Item: Heather
Tribute Socks
Yarn: Lamb wool from Nøstebarn in colour
32 Lyng (Heather)
Grams: 37 g
When I spotted the Tribute Socks at
Knitty, I immediately knew that I wanted to have a go at knitting them. I even tagged it as a future yarn consumption here at the wild-grown yarn stash. The pattern requires a delicate yarn, and the lamb wool from Nøstebarn is just that, paired with double-pointed needles size 2mm.
2mm knitting needles are so delicate and thin that they easily bend. This time, I used the Symfonie Wood double-pointed knitting needles, they did bend a little, but not as much as the other brands I've tried at this size. I prefer wooden knitting needles, as they don't make as much noise when knitting. If anyone know of and can recommend some really wonderful knitting needles, especially in the smaller sizes, please post!
The socks begin with a picot edging. The pattern instructs you to leave the edging "open", that is, to sew it together afterwards, when the sock is finished. However, I prefer to fasten the edging as I go along, saving me the job of sewing it together later. This is accomplished by folding the picot edging over, knitting each stitch together with a stitch picked up from the first row.
The pattern did have a bit of a ruining effect on the picot edging, as it made the edging a bit loop-sided. As you can see in the picture to the right, the front of the picot edging is higher than the side of the picot edging. Luckily, a proper blocking of the knitting will remove the loop-sidedness to some extent.
What I really did like about this pattern, beside the lovely and intricate instep pattern, was the three stitches on each side of the heel flap that was knitted in garter stitch. It's not a big thing, but I've never done it before. Usually I just slip the first stitch of each round of the heel flap, creating big loops that is used later to easily pick up stitches when starting on the instep later on. However, this usually leaves me with noticeable gaps, because the loops are so big. But this method, knitting the first three and the last three stitches in garter stitch, leaves no noticeable gaps. However, it is somewhat trickier to pick up the stitches for the instep but still doable!
And the intricate pattern: it is simple lovely!
