That's right! No needles!!
After finally getting both socks on the set of circs, I merrily knit away at the sock foot until it was time to start the heel. Even when knitting two socks simultaneously, when you get to the heels you have to stop and do one at a time. So I began the first sock heel two nights ago.
I'm not going to bore you with the gory details, other than to say that I was having a bad night. The end result was that at one point I had this huge gap between a couple of stitches - huge enough that had I continued knitting, it would have looked like a big hole in the sock at that point. I couldn't figure out what caused it, and very unwisely in my not-so-great frame of mind, I was convinced I'd dropped a stitch somewhere, so I decided to fix that by dropping a couple of stitches off the needle, let them unknit themselves, and chain them back up, thinking somehow this would solve the problem.
Nope. Not even a little bit. Instead I ended up with about an inch-wide section on one side of my sock unraveled several inches back, and all my attempts to chain them back up just left me with large loops of yarn that didn't seem to go anywhere.
I knew I'd blown it, and that it was beyond my ability to fix at that point.
It's possible that had I had the wherewithal to simply put the sock down, go to bed, and worry about it the next day, I might have been able to fix it. But for some reason my OCD was running high that night, and I couldn't leave them alone. So my 'solution' was to take that sock completely off the needles and unravel it beyond the mistake - a couple of inches of knitting.
After I did that, I decided it was time for bed. Nice way to leave things 'fixed.'
So. Last night I decided I was simply going to finish the socks one at a time, like in the 'olden days,' so I wouldn't screw them up anymore. I took up the sock that was still on the needles, and knitted it's heel last night. I completed the heel, and then laid the sock down to admire my work.
And noticed that the sock looked really too long. I checked my measurements.
The sock was over an inch longer than the measurement of the intended foot. It was too long. I'm lucky I noticed this at all, because I'm not so astute that one inch would usually jump out at me screaming, "this is too much!" But these socks already looked consistently funny to me anyway, because they're for a recipient who has much larger feet than me - about a size 9 1/2 compared to my size 6. But somehow, and very fortunately, looking at the overall length after the heel was done triggered some thought in my head to double check, because they just didn't look right.
I went scrabbling back through my notes, and realized I'd made a math mistake when calculating when to start the heel. Yep. The sock was too long.
I know socks are forgiving and all that. But one of the joys of hand knit socks is how well they custom-fit a foot, and how comfortable that is - and this is one of the things I bragged to my family about, which inspired them to be willing to accept hand-knit socks for Christmas this year. Being a little off here or there isn't going to hurt, especially if I was off in the 'too small' direction, as this mostly merino yarn is so stretchy. But having the sock over an inch longer than the receipient's foot isn't going to work, no way, no how.
More ripping back. I figured out specifically where I should have started the heel, took the sock off the needle, ripped back to that point, and put it back on. By that point I was tired and frustrated, and put them away for the night. I'm just ready to re-start the heel today.
Two nights of utterly wasted knitting time. The only good (?) thing about all this is now that I've discovered the socks were too long anyway, ripping the first sock back probably wasn't such a disaster, as it was going to have to be done anyway. I don't know how close I stopped to where it actually needs to be, but I don't even want to touch that one until I get this one finally, completely, and correctly finished.
Oy. But, there is one other piece of encouraging news. Since the recipient family in question has decided to stop by Christmas Day, I no longer have to have these socks (and the next unstarted pair) done by, oh, Tuesday or so. I have clear till Christmas morning to finish them. And at this rate, it'll take all that.
I haven't given up on socks yet, I don't know what made this particular pair so trying. But I will say that I'm no longer terribly keen on the two socks on two circs method. That is in part, I believe, what caused my problem with the first heel (although I admit it's not what caused my bad math). When I got to working on the one heel, it was like back at the beginning again, where I found it very 'fiddly' and difficult to work with, that other sock constantly being in my way and weighing down my needles. It made working that heel very difficult, to me anyway. And that's what I think caused the problem that ultimately made me think the only way to fix it was take it off the needles and rip it back several inches. I'm sure that would have never happened had I been only working on one sock.
Comparing one sock at a time to two socks at a time, I think things will actually go faster for me doing one at a time. There isn't so much fiddling around every time I reach the end of a sock row (which is only 30-some stitches, so it goes pretty quick). Sliding needles around twice as often, untangling two balls of yarn ... after having tried it, I think that for me, this method was just a bit too messy to be truly enjoyable. When working one sock at a time, I can sail through it - in fact, I knit fully half a sock from the very beginning on Thanksgiving Day, so I know how fast it can go.
Sure, I have a second one to make afterwards, so I'm not saying I can knit an entire pair more quickly doing them individually. But the process itself seems to proceed more easily and smoothly.
I'm not knocking it entirely. I still think it would be way cool to finish both socks at once. But everyone has their quirks. I never even tried knitting with dpns because I could just tell by looking at pictures of the process that I'd have stitches falling off the needles everywhere. All the tricks I read to avoid that seemed, to me, just too fussy and time-consuming, especially when with a method as simple as two circs, you don't need to worry about it.
But I've read in the blogs of knitters who are far more accomplished than I am, that they much preferred dpns, and couldn't stand two circs because they found that method too fussy, with those needle ends dangling down in the way.
So it's very much a personal choice and one's comfort level with messing and fussing. To me, I think, one at a time is going to be the happy medium.
That's not to say I'll never try this method again, just to see if getting a little more used to it might make it less stressful. But I won't be trying it again until I am knitting socks for myself, and with no deadline. Not a good time to work out a new technique, I think.
In other news, the Dread Reverend's band, Tara's Fire, had their first gig last night, and although I couldn't make it, my very short 3:00 a.m. debriefing was that it went extremely well. Woo-hoo!!! I'm glad, and sorry I missed it. (I know no more than that, because the band member in question is still asleep). But I did get a couple of pre-show pictures, of two of them anyway. The third one wasn't here to have his picture taken. Hopefully next show I'll be able to go.
Tara's Fire drummer, John:
The Dread Reverend: guitar, vocals, occasional bodhran, and general banter: (and yes, I did knit that scarf!)
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