Struggling with Poppies

It's not certain that the Poppy Fields socks will be completed before the next Woolgirl Oz Club kit arrives.  These socks have been a struggle for me, which means I'm not always in the mood to pick them up when I have knitting time.  It also means I can't take them with me to knit when I'm traveling -- they require spreading out several pattern pages at a time, concentrating on what will go where, and in several cases so far, ripping out a good chunk and reworking something.

Size US0 needles and sport weight yarn gave me a much smaller gauge than the pattern recommended, so I had to frog the toe and start over with US 1½ - 2.5 mm.  Once my gauge was corrected I had to guess at the size based on foot length/shoe size with no given circumference, which is not my favorite (since the length of my foot doesn’t really affect how wide I want my socks).  I opted for the smaller size for a snug fit.

Poppy stems before the heel

The snug fit is good, but as you can see it makes for an interesting ridge where the stockinette toe shifts to the purl background for the pattern.

Unfortunately, once I got to the heel I discovered that the smaller size heel was entirely too snug and wasn't going to allow for a very good fit.  I could get it seated on my heel, but it didn't look like there would be enough space to get the rest of my ankle bone through once the rest of the sock was joined with it.  Since I wanted to be able to actually get the sock on my foot someday, I ripped out the finished heel and put it aside for a bit.  When I picked it back up I decided to sub in a modified version of the heel from Yarnissima's brainless socks.  Now it fits nicely and I took detailed notes as I went so that I could repeat it for the second sock, if needed.

I don't have photos of my latest progress, but I have managed to start the leg pattern and work one of the poppies.  And then it got set aside until I could sit down and figure out what other poppies or leaves should be worked and when.

This pattern and I just don't really get along.  To illustrate the point, I've even considered just making the second one in plain stockinette or a different pattern with the same yarn and calling it a pair.  I haven't gone there before.

I have the only project for the pattern on Ravelry so far, but I'm curious to see if it's just me.  Maybe everyone else will love this pattern when they get around to knitting it.  It looks like I'm going to have to wait a while to find out, and I'm really hoping that I somehow have both of my Poppy Fields socks off the needles by then whether they match or not!