The sock it is growing. It grows slowly because I only seem to have the energy to knit every few days at the moment, but when I do knit it speeds along. This is such a fun and easy pattern, I can’t recommend it enough.

My belly is also growing, not so as strangers would notice but certainly so that my family does. I don’t remotely look pregnant, just pot bellied, which is charming considering I am still below the weight I started this cycle. Of course Isabelle, with the tact of a three yearold likes to discuss the changes to my belly with everyone she meets. Actually it’s probably just as well she keeps telling people I am pregnant because it’s completely ruling my life - no lifting, no exercise, drugs at regular intervals, meals 5 times a day (plus recovery time), the tiredness, dizzy spells from low blood pressure, etc. I feel that my behavior must seem really quite weird at times. Until Friday I had been assuming that the drugs I am on were making the morning (constant companion) sickness worse, then I found out that they are actually an anti-emetic and probably the only reason I am not vomiting all day everyday. The upside, apart from the obvious possible baby at the end, is that Jesse brings me lovely meals at regular intervals (they’re not both for me).

It was 40 degrees today, which is 104 for those of you in the US. And I put on woollen socks in the name of blogging. I must be mad.

Thank you all so very much for your kind words, I am sorry I haven’t replied personally yet, I really appreciated every one of your messages. As you can imagine the heat is not helping the state of my pregnancy symptoms. But as you can see all I needed to do to make a start on the second sock was declare I might never get there. Now that it’s started it is growing quite nicely. Not like the first one did, but hey, did I mention it’s 40 degrees here?

In the battle for my time the morning (all day) sickness is so far out in front of the second sock it’s not even in the race. Sock number one is done, in fact I finished it days ago and have been trying to take a photo of it ever since, to no avail. I did once get as far as having it on my foot with the camera out, and then our pizza arrived early…. It’s lovely but please, please remind me never to knit a picot edge sock toe up again. Toe up socks good, picot trim good, both together BAD. Grafting stitches to rows is very dull indeed.

I finished the first sock just as the all day sickness was kicking into high gear and bringing it’s friend permanently exhausted to the party. Don’t get me wrong, I am so happy to be pregnant that I will merrily be sick and exhausted for another 32-33 weeks if that’s how it’s going to be, but it’s not so good for the knitting. The idea of knitting something is vaguely appealing every now and then (when I am not concentrating on how not to vomit) but the idea of doing a provisional cast on to get started stalls me every time. Are there other methods of doing toe up socks that don’t involve a provisional cast on? Maybe I just need a smaller crochet hook and it would be easier to pick up the stitches?

I like to think that if I can just start then the sock will grow quite quickly, but honestly it could take me until Christmas to finish the second sock at this rate…

In the mean time I will try to take a photo of the first one.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. I did rip it out, rather gleefully I might add. And as I did so I wondered why I always find it so hard to decide to rip when I have such fun doing the actual ripping and really don’t mind re-knitting at all once I am doing it?

The second attempt is much better. It’s a better length. I wrapped an extra pair of stitches which I think has improved the fit in the ankle. And I did a far better job of closing the holes when joining back into the round.

I am totally in love with this toe up on circulars business.

So the sock has been growing nicely, the short row heel was fun. But I think I made it a little too soon, and I am worried that even if I rip it out and add another centimeter (or two?) before the heel that there still won’t be enough room in the ankle. It seems like it will be really snug. Is this a feature of short row heels? That they have tighter ankles than a heel flap and gusset? If so what does one do if you have a largish instep or ankle?

Does it look too small to you? I have never seen anyone wearing hand made socks so honestly I am not sure what a well fitting hand made sock looks like. How much are the stitches supposed to stretch before it is too stretched as compared to snug? And will the fit change as I knit more of the leg? Or if it seems a bit short in the foot now should I rip and add more before wasting any more time? I guess I need to go and look at everyone’s pictures of their perfectly fitting socks…

Isabelle just asked me if this was a bag. So I put it on to demonstrate it’s sockiness and it occurred to me that now was a good time for a photo. It’s Steph’s Mata Hari sock pattern, toe up. The toe up part is Wendy’s toe up sock pattern.

I joined Cara’s Jaywalker KAL and I am planning to do knit them toe up because I am worried about running out of yarn with the Koigu that is simply screaming to become Jaywalkers. I thought the Mata Hari socks might be an easier introduction to toe up sock knitting and I was right! They are so much fun. Well actually I have no idea how easy or hard the Jaywalkers will be but the Mata Hari socks are definitely a great way to learn toe up socks! I see more in my future. I am loving both the two circs and the toe up thing. It’s all good.

In other news we had our first ultrasound yesterday and there is one baby in there and it’s heart is beating. I cannot tell you how relieved and ecstatic and awed we are. Can you believe that something the size of a grain of rice can have a heartbeat? A visible heartbeat? Amazing. I had oh so hopefully taken the sock with me for a little waiting room knitting, of course I was shaking way too much to have been able to knit a stitch, but the 40 odd rows I have knit since then is a testament to how much better I am feeling! Will these socks be done before the next scan (in just under two weeks)? I think so!

Apparently knitting four baby shoes to get one pair was not enough to put me off Moss Stitch Shoes for life. One of my friends was very taken with the baby shoes and asked for a grown up pair. This was the swatch.

This is me in the car trying to make sense of the instructions I wrote over the top of the original pattern when I was guestimating how to make a slipper fit a much larger foot, in different yarn on different needles. The notes I wrote over the top of those guestimations as I actually knit the “Swatch” were not necessarily that helpful.

Never the less they sort of match. Unfortunately they are too big, though hopefully it is nothing a strap won’t fix. As long as they don’t grow in the wash that is.

Perhaps a real swatch might have been a good idea?

Pattern: It was featured on a this website, but is now gone.
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool in shade #06
Needles: Pony 12mm logs.

This scarf took about 4 hours to make and has blocked out quite nicely. It is nice and soft and will be very warm. Now I just have to start frequenting markets until I find a suitable pin to hold it in place, as it is a bit short for wrapping or tying (and would be both too hot and too bulky if it were longer).

If only my camera coped a little better with photographing this particular shade of red. Note to self buy new camera or less red yarn.

So I am too slack to show you photos of what I am knitting at the moment but I am already thinking about the next big thing. After looking at yiaAnn’s gorgeous socks this morning it struck me that Elfin might be a much better pattern for my Koigu than Jaywalker because it is toe up and I am worried about yardage. But there are issues and I need help from more experienced sock knitters.

Firstly colour wise I would prefer to use the Koigu I have for Jaywalker and something greener for Elfin (or another lace leaf patter). But we have large feet around here (my mother and I have a 9.5″ foot circumference and we are the smallest) and it makes me worry about getting enough sock out of a skein of Koigu, which makes toe up appealing. The question that is bothering me is what the circumference of a sock for a 9.5″ foot should be? Do I take off an inch and go for 8.5″ or 20% (as suggested by this knitlist sock tips page) which would be just under 8″. In which case a ladies medium sock would suddenly be the right size for our large feet?? 9.5″ seems to a really unfortunate foot circumference. All the socks I want to knit come in 8″ and 9″ sizes, until now I have been assuming 8″ would be too tight, but the Spearfish socks, which were the 9″ size, were too big (though not huge) - just as well they are not for me.

I guess the question is, how much negative ease do you think a sock needs? If I should be knitting 8.5″ socks and the patterns are all for 8″ and 9″ where do I add the extra stitches? To the sole? And how do you manage that at the heel, or when the leg is fully patterned with a one inch-ish pattern repeat? And finally, perhaps, could I knit Jaywalker toe up do you think? It seems like the pattern would look fairly similar in reverse?

I am starting to feel guilty for my lack of posting. I am still pregnant, in fact yesterday’s blood test was so impressive there is a chance there may be two in there, it remains to be seen. I am just somewhat preoccupied by the sleepiness, the queasiness and the need to catch up on all the work I didn’t do while waiting for the outcome of the cycle. I blocked the scarf, I have been knitting, I have even been taking photos of my work (though not very good ones) and I have a lot of bad pictures of pregnancy tests. Hopefully I will get organised and post something interesting in short order.