03.08.2017

Cast-on: 8 sts per ndl (16 total) Judy’s Magic CO. Knit one round.

Toe (all yo’s in this section worked tbl): worked *k1, yo, k to 1 st before end of ndl, yo, k1*, until 40 sts total; then did *knit 1 round, do 1 increase round as above* until 64 sts total. Knit 3 rounds.

Placed clip-on marker to mark the front of the work.

This is a super useful video!

04.08.2017

(“DS” means to make a double stitch in the usual way for German short rows.)

Here’s what happened the first time I tried to knit the heel. Don’t follow the instructions in this paragraph! I knit one round (so far so good) and then proceeded like this: DS, p31, turn work; DS, k29, turn work; DS, p27, turn work; and so on, fighting a growing sensation of dread that the very squat trapezoid I was creating was not a viable sock heel, up until I did a 12-stitch row (DS, p11), tried it on, and confirmed 100% for real that there was absolutely no way this accursed construction would reach to the back end of my foot without some very uncomfortable tugging. So I frogged back all but the very first short row I’d worked. But my MC is the Crazy Zauberball yarn, and that yarn’s whole gimmick is that it’s an extremely loose 2-ply. So instead of picking up the frogged stitches directly onto my needle like I would with normal sock yarn, I ended up threading some waste yarn onto a tapestry needle and using the tapestry needle like a mini-DPN to pick up the stitches. (I ended up not having to push any of them down onto the waste yarn, but better safe than sorry, right?)

DON’T BE LIKE ME, KIDS. *ahem*

Now, here are the instructions to knit an actual heel for this sock, with much love to this video.

Heel (making notes as I go):

Knit one round in MC. Turn work; the short row shaping is worked exclusively on needle 2.

Row 1: DS, p31, turn work.
Row 2: DS, k30, turn work.
Row 3: DS, p29, turn work.
Row 4: DS, k28, turn work.

And so on. The pattern says “Work 2 sts less on each row”, which is what I thought I was doing with my failure described in the big paragraph above… but you should ignore that and work 1 st less on each row as I’ve described here.

Row n-1 (sorry, I stopped counting): DS, p13, turn work.
Row n: DS, k to end of needle. Do not turn!

Knit 1 round (remember that this is the round where you lift the stitch for the jogless color change). Continuing to work in the round, knit across all the sts on ndl 1 and the first 23 sts on ndl 2.

Turn the work. (Row numbering starts over here in my notes.)

Row 1: DS, p13, turn work.
Row 2: DS, k14, turn work.
Row 3: DS, p15, turn work.
Row 4: DS, k16, turn work.

Continue in this manner. These will be the last two rows of this section:

Row m-2: DS, k30, turn work.
Row m-1: DS, p31, turn work.
Row m: DS, k to end of ndl. Do not turn work!

Work one round (knitting all sts) in MC, then change to CC and resume horizontal striping as directed in the pattern.

12.08.2017

Halfway done with the color chart on the leg! I’m trying it on every couple of rounds to make sure it fits over my heel, and I’ve had no problems so far (it’s snug, but that’s to be expected).

Onto the rest of the sock. I forgot to do the jogless stripe trick on the first two color changes after Chart 2 but I don’t really care.

Cuff: 12 rounds, 2x2 rib.

Bind-off: the k2tog tbl one.