Holiday Socks Part Two — Hey Porkchop!

Hey!

It's Holiday Socks Part Two Day!

Ok, so you know how sometimes you jump head first into a project? In your mind you know the exact yarn. The exact pattern. The exact needles. The exact project bag.

And you start and you realize...you've got it all wrong?

Uh, that would be me and these socks!

I went into it thinking monkey socks! for Christmas! size two needles!

WRONG!

I am a complete goober. This yarn is called Socks That Rock MEDIUMWEIGHT in Holiday Inn.

The key thing being mediumweight. It's essentially (in my humble, not knowing a ton about yarn opinion!) sport weight yarn.

I happily cast on my stitches using a size 2 needle, knit my toe and began my monkey sock. And I got two pattern repeats in and sort of looked at my sock like "huh...that looks...wide?!" So I tried it on and it was BIG. Like, I could pinch an inch of extra fabric.

So I pulled it out and start over again using 1.5 needles. The same thing.

This went on and on for two days. Yeah. Two days.

Why at this point did it not occur to me to cast on fewer stitches on larger needles, is beyond me. I was still thinking monkey socks, 64 stitches. I had it so firmly cemented into my brain.

I ended up with 64 stitches on a size one. It's fabric isn't drape-y but it isn't stiff as a board either which is good! But purling hurt my hand so they are just plain vanilla socks. In reality, I should have gone up a needle size and knit a cute sport weight pattern, like with less stitches. But it's fine and fits nice!

A few of you wanted to know how the Fish Lips Kiss Heel fits, good question!

It fits GREAT!

I have a favorite heel, the Gusset! It's very easy and fits my foot perfectly. Short row heels frustrate me, I can't always knit them as neat as I'd like too and sometimes I can feel my grafting stitches in an afterthought heel when I walk. Gusset is my favorite.

HOWEVER!

Fish Lips Kiss could be my new favorite. Yeah! I know. Weird right?

PROS:

it cups your heel nicely
no wraps
no increases on the back needle which can be tedious
you can use it with striped yarn
easy as pie once you get the two stitches down
watched the knit girllls mention it and say they liked it, I like them, therefore, I tried it. Haha!

CONS:

I found myself having to watch the videos over & over to learn the new stitches for the first time but you know, it was my first time!
I can't think of another one!

In my photos above you can see how the heel fits, you don't feel the seam while walking around. I wore my striped socks with a pair of boots that have a narrow heel and it didn't rub or get uncomfortable. It's interesting to knit because you see the crease when the sock is off the foot but when it's on, it's very smooth and doesn't add any extra bulk.

So above: Pheasant Socks with a Gusset Heel on the left, Holiday Inn with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel on the right.

The only thing I'd change is I wish the yarn was pooling like how the toe and heel look. Chop thinks the yarn in the ball looks like an ugly sweater. Haha!

My next holiday sock post will maybe have one finished sock. MAYBE. Hopefully.

;)