Sunday, April 1, 2012

Up-Down Entrelac--Finished Pair

Ta-da! The dreaded Up-Down Entrelac socks are done and I enjoyed knitting them much, much more than I expected. I'm wearing the socks as I type this and they are surprisingly comfortable. I would have thought that the entrelac triangles would be uncomfortable along the sole but I'm not finding that isn't a problem. The legs are snug and show no signs of drooping.
I encourage you all to try these socks--or any other pair that seems daunting to you. Like me, you'll overcome your hesitations and you'll learn something new (like you shouldn't have been daunted in the first place).
 
In addition to using the colors randomly on each sock, I also deviated from the instructions in Sock Knitting Master Class by substituting a few rounds of garter stitch and a few rounds of k3, p1 ribbing at the top of the cuff for the diamonds on the original socks, and I had to go up a needle size (to use size 3 needles instead of size 2) to get the correct gauge. To prevent the bind-off at the top of the cuff from being too tight, I used the sewn bind-off (shown on page 118). This bind-off looks a lot like another garter ridge around the top of the cuff, which fits in with the overall design perfectly.
The feet are just a bit loose so I plan to give them a bit of a vigorous wash in a basin of warm water to shrink them down a tad. This will probably take a number of washings because I don't want to overdo it and shrink and felt them too much.
For those of you wondering how much yarn is really used, my socks weigh 86 grams and there are 77 grams of unused yarn. You can easily get three pairs of socks out of two of Kathryn Alexander's yarn kits.

6 comments:

Diana said...

They're beautiful ... love them. I also like that you picked colors randomly for each sock.

Shannon said...

Those look fabulous! Congratulations on finishing a project that really challenged you and doing such a great job!

Rebecca said...

Very nice, Ann! I was hesitant to give these a try but you have fortified my courage!

Anonymous said...

What do you think of afterthought-heels? I recently did them for the first time and wondered why they aren't used more commonly in patterns. Simple.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I forgot to mention how absolutely gorgeous the socks are!

Esther said...

Your colors are fabulous!