SOS #35 and #36 plus almost matchy stripes

First, here are the next two completed socks. On the left is Vesper in Venus in Furs knit in plain stockinette. On the right is Perchance to Knit in Sophisticated knit in the Bellatrix(pdf) pattern. The details for both socks will be at the end of this entry.

Second, I said that I would describe how I make my self striping socks match. The very first thing is that you need to make sure that you're starting both socks in the same place.

I start with a slip knot right where the stripes change from one color to the next. Here, I did it where the purple ended and the pink began. I use a Turkish cast-on. I tried taking pictures, but really the best thing would be to follow FluffyKnitterDeb's great instructions. She explains it thoroughly and has plenty of pictures. That is where I learned how to do the Turkish cast-on and I've been using for all of my toe-up socks (except for the Coriolis).

From previously knit Vesper socks I knew that if I used size 0 (2mm) needles and 68 stitches around, my short row heels would take approximately three different colored stripes. If I wanted the heel to have a mitered look and the foot to have an uninterrupted stripe pattern, I needed to start the short row heel in the middle of one of the colors. It takes me around 5-6 rows for each color, so I started the heel after knitting 2.5 rounds of purple. Below, I'm ready to start the heel.


Unfortunately, my heels didn't line up perfectly in these socks. I should have knit across this side and started the heel on the other needle. This is what happens when you start the heel about a half of a round or a round too soon. Sure one sides looks decent, but the other side of the sock looks way off. This technique worked perfectly for my Aqua Melon socks.

You can try to figure out how to make perfect mitered heels with other types of self striping yarn. I figured that if I had 34 stitches on one side of the sock(half of the total stitches) and if I left 12 stitches unwrapped in the center of my heel, that would mean that I would have 34-12=22 wrapped stitches. Since you wrap one stitch on each row, I would be knitting 22 rows. Now, we know that the rows get shorter and shorter, so I took 22 and divided it in half and got 11. From that, I guessed that I would need around 11 stockinette rows to knit the heel. Counting the rows on the foot portion of this sock, I found that the orange or black stripes were 7 rows long and the white stripes were around 2.5 rows long. For this heel, I would need two sections of white and one orange or black to complete the short row section. And it did!! Sure the miter isn't completely perfect, but it's so close. On the Trick or Treat socks, I started the heel where the black ended and the short rows were done in one white section, one orange section, and another white section.

I hope that's making sense. ;-) It works for me.

Details for the Vesper socks:
Yarn: Vesper sock yarn in Venus in Furs
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Addi Turbo
Method: magic loop, two at once, toe-up, Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: plain stockinette
Start: September 12, 2007
Finish: September 14, 2007

Details for the Perchance to Knit socks:
Yarn: Perchance to Knit in Sophisticated
Needle: size 0 (2mm) Addi Turbo
Method: magic loop, two at once, toe up with Turkish cast-on, short row heel
Pattern: Bellatrix
Start: September 14, 2007
Finish: September 15, 2007

I knit the Bellatrix socks toe-up and used the same needle for the whole sock. I found the pattern to be incredibly stretchy--almost too stretchy. I knit the socks to my preferred length where the leg portion is equal to the foot portion when you fold the sock in half. This pattern is better suited to being a knee sock or something higher. The stitch pattern has a tendency to slouch. I don't mind it though because that emphasizes the yarn over sections and I like that texture.

Up next, socks in a pattern that I'm made up with slipped stitches. I like the effect slipped stitches has on variegated yarn.