Note: I wrote this post on 5/16/07, but my blogging software or server or something is giving me fits. Let’s see if I can get it posted today.

So, this morning I woke up at 5:55, thinking about the socks I started yesterday. This in spite of the fact that I was up until after midnight last night. Sigh.  Anyway, I woke up thinking about the socks. And the fact that I continued to knit on them in aparent denial after trying them on twice and finding them too big both times. You see, even knitting love is blind. I am enjoying the yarn so much, and I love the stitch pattern. The problem is that the stitch pattern is an 11-stitch repeat. When I make myself socks using fingering weight yarn, I typically cast on 72 sts. 11 doesn’t fit into 72 evenly. 66 would be way too few, so I went with 77. The stitch pattern looks great in the yarn. See?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the way the stripes interact with the cables and lace. But, look at this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See? Obviously I’m pulling on it a bit, but you can still see that it’s just too big. But, I continued. I convinced myself that they would shrink a bit in the wash and will fit perfectly. 

A few hours of sleep can do wonders for common sense. When I woke up this morning, I was thinking more clearly. There was no way 77 sts in a cotton blend yarn and lacy pattern would shrink enough to actually fit the way I like socks to fit. So, laying in bed at 5:55 am, I started doing some mental math. 
11 stitch repeat
7 repeats per round

Each repeat contains a 4-stitch cable.

What if we changed that cable to a 2-stitch twist?
Aha! Suddenly, we have a 9-stitch repeat.
9 x 8 = 72!
Now, let’s try it out…..but I’ll wait until after I get Victoria off to school. The alarm won’t go off until 7:00. After all the math and brain work, I still had a good 30 minutes of sleep I could catch.  But, no. My brain was awake already and my fingers were itching to get to the yarn and needles.

At 6:35 I gave in, hauled my butt out of bed and went downstairs to start another sock. I finished half of the toe before I had to awaken Victoria. Finished the other half later in the morning when I should have been working. Then, I worked on the lace pattern off and on throughout the day and here we go:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much better, no? I still prefer the look of the 4-stitch cable, but the right twist is a tolerable solution. And they fit sooo much better.

 

PS: The yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Stretch.