Eh

I hadn't really looked at the Broadripple pattern when I thought it would be good for the Socks That Rock. Turns out, the pattern calls for a 56-stitch cast on with size 3 needles (and stretchy cotton Cascade Fixation). That's not really what I was looking for. I was happy with the way the yarn felt on size 1's with a 68-stitch cast on. I tried it, secretly hoping it would pool. The yarn and the needles weren't getting along, the garter ripple cuff looked crappy, and the stripes came out perfectly. It does look a little too big, but I can't be sure yet. I don't know if I want to keep it in this pattern, but I think I don't. There is a 72-stitch cast on version available from the author, apparently, but I'm not sure I want to bother. Plus, I found someone who tried it with my exact yarn and it pooled big time. See the plain column of four knit stitches down the center? That's the part that bugs me in nearly every striped Broadripple I look at. Can't really explain it. It's like I want there to be a point there instead of it being flat. And that makes me think I should consider another pair of Jaywalkers. I wore my one pair the other day and they are fantastic looking, but they just don't stay up as well as other socks because they're so inflexible. All this boils down to a big fat I don't know what to do.

Extreme knitting is right!

I am guilty of sometimes reading only the patterns at Knitty, but in this most recent issue I read about knitting two socks at once. And I've decided that I could do it if I wanted to (I did knit a reversible double-knit hat for my mother), but I don't think I'll ever want to. It is crazy. I don't usually have a problem making a second sock, and I either don't care if they match exactly or manage to match them up pretty well separately. The progress when you're double knitting is slow, and I like to see as fast as possible how a new yarn or pattern is knitting up. When I knit the hat I used two different colors, but socks would use the same color, and that would make it very easy to confuse the two strands, which would just lead to unnecessary frustration. The article also mentions that guage loosens a bit when double knitting, and going down a needle size might be necessary. I already knit a lot of socks on size 1's and I don't own any 0's, and I don't think I want to. So it's been interesting to see what people can come up with, but I think I'll stick to one sock at a time for now.