Sock Stories

I admit that I’m not in love with socks. Yes, I have made several pairs and I enjoy wearing them and giving them away. I also went to Sock Summit and plan to attend this year, but for me, it’s more about the friendship and the marketplace.

There can be long stretches between sock projects while I’m working on more interesting projects. That is why I always end up sprawled on the floor consulting sock books and YouTube for instructions (yet again!) for some of the more unusual cast-ons and bind-offs. That’s why I’m thrilled to get 2 pairs of socks off the needles today: Bavarian Cable by Wendy Johnson and Simple Stripes Fair Isle Socks by Kathleen Taylor. I’m on a roll!

With the Bavarian Cable socks, I used a different bind-off for each sock. The one on the left was bound off quite a while ago and I don”t remember which bind off I used. Honestly! Isn’t that what my Ravelry project page is for? Well, I’m pretty sure it was the Russian bind off. I used Jeni’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off (JSSBO) for the second one on the right and then took the opportunity to compare the results. Interesting.

I stretched them to see if I could detect a difference in stretch capacity and, honestly, I couldn’t.

Off the feet, I definitely prefer the look of JSSBO, but once stretched out, I think the Russian has a neater look. For a nice comparison of stretchy bind-offs, check out this comparison by Stitch Diva.

The other pair, Simply Stripes Fair Isle, was fun to knit and I just love the way the patterns look against the black background.

But, gee minetti, there I was again getting hung up on the Kitchener stitch even though I’ve done it a number of times. It’s hard to explain why techniques can be easy one time and so elusive the next. In this case, maybe it was the combination of black yarn, tension and late evenings. Today, the lord (Lord Kitchener, that is) was a kind master.

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