'Cat' Sox

Whenever I am in a panic about anything I start something new. I looked to see when my mitten pattern, which I am now working on refining, was started - Dec. 2007. Yup, Christmas knitting seems to do this to me. It's totally counterproductive to begin something you have never done before. You have to read all the instructions carefully. I always meander down the wrong path once or twice (because the careful reading of instructions is not my strong suit) and have to frog my way back. There is the frustration of time wasted since the Christmas clock is ticking but also moments of - that's sooo cool - which make it worthwhile. So what's new?!

Does this sock look as odd to you as it does to me?

But it fits great. You can probably guess where it's from - New Pathways For Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi (http://www.catbordhi.com/NP1.html). She has videos on this site too. This is the Ridgeline Sock Architecture with the gusset stitches sitting on the top of the instep.

That's the instep where you can see there are 3 YO's worked in the centre pattern and 1 decrease (which you may not be able to see in the middle there) so that gives an increase of 2 stitches every 3 rows. (I know I didn't use the best wool to show off the pattern but I'm trying to use up sports weight wool from my sock stash.)

These socks are done toe-up with a really interesting heel. After working all the instep increases you begin the heel by working half of a short row heel. You do the short rows with wraps working one less stitch until you have the required number of wraps along the sides and the plain knit stitches in the centre of the heel. This is the departure, you then knit to the end of the heel stitches working all the wraps and purl back across all the heel stitches working all the wraps on the far side of the heel. If you've done a short row heel, this is the first half of the short row heel.

And then to throw you a curve, you work back and forth across the heel stitches using the heel stitch (Right side:*Slip 1, K1*. Wrong side: Slip1, purl back.) and attach to the side of the sock the same as you do in a standard sock at the bottom of the heel except here it's at the back. OK got that? Here we have a combination of half a short row heel and the standard turning of a heel except it's somewhere different. Cool eh? Worth the time it took me to do these even though I am now dreadfully behind on the list of Christmas knitting. I am going to do one more out of the book for sure now that I have all of this under my belt.

-Deb