Walking the Yellow Brick Road

They're squishy and soft and hug my feet and now they're both off the needles and finished in plenty of time for the next kit's arrival!

Pattern: Yellow Brick Road by Jane Robbins
Yarn: Yarn Daze Yucatan - Yellow Brick Road
Needles: US 1 - 2.25 mm
Completed:  July 4, 2010

Despite being listed as a DK weight yarn, it behaved more like a fingering weight and worked beautifully with the size 1 needles into a cushy fabric.  And once again I didn't quite follow the pattern recommendations and I went with a smaller needle. 


This is where knitting a fair number of socks seems to have paid off -- when the pattern recommendations aren't based on specific measurements (and this one specified needle size based on foot length/shoe size, which doesn't really seem like a good idea) I can fall back on past experience to help me choose a size I think will work best.  This pattern called for casting on 66 stitches, and I know from the Cowardly Lion socks that even with extra stitches a plain stockinette leg on size 1 needles can still be a bit loose on me.  And really, even though my foot is longer it doesn't mean that my ankles are large or that my feet are wide, so I went with the smaller needle size and ended up with socks that fit nice and snug and shouldn't slouch too much once they relax with wear.

And while I'm on the topic of relaxation, I should mention that my knitting apparently needed some.  You might notice some evidence of "ladders" for the stitches at the edges of the DPNs.  I suddenly had trouble with that both on my Froot Loop socks and with these, and no amount of intentional fiddling or adjustment on my part seemed to fix it.  Then I noticed the ladders had magically disappeared on my current rows when I was finishing the last sock at the end of a week long vacation.  It seems that some daily stress had crept into my knitting time and I needed some time away to work it out!  So here's to hoping I can keep the ladders at bay for a good long while now.