Return to Vinnland

After a month of no sock mojo and weird Anglo-Sox-on dreams, I've decided to get back to some sock knitting.

When we last left our frustrated sock knitter, he wasn't able to get a Vinnland Sock, which he had poured hours of work into, over his heel.

At the time, I blamed the pattern. I had this idea that it was written in women's sizes and that I had not done the translating. But this is absolutely not so -- the pattern is clearly written in inches of circumference. I had followed my usual circumference for my foot (10") and it was still too small. What was wrong? I'm sure the more experienced of you knitters out there have guessed already.

Gauge.

I hadn't closely paid attention to the suggested needles (Size 1), because I at some point made a decision which has since become gospel -- Thou shat knit socks on needles of size 0. I read 1, and immediately thought, "Hell no, I'm knitting these on size 0." And the hubris kind of went on from there.

My apologies to the designer of this lovely pattern, Becca Compton, for thinking cranky thoughts about her pattern. It really is a great pattern. I'm just an inattentive, and somewhat stubborn knitter.

So now I'm starting over with a new attitude and knitting one size up on the chart. I think it's already looking better than it did the first time. One thing I am doing differently is using Charlene Schurch's wrapped short row method for the toe (and later the heel) rather than Becca's method of using yarn-overs (yarns-over?). I'm only doing this because I'm more familiar with it.

Wait -- could be this be another initial assumption that will later torpedo the project?

Nah. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...