It's rather shameful to admit how many times I ripped this toe out, while I was in New Jersey. I started with a short row toe. The first several tries were vetoed stitch patterns for the toe and sole. I also started to doubt my color choice. The brown and green, separate, are quite pretty, but together, the green starts to look a little dingy to me. I'm warming up to it a little, but I think I would have preferred more of a mint color, which would have contrasted better.
Here's the thing about a short row toe, a stockinette toe, in a single color, can be knit up the top and back down the bottom, joined in the round and look great. You can even work the toe in one color and the body in another and no one will be able to detect your knitting acrobatics, but with colorwork, one side would be offset by half a stitch, once the instep was begun.
Of course, that didn't occur to me right away.
Most other toe up constructions either require some foundation rows that are a bit fiddly for color work, or require circular needles, of which I had none small enough for this purpose. After a few fits and stops, I decided to just do a provisional cast on and graft the toe shut. It produces one small line of solid brown, but I rather like it.
The final toe turned out a touch longer and pointier than I normally like, but I was feeling a bit stubborn and decided I wanted to proceed.
I knit quite a bit of the instep on my flight home.
Flying westward during sunset means an hours long light show. Pictures don't do it justice.
My next challenge will be deciding how I want the gusset to look. I'm going to try doing it in the same check pattern, but I'll have to play around a bit to see if I like the look.
When the gusset is done and the heel turned, I'll stop working the check pattern and begin working three repeats of the chart, all the way around the sock.
Comments (10)
I kind of like the colors, now that I see them together. Most of my socks aren't colorwork, so the toe I use wouldn't work in your case. I think the toe will look much different on the foot than off. Love the pattern!
Posted by Kate | November 6, 2007 8:05 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 08:05
It's beautiful! I agree, I think the toe will work great on an actual foot. I can't wait to see how it progresses!
Posted by Carrie | November 6, 2007 8:09 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 08:09
I must have missed it when you said you were using the pattern on socks! The colors and the pattern look great!
Do you prefer toe up sock knitting?
Posted by Fredda | November 6, 2007 9:05 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 09:05
I love that color combo! It reminds me of the rich greens of summer combined with the dark browns of fertile soil! I can't even imagine doing colorwork on a sock. The only colorwork I've done was for a felted bag, and it's currently in time-out.
Posted by Amy in StL | November 6, 2007 9:53 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 09:53
It's a pain when you have to tinker around that much, but it looks like it was well worth the effort! Very pretty, and I like the colors better with the addition of the checked toe - not sure how that changes things, but it does. Is that the Louet Gems from Boho Baby or some other yarn?
Posted by Julia | November 6, 2007 10:07 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 10:07
You are just amazing! The sock looks even better then I thought it would! I love those colors together. :)
Posted by Ruinwen | November 6, 2007 10:13 AM
Posted on November 6, 2007 10:13
Looking quickly at the first photo, I saw the little checks against the tessellated pattern sheet and spent some time trying to figure out how you managed to get the figures so small. Then I scrolled down and it all made sense.
Posted by Bob T | November 6, 2007 7:28 PM
Posted on November 6, 2007 19:28
Oooohh... love the colours of the sock!
Can't wait to see it finished!
Posted by Ginger aka Beethoven | November 7, 2007 2:00 AM
Posted on November 7, 2007 02:00
I don't know- I love that color combo. Looks fabulous to me!
Posted by Nonnahs | November 7, 2007 5:15 PM
Posted on November 7, 2007 17:15
If you use the "increase toe" (provisionally cast on your 'non-wrapped' number and ... k, inc 1, knit to end of the 'top side' of your toe, inc 1, k1 until you get to your correct number of sts), it works out perfectly. :)
And it looks like the short row toe.
Your colors are awesome. :)
Posted by Christy | November 10, 2007 5:11 PM
Posted on November 10, 2007 17:11