Stag Horn Snow Socks

Well, after all the ranting in my last post about keeping to three progress bars and focusing on finishing current WIP’s, guess what? Glance at the side bar…Another progress bar. Pretty soon I’ll be right up there with Laura. <sigh>.

But to be fair, I’ve had these socks in mind for quite some time. I wanted snow-boot socks that were long and thick and could be worn over regular, close-to-your-skin socks, even pulled up over jeans if necessary. You know…good, heavy, woolly, Canadian-winter socks, the kind you used to be able to get at Canadian Tire, gray rag yarn with a red stripe. Of course we all love the fine, delicate coziness of the traditional sport-weight sock but this is different. These are guerilla socks.

Part of my plan for Saturday was to toddle over to Liberty Village and show Mrs. Robinson the new toe-up sock techniques I’d been fiddling with. I figured I’d demonstrate using the Malabrigo, hoping that our little demo could be the impetus for casting on the second sock. Then I thought, “No, the Malabrigo is too thin and dark…she’ll never be able to see the stitches. Better go get more yarn.” (Kiss of death.) I quickly swatched up, did the math and figured that, with the same number of stitches, 64, and using worsted weight yarn, I could knit a snow-sock fit for a king.

Off I went to Romni at 5:45 pm. I picked up a little of my new favorite, Cascade 220 in #8010, Natural. After a little nibble and some wine, we sat down and knit our toes. Tracey’s is very glam in a silvery shade of gray and I think she might actually knit a whole sock this time!

I’ve been pretty convinced that some kind of ribbing is necessary to keep a sock from sliding down inside a boot, but I read somewhere that cables can provide as much or more stretch than ribbing. When I came upon this lovely, simple stag horn cable pattern, the die was cast. I’ve completed the foot and turned the heel! Because of the worsted weight, these sock knit up very quickly. I’m expecting each sock to take a full skein of  Cascade, 220 yards, given that I want them to be pretty long. I think I’ll start a 3×1 ribbing, keeping the cable pattern, about 3″ from the top, then drop the cable and knit an inch of 1×1 to finish.

Today, however, I’m determined to put in a good solid hour on the Nordic mittens before work. Semper knitty!