Last night, I finally finished the Bayerische socks.  It feels as if a major weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I haven’t been knitting much over the last month.  I’m not sure if it has been because this sock was the only thing I had on the needles, or if life has just been that busy.  I’m thinking that it might be a combination of both. 

Pattern: Bayerische Socks, Eunny Jang
Yarn: Froehlich Wolle Special Blauband (225 yards/50g)
Quantity: 2 skeins (450 yards / 100g)
Color: Olive Green
Needles: Addi Turbo 40″ 2.0mm (US 0)

Started: June 18, 2007
Completed: August 19, 2007

Pattern modifications:

• I used 3 repeats of Chart D on the legs.  I would have liked to have an additional repeat, but I did not have enough yardage.
• I decreased down to 32 stitches on the sole of the foot.  The pattern called for 36 stitches, which was too loose.
• Due to concern about yarn yardage, I reduced the ribbing to 7 rows instead of 14.

Based upon collective experience of members of KTog knitting this sock, I can offer the following observations. 

• This pattern tends to make any yarn seem very splitty.  I would not recommend using any sock yarn that seems to split easily in stockinette. 
• Knit the last row of twisted rib in the cuff very loosely.  This is essential for success in the increase row of the sock.
• The finished socks are beautiful, but be prepared for very slow knitting.  Even once I knew the pattern, each row took a significant length of time. 
• The pattern is very methodical.  Knit stitches always cross in front of purl stitches.  Outside of Chart D, everything is either K2, P2 or K, P.  If the stitches don’t line up that way, the knitter has made a mistake.
• The cabling is much easier without a cable needle.

I was glad to have received some knitting gifts for my birthday.  I received three books.  Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller.  I also received two of the Barbara Walker Treasury books, numbers two and three.

Now that I have these treasury books, I have an urge to participate in the Walker Treasury Project.  If you haven’t heard of it, it is an effort to knit swatches of all the patterns in the Walker Treasury books.  All of the swatches in the project are posted to a blog and categorized by book, stitch type, etc.  It’s a really interesting effort.

In addition to books, I was also the lucky recipient of yarn.  Pictured below is Knit Picks Risata in Cocoa and Memories in Redwood Forest.

Finally, there are two skeins of the Knit Picks Memories in Rocky Mountain Dusk.  Notice the amount of blue in the photo below.  If you check out the color selection on the Knit Picks site, the blue is barely noticeable.  Both the gifter and I were surprised by the color of this yarn.

I also got a new size 0 needle.  My Addi is taking a beating while knitting Bayerische.  It is in a weird arc/bent shape.  Speaking of Bayerische, I’m in the second repeat of chart D on sock number two.  I forgot how long each round of this sock takes.  I hope to finish the second repeat of chart D by the end of the weekend.

I finally finished reknitting the Bayerische sock tonight.  I decided to add an additional 8 rows of the texture pattern, and then knit the toe.  I did some informal measuring, and decided that there would be enough yarn for this.  I knit, and knit, and knit.  Each row became more and more troubling.  Would I run out of yarn?  Finally, I decreased down to the 8 stitches on each needle called for by the pattern before grafting.  How much yarn was left?  You can see it there in the picture, all 29 inches of it.  That’s right, less than one yard of yarn remains.

Now, I’ll admit that I’m worried about the second sock.  If my gauge is off just a tiny bit, it could spell disaster for sock two.  But, I went ahead and wove in the ends on the first sock.  It’s interesting, my sock is actually a bit big on me.  As I knit with the others from KTog on this project, I kept noticing that mine was a bit wider than the other socks being knit.  But, as I stated in a previous post, I refuse to knit socks on anything smaller than my US0s.

As for the next steps, I’m not sure if I’ll cast on for the next sock right away, or continue with my other current knitting obsession, dishcloths.  I’ve finally knit some ballband dishcloths.  The pattern is easy to memorize, and makes for good movie knitting.  I’ve still got a ton of cotton to go, so I image there will continue to be more of this pattern. 

Last night I knit the last row of Bayerische sock number one.  However, the toe is a bit too small and tight, so I will be ripping it out later today and adding some additional plain rounds.  I admit, you, you and the blogless others at KTog on Tuesday night were correct; I had enough yarn to finish the sock.  However, this is my remaining yarn.  I can admit that I was extra nervous at the end - it’s a super tiny ball of yarn!

I’m thinking that I should be able to rip back and add a few plain rounds before I start the decreases.  I had to start the toe before the pattern called for, I knew I would not have enough yarn to continue in pattern until 1.5 inches remained.  Because I knew the toe had to be longer, I added additional plain knit rows between decreases.  Obviously, I did not add enough rows.

I think this project may contain my slowest knitting ever.  As it stands today, I am thirteen rows into the gusset on sock one.  I think I’m beginning to understand why Eunny only ever posted one sock on her blog.  Perhaps it’s that she never could bring herself up to the challenge of knitting a second sock.  Overall, I’m thrilled with the way the twisted stitches look.  I find the patterning very beautiful.

This sock, however, eats up the yarn at a fairly alarming rate.  Since I worried about this from the beginning, I only did half the number of suggested rounds of ribbing (7 instead of 14).  I also opted only to do three repeats of chart D on the leg.  At that point, the yarn in the sock weighed slightly less than half of the total.  In past sock knitting, I ususally try to keep the yarn used in the leg to around a third of the overall total yarn weight.  I’m hoping that since the foot is plain stockinette that I’ll make it to the end of the sock.

As I got to the heel flap, I had mixed feelings about it.  While it was nice to have a small break from the patterning of the leg, the heel flap just seems so plain.  While the stitches flow nicely from the patterning into the slipped stitches of the heel, I’m still underwhelmed by the whole thing.  My goal is to try and finish the gusset today.  We’ll see how it goes.

About a week ago Kelly had an interest in knitting the Bayerische sock from Eunny Jang.  She thought it would be fun it other members of KTog would join her in a knitalong.  Since I was looking for a new sock project, and had some plain colored sock yarn, I decided to jump right in.  Michelle, Melissa, and Kim decided to come along on this adventure too.

As of Sunday evening, I’ve made some decent progress on the sock.  I’m beginning to worry about how much yarn I have.  I was concerned about this from the beginning, so I only knit half the number of rows of twisted rib.  Now, I may only knit three repeats of chart D on the leg and then begin the heel.  I’ll weight the yarn and the sock as I get to the end of the third repeat and make that decision.

The other concerning fact about my yarn usage is the width of my sock.  When we were at our knitting meetup the other night, my sock was significantly wider than the other socks.  While I didn’t do a gauge swatch, I’m knitting with my Addi Turbo size 0s.  I refuse to knit socks on a smaller needle.  A size US00?  I don’t even own needles that small.  Even if I did, I might refuse on principle.  No garment other than lace should be knit on sizes that small.

Overall, it is surprising to me.  I used to be a very tight knitter.  In most patterns I had to upsize the recommended needle by 2 sizes to get the correct gauge.  I made an effort once to loosen up my knitting, but now it seems I’ve gone overboard.  I’m now going down needle sizes to make gauge.  Am I the only one with this problem?