Pattern: Widdershins (cabled) by Brooke Chenoweth Creel, Knitty (Summer 2006).
Needles: US 0, 2.0mm.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock (S164)
Another one for Project Spectrum (”Earth”).
Lots of edits to make this pattern work for the skinny skinny Noro. Cast on 20 stitches, increased up to 72, making for four cables across the top of the foot and eight up the leg.
Let me interject here… learn to cable without a cable needle! This is an important life skill generally, but oh so much more for these socks… And the Noro sock yarn is super forgiving on this front– the perfect yarn for learning. It sticks to itself like velcro, so those held stitches aren’t going anywhere. Don’t dread round 5, LOVE(!) round 5 and cable without a cable needle.
There are several design features I am head-over-heels for in this pattern. Straight off, I really like the toe on these, not as pointy as typical toe-up construction can be, as a result of increasing every round for the first five before switching to every-other round.
Next, I was totally thrilled to incorporate a heel flap into the toe-up construction. This was one of those few design features that I really missed as I switched over from top-down knitting. Furthermore, I find the gusset joins to be much more attractive with the toe-up heel-flap (vs. top-down heel-flap): rather than picking up slipped stitches on the heel flap, here you p2tog or ssk with the live gusset stitches, making for a much more seamless join, IMO. One more tick in the “toe-up” column of my preferred knitting sock style list.
This is my first gusseted sock (I think) and I love it! Makes more a much more trim, form fitting sock. And it looks quite smart. HOWEVER, I found the Widdershins instructions for the heel turn to be completely baffling (I ripped and reknit 5 times on the first sock!). As far as I can tell these instructions are for some sort of “nontraditional” short row heel. As to not completely lose my mind, I chose to follow the more traditional instructions from Firestarters (Ravelry link), which were very clear and made me feel far less CRAZY! Given all of the happy Widdershins knitters out there, I’m sure it’s me that’s nutso, not the pattern, so please to not take my confusion as a deterrent from trying these socks.
I’m happy to have learned about toe-up heel flaps, gussets, and the more rounded toe; these three design features will absolutely be added to my own basic sock recipe!
The Spring 2008 Knitty reminded me of a couple other things I wanted to mention about the Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. So continuing from the previous list…
6. Says Knitty… “Pulling from the center of ball became very tangled:” I took this tip at it’s word and didn’t attempt to center-pull.
7. Says Knitty… “The suggested needle size makes a very loose fabric:” (I suppose this goes along with the “saggy” comments mentioned before but anyway…) I agree! I am a tight knitter and I sized down to a US 0 (2.00 mm) and was very happy with finished fabric. But loose knitters beware… perhaps a swatch is in order.
If you still are on the fence about the yarn and my comments aren’t enough to convince you one way or the other, there is another great review over on Knitter’s Review.
As I finished photographing the socks this morning, I looked out the window to find that the view looked EXACTLY like my Noroshins: the clouds (grey), the sky (turquoise), the trees (pine green), the grass & ground (electric green and brown), the buildings (yellow), the street and cars (black). (It’s kind of a crap picture, but you get the idea.) I ask you: Nature imitating knitting or knitting imitating nature?
Spring has sprung in Scandinavia!
Oh, those are gorgeous!
Love the cables, and the colors.
these are totally beautiful! i haven’t worked with this yarn yet, but I just love the way it looks! beautiful socks! enjoy
To My Dear Midwestern Expat Now Living in Sthlm:
Been lurking for awhile. The socks are absolutely lovely. Noticed jeans are cuffed and wrinkled at the bottom (same as mine – from tucking them into the boots). Sometimes I miss home…where we don’t have to tuck the jeans into the boots.
Keep knitting. In public. I hope to see you on the T-bana someday.
Love them!! You’ve tempted me to go out and purchase a skein for myself.
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[...] even in small ways. Trying to learn to knit English to tackle a colorwork project. Or that first toe-up sock last spring. Everything slows down and requires thought, where as just sticking with what you [...]