankle-length socks, so I’ll do 2 inches of ribbing. Then I’ll switch down to size 0 needles for the rest of the sock.

07/20/08: Well, my gauge is ending up closer to 9 stitches per inch. My swatch lied! Yes… I swatched in the round. Anyway, I tried the sock on me and I think it might be ok. But, there’s also a little pooling going on that I’m not sure about. I really like this yarn… it’s soft and really beautiful. It might deserve a different pattern. I guess I’ll just ask mom what she thinks.

07/22/08: Mom likes how they look and they fit her, so I’m going to keep on with this pattern.

07/28/08: Mom told me that she’d kind of like her socks sometime soon-ish, so I worked on them today and now the first sock is done… toe grafting and all. Oh, happy day! I’m going to try to have the second sock done before the Ravelympics start so I can concentrate on other projects.

08/02/08: The second sock is finished except for the toe grafting. Then I need to weave in the ends on both socks. It’s late, so I’ll do all that tomorrow.

08/03/08: Socks are done! The photo with the flowered background is how the socks fit on me… they’re a bit big in the ankles. The one with the brown background are the socks on my mom. I noticed that in the photo of the socks unmodeled, the bottom sock looks larger than the top. They’re the exact same size, I swear!! Just a trick of the camera.

The pooling that was bugging me in the beginning is hardly noticeable now that they’re finished. It doesn’t bother me at all. Mom is happy with them… says they fit great. So, if she’s happy, I’m happy.

08/04/08: Ack!! My mom’s dog, Evie, chewed up the second sock! Evie likes to eat things, so you’d think my mom would have been more careful. But, she was wearing them in bed and took them off in the middle of the night. She didn’t think about where the socks were until she caught the dog going after the other one. Oh, the horror!! Mom feels bad about it. Well, luckily, I have enough yarn left over to knit another sock… this one is beyond repair.

These will no longer be known as ‘Not 8 Stitches per Inch Socks’. They will now and forever be known as D*** Dog! Socks’ (thanks to cajunbatchick for the suggestion).

08/08/08: Since these are no longer finished, I’m entering them in the 2008 Ravelympics WIPs Wrestling event.

08/09/08: Started the new second sock. Hopefully, this one won’t get eaten.

08/12/08: Finished. I’m glad to be done with this project… again! The top two pictures were taken with the new sock. On me, it’s the sock on the right. In the photo below that, it’s the bottom one.

The amount of yarn listed for the project is for two socks. All three socks used about 345 yds (99 grams). I should be able to recover some of the yarn from the destroyed one, though, so I didn’t want to include it in the total.

I’m an animal lover but, I swear, if Evie so much as looks at these socks sideways… well, I can’t be held responsible for what I might do. ;)