09/30/08: Since my Little Pumpkin Socks are giving me some grief, I decided to cast-on a last-minute entry for the Sock Knitters Anonymous September Sockdown… just in case.

I only have one skein of this yarn and my daughter’s been asking for more socks, so I thought this I’d try this pattern for her. It’s an adaptation of Monkey (which I’ve never done), so it qualifies as a Cookie A. pattern for the Sockdown.

10/01/08: I think I understand now why everyone and their dog is knitting Monkeys. It’s an easy pattern but looks complicated. And it knits up really fast. Of course, my view of speed could be skewed because these are kid socks.

Anyway, I changed the chart slightly to include the ktbl on row 4 that’s on the original Monkey pattern (that’s the stich over the second yarn over on row 3). I found that it tightens up that stitch and looks much better than the plain knit stitch does.

10/02/08: Well, I’m having some trouble with these. The pattern itself is fine… but, the fit is something else. I have to tug the sock really hard to get it over my kid’s heel. She says it feels fine once it’s on, but it seems too snug to me.

So, I frogged back some and added a few rows to the heel flap to add more room to the instep. It helped a tad, but not enough. Now I have a super cute, almost completed sock that I’m probably going to have to frog. I need to think.

10/08/08: I’ve decided to frog back to the cuff (which sucks!) and try this thing on bigger needles. I may also try a different heel… something other than the stockinette one in the pattern.

Also, while trolling around searching for answers to the tight heel problem, I found a 48 stitch chart done by Cookie A. It’s the same as the one for this pattern except that it includes that ktbl that I already talked about and another row of plain knit (so, a nine row repeat instead of eight). I think I’m going to add the extra row when I restart the sock and see what happens.

10/09/08: I might be jinxing myself, but the sock seems to be much better now.

I frogged back to the last row of the cuff and restarted the pattern on size 1.5 dpns (I was using size 1 before). Besides adding the ninth row to the pattern, I did a slip stitch heel instead of stockinette and made the flap a bit longer than I normally would. I also picked up a few extra stitches for the gusset and knit the first two rows without decreasing.

I tried the sock on my daughter when I finished the decreases and it goes on much easier now. Whew! It’s amazing how much difference slightly larger needles (.25 mm!) and a few extra rows make.

10/10/08: The first sock is finished and it fits! It may even be a bit big… not a bad thing with a growing kid.

Now I just hope I have enough yardage for the second one. I weighed the sock and the yarn I have left, and it’s going to be very close…

10/11/08: Aaarrggghhh! Yep, I ran out of yarn. I was so close, too… just 4 more rows left to go.

Now, I could find another yarn and do the toe in a different color (and also redo the toe on the first sock). But, I don’t really have anything that would look good with this yarn… and I don’t want to go searching for any. So, I’m going to frog back and go with three pattern repeats on the ankle instead of four. That will give me the extra yardage I need. It also means I’ll have to redo the first sock, too, or one ankle will be longer than the other. I must be a glutton for punishment.

10/12/08: Finally done! I frogged both socks back to the third pattern repeat on the ankle and reknit them… one last night, the other today. Good thing this pattern knits up really fast.

And they’re really cute! My kid loves them. Yay me!

Update 10/28/08: I came home from work tonight and was greeted with a pair of dog-chewed Micro Monkey socks. Evie strikes again! There are no words for how cranky I am right now…

They were put away when I left but, apparently, my daughter got them out and then left them where the dog could get to them. One sock is almost completely chewed, and the cuff is mangled on the second one. So, I guess I’ll salvage what yarn I can and use it for toes and cuffs on another pair… sigh.