
Yay! I finally finished another pair of socks! Patterned socks seem to take me forever. I can blaze through generic ones in no time, but make me follow a pattern and I knit like a snail. This wasn't even a difficult pattern! Quite straightforward and enjoyable, it just makes me pokey for some reason.
Anyway! These are Monkey from Knitty. The pattern is written top down, so of course I had to screw with it and make it toe-up. The first thing I tried was just flipping the little chart upside down. That didn't work. I'm sure there's a way to make something that looks the same as the top-down version, but I didn't really want to work at it that hard. So the pattern on my socks is upside down.
I usually use a short-row heel, but in this case I thought the Widdershins heel (also from knitty) would work better. Short-row heels are my favorite, but at the moment the Widdershins heel is running a very close second. I've never had an issue with having to pick up extra stitches or weird holes, it's a very nice heel! And I think I finally have the math of it down so it should be pretty easy to use it whenever I want from now on.
So, starting at the toe... the pattern is 16 stitches wide, so two repeats across the top of the foot and then stockinette on the bottom. I did 3 full pattern repeats going up the foot, plus 6 rows, then started the gusset for the heel. At that point it's just a matter of keeping track of both which row of the heel you're on and which row of the pattern. The pattern page I printed out has little hash marks all over it! But it worked! Once the heel was finished I brought the pattern all the way around the leg. If I were to do this again I would send the pattern down the heel flap. I wasn't sure of my math and didn't want to have to frog back so I did a plain stockinette heel. But I'm pretty confident at this point that I have a handle on how the heel works so I should be able to do that in any future socks!
The pattern called for 6 repeats up the leg and I did that followed by 10 rows of 1x1 twisted rib and an EZ sewn bind-off. At any rate, the leg goes up higher than I usually have my socks go and the top repeat or so are a tad tight, not enough that it's going to bug me wearing them, but enough that it kind of distorts the pattern. I'm thinking either going up a needle size for that last repeat or else adding a couple stitches would fix that.
I used Lorna's Laces and loved it. It's so soft and sproingy. I had used Lorna's before (for my very first pair of socks) but I think because I had zero sock knitting experience at that point I didn't really appreciate the yarn. Now I know that I love it. And her colors are so beautiful!
And finally... heel close up!

The Stats...
Needles: Size 0
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Purple Club
Pattern: Monkey from Knitty, toe-up, Widdershins heel.
Sizing: 14/needle for the toe, up to 32/needle, 5" until heel (Widdershins)
SPI: 8 (in stockinette)
Started: 2-12-2007
Finished: 3-17-2007
Comments (5)
Test
Posted by Sunidesus | March 24, 2007 1:30 PM
I like the toeup Monkey socks. About the widdershins heel. I've been thinking about trying it but what did you think about the m1 and m1p during the heel turn (in the widdershins pattern)? What are those m1’s doing for the heel?
Posted by Jeri | April 8, 2007 3:21 PM
Thanks! Ya know, I'm not really sure what exactly those m1's do. I understand the math of them, but structurally I'm just not sure. I think they make the part right under the heel (the part you step on) slightly wider?
Posted by Sunidesus | April 9, 2007 12:14 PM
I really like al those socks you post. I have a question, not related to socks. i can't find your link for New England Knits. When I get to your site I'm stopped. Please help.
thanks
Posted by I'm busy knitting | April 22, 2007 4:31 PM
Whoops! Sorry about that, it should be fixed now. Thanks for letting me know!
Posted by Sunidesus | April 23, 2007 12:54 PM