These Are Going To Be So Cool: Tartan Argyles

I spent some time over the long weekend making charts.

I made a chart for my Tartan Argyle socks and I made a chart for some Polka Dot socks and I made a chart of the colors and amounts of yarn needed for the Landscape socks.

Despite all this charting, I made good progress on the Talking to Socks. I finished the first one, using a sewn bind off. And worked the second one through the heel turn and into the leg.

Aye, Lassie
You might remember, after the success of making the Pirate Arrrgyles, I was filled with a desire to make socks based on my (married) clan tartan.

My original plan was to do yellow socks with black diamonds and red diagonals. But after I finished the Pirate Arrrgyles and had an idea of how much yarn would be used, I decided to do red and black diamonds as I wasn't sure if I would have enough yellow, or something.

In a moment of panic last week I bought another skein of yellow, just to be safe.

Lesson Learned
The Pirate Arrrygles were based on a 56 stitch sock and the fit is good, but I don't like the way the stitches spread open. And I'm also displeased that the diagonals don't cross on the same rows were the diamonds come together. Of course, the last chart I made for them was my third attempt and I just wanted to start knitting already. I was determined not to make the same mistakes with the Tartan Argyles.

Chart This
To that end, the Tartan Argyles are based on 60 st. I arrived at that number in an arbitrary fashion. It was easy to divide up into even diamonds and for the heel flap. But I think the fit should still be ok.

I started out by finding the center of the sock, coloring those two squares on the first row black, and building the diamond from there.

In looking at other patterns and sites, I saw the widest point of the diamonds are usually half the number of the total stitches for the sock. So the center diamonds (the black and red ones down the front of the foot) start with two sts and are 30 sts across at their widest point, but the yellow ones are only 28 sts. Since the black & red ones are two rows deep at 30 sts they come together in a four stitch square and there isn't room for the yellow.

As I was charting, I realized the diamonds have to be as tall as there are wide, so they are 30 rows as well.

After I colored all the diamonds in, I found the center of the diamonds, colored the four stitches were the diagonals cross, and colored in the diagonals out from there. They all cross very nicely were and when they should. As it turned out, the diagonals both touch with two stitches on the first row.

(Actually, if I remember correctly, I colored in the first black diamond, but it wasn't 30 rows tall. Then I jumped straight to the diagonal, quickly realized it wouldn't cross correctly, and that is was helped me realize my diamonds weren't tall enough. They didn't have a good center.)

Because I can't do things the easy way, my diagonals are two colors—red on the black diamonds and black on the red diamonds.

As I said, these are going to be so cool. I want to drop everything and start them, but the time isn't right at the moment.

I hope all this information helps if you landed here because you were searching for how to make an argyle chart. I know when I did my Pirate Arrrgyles I was very frustrated because I saw people's charts, but not really directions on how to make my own. The charts I was finding weren't at the gauge or stitch count I needed for my little feet, so I had to wing it, and was too impatient to figure this stuff out the first time.

Speaking of Pointy

You thought the other toe was pointy?

Well, I don't know what happened to this one, but it seems pointer to me.

I swear I worked it the same, increasing every other row, but it doesn't look the same.

Although, when I was working the other toe, I did think I fell off somehow, but then it worked out even in the end, so I didn't try to find the error. Maybe I imagined it.

As you can see, I'm in the midst of working the short row heel. Told you this one would fly along. A three-day weekend helped as well.

In case you're wondering, when I'm working short rows, I like to put a stitch marker after each wrapped stitch to keep track of where I am. That way I don't have to struggle to identify them visually. I can just count markers.

Of course, this makes things a bit funky when I working back out. I remove the marker for the stitch I work, but keep it in place for the next stitch in line with second wrap. Hey, it works for me.

Ok, I think that's enough of a knitting break for now, back to it. I don't like to let short rows sit for too long, as there is still the potential for loosing my place.

Hope you've had a lovely long weekend—if you're in the States.

Fit Accomplished

Still no pictures.

A girl can only do so much.

I'm a row away from starting the ribbing on the first Talking to Socks, so I've been making progress behind your back. ha!

Anyway. The Guy in the Art Department is back in the office today after some excessive business travel. As soon as I spotted him wandering the cubes I transferred the sock off the needles and onto scrap yarn. Then I cornered him and made him try it on.

He says the fit is fine. He did not seem the least bit concerned about the shape/pointiness of the toe. ;-)

He thought the sock was lovely and soft too. Then The Woman in the Art Department had to come over and check it out, "Can I touch it?" hehehe, non-knitters are so cute. She was amazed it wasn't itchy at all.

Now I've pulled out the lifeline I had at the heel in case the foot was the wrong length and I can knit with confidence.

This also means the second sock should fly along as I've got all the target numbers established and won't be dithering over the size/length at all.

I said I should have it done before I leave for my trip to France, which is toward the end of the month. That should be plenty of time for one little ol' sock.

Lame

I've got nothing.

The Talking to Socks is continuing to grow.

However, as it's just plain stockinette stitch, there is nothing to report there.
The recipient is out of town, so I can't get him to try it on. I was considering getting Hubby to try it on, for a ballpark fit, but then Hubby might try to claim it and that would be bad.

I've decided to just roll with it and knit it anyway. If the foot is to small, what the heck, it's just a sock, I can rip back and re-do it.

The alternatives would be

• Stopping the first sock and starting the second sock. But my other size ones are tied up in a stealth project.
• Casting on for another project. But I'm kind of liking the project monogamy at the moment.

So I leave you with...nothing. Of course, I could have also not blogged today, and saved us all the time, but I was worried you'd miss me.