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[melannen]

I have Knitted A Sock! It's the "basic sock" pattern out of Folk Socks. It only took five and a half years!

I am actually feeling much prouder of the accomplishment than I expected. And, unexpectedly, it even fits! My left foot is warm. Unfortunately I made it out of some strange yarn I bought at a thrift store that's no longer in business, and there's not quite enough in the same color to do a second sock (there's some almost-the-same-color of the same yarn, though.)

And I still haven't figured out the SSK decrease, but, eh, it feels fine, it just doesn't quite look right. :P

And now I don't have any unfinished knitting or crochet projects kicking around and I'm at loose ends.

Poll #21608

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 72

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What should I do?

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Um, knit the other sock out of the pair (even if you will have to use a slightly different yarn color)
53 (73.6%)

Start one of the 19th century patterns out of the book, to wear for cosplay, which was the original plan once you had leveled up Knitter of Socks five years ago.
14 (19.4%)

Start one of the non-sock knitting projects you've been saying you will once sock was done, like that Icelandic sweater you bought all that lopi for.
14 (19.4%)

Good now finish up all your unfinished sewing/embroidery/quilting/naalbinding/spinning/weaving/mending/electronics repair/painting projects before you start something new.
12 (16.7%)

Ticky.
23 (31.9%)

Comments

[melannen]

Yep, that's exactly what all the books say too! But I don't have a twist in the yarn at that point so it doesn't do anything. I was mostly worried on the sock that it would be the wrong kind of lumpy, but I think, based on the way my sock pattern was using them, that ssk/k2tog are inverses, such that if you do one at one end of a row, and one at the other, your result will be symmetrical? So I have a very slightly non-symmetrical toe and it's fine. Unfortunately some of the fancier historical patterns in my Folk Socks book actually use the increases/descreases as part of the pattern, so if I want to keep going in the book, I should probably figure it out. If I decide to do it right I may just end up doing a sampler with all the increases/decreases in the book and messing around until I manage to get something that looks right for each one, which is pretty much the only way I learn motor skills anyway.

[stellar_dust]

I think a sampler is probably a good idea!

But I suspect that even when it's part of the pattern, the fact of the decrease is more important that what it looks like.

[melannen]

For a lot of stockings with knitted "clocks", the heel shaping is the pattern, and the way you do different increases/decreases is part of what makes it fancy clocks rather than a shaped heel. But I think they're using fancier decreases than ssk for those, too. And some of the Scandinavian colorwork socks work hidden decreases into the color pattern (like in a sweater yoke, but more confusing) although I think those mostly just use k2tog.

[stellar_dust]

I just googled clock socks and have ended up in a world where the Boring Dad Stuff Forum from Homestuck is a real thing.

IDK what just happened but i think it's time for bed.

[melannen]

yes good.

I think you get better results if you google clocks stockings, but most of the results seem to be for fancy embroidered ones rather than knitted-in (it's the same idea though, the embroidery disguises the heel shaping.)