SOCK HOP: Winners & Knitters (Day 1)

Poor Hugh Jackman needs socks. Please help the needy star of stage, screen, and television by knitting him up a pair or ten. (And a towel wouldn't hurt.)

First things first. The winners of our Sock Hop contest are:

1. DenisePatch

2. Sharon Hurlbut

3. Catmum

4. Cheri Perry

5. Jaycee602

6. Claudette Soucy

Congratulations to everyone! Watch your inbox for an email from Romancing The Yarn. Happy Knitting!

Many of you have asked what the next contest will be. Well, the truth is we don't know yet but I promise it will be worth the wait.

Okay. So now it's official: The First Annual Romancing The Yarn Sock Hop is underway. I told you that I'd cheated, didn't I? Well, let's just say that the Knitting Goddess punished me for jumping the gun. Last night I had to frog my first toe-up provisional crochet cast-on sock three times and I'm still not happy with my results.

I tried a test version before I launched into the sock itself and achieved mixed results:

The good side of the toe (even so I can see a stray ply)



The bad side of the toe



The toe itself

I'll admit that scans are deadly for scrutinizing your work. Every flaw seems magnified. Here's my list of what's going wrong with my current full-scale version:

1. I still don't get the point of making the provisional crochet cast-on (pcco) chain. If the stitches aren't "live" in the sense of being unravellable (word?) then why bother? Why not just pick up and knit? I don't see the value added here. As it was, I had to knit into the backs of the pcco loops in order to set things right and I haven't seen that problem mentioned anywhere. (Hmm. Now I'm wondering if I should have used thicker yarn for the crochet cast-on. Maybe that's why when I unzip the provisional part [and that hasn't been easy, either, btw: sometimes it won't unzip at all and yes I only went into the "bumps"] I have a normal smooth cast-on edge and have to go searching for anything that might pass for a loop.)

2. I'm getting a weird bump (swelling? puffy area?) at the point where the wraps/doublewraps end and the straight knitting of all stitches including the pcco stitches.

3. Aesthetically speaking, I'm just not a fan of the wedge toe. I prefer the graceful round toe.

4. I'm going to soldier on because, damn it, no provisional crochet cast-on is gonna get the better of me. I refuse to pass final judgment on it until I've mastered it. (Then I just might kick its butt out of my workbasket.)

5. The secret to working the wraps and doublewraps seems to be consistency. Find a pick up method that works for you (both on the knit and the purl sides) and STICK WITH IT. Don't vary the technique from row to row or you'll have an ugly mess of chewed-up stitches that won't make you very happy. (Not that I know from experience or anything . . . )

6. I'm finished with my fourth try at the toe and I've decided to stick with it flaws and all and head out into the foot. My plans is to finish this sock then jump into its mate using this first one as my guide for What Not To Do. If the second sock turns out well then I'll frog this one and do it up right. Or as right as it's possible for me to do.

I'm frustrated right now because I have the plain old cuff down w/heel flap and gusset sock down cold. I don't have ladders. I don't leave holes along the gusset. I can do a nice toe whether it's Kitchener or round or star. But this toe-up is making me crazy.

And it's not just the pcco. I don't care for the Figure 8 cast-on because those initial stitches are invariably loose and sloppy and I don't seem able to figure out how to tighten them up. Yes, I've read all the instructions about "go back and snug them up" "tug on the tail end" blah blah blah and nothing works for me. They are what they are and they're determined to stay that way.

I think there's no getting around the fact that I'm a Turkish Cast-on kind of girl. I love it. I love working it. I love looking at it. It's fast, foolproof, seamless, almost mindless.

Which is why I'm working on a technique that, for me, isn't any of those things.

Sockhoppers, this is your place to shine. Feel free to comment as often as you want. I'll open a SOCK HOP post every day for that purpose so you'll know where to find answers to your questions, etc. And for those Sockhoppers who signed up, the Flickr account is waiting for your photos.

No, it's not too late. If you'd like to become an official Sockhopper click on the appropriate paragraphs on the upper righthand corner of your screen and we'll do the rest.

5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

CAST ON!