Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Ymmmmm! Waffles. Oh, not that kind of waffles. I’m talking about a kind of waffles that have no calories and that won’t make your blood sugar shoot sky-high. These are waffles you wear.
The socks you see in the photograph are knitted in a pattern called Blueberry Waffle. I got the pattern from the Internet years ago and I’ve knit many a pair of waffle socks. It is easy to do and produces a sock with lots of stretch that fits comfortably. It is also a pattern that works well with solid colors, long color repeats, and, most importantly, short color repeats. Those short color repeats can be a knitters nightmare, what with the tendency of the colors to either pool or spiral. The waffle rib gives a nice texture that makes even socks knitted from Lorna’s Laces, which is notorious for pooling and spiraling, look decent, even though it doesn’t eliminate the sometimes unsightly pooling or the less unsightly spiraling.
The pair in the photograph are destined for cousin Vickie. Her favorite color is pink, so I know she will love them. The picture doesn’t do justice to the yarn, a luscious hand dyed Lace Wing Sock Yarn in a colorway called Raspberry Latte. The repeats are just long enough that there is no pooling or spiraling, and the yarn itself has a nice tight twist and a lovely hand. Did I mention how soft it is? Oh, it’s really, really soft. Cuddly, squishy soft.
The original Blueberry Waffle pattern was written for DK yarn, but I have made all of my waffle socks in fingering-weight yarn. The pattern is a 4-stitch repeat, so it was very simple for me to adapt it to my usual sock parameters–72 stitches on US#1/2.25mm double-pointed needles. For the Raspberry Waffle socks, I’m using the Eye-of-Partidge heel with a three-stitch garter border on the heel flap and my standard round toe.
Here’s how I do my round toe:
Start the decreases when the foot of the sock is 2.25 (2¼) inches shy of the finished length. E.g., if the length of the finished sock is going to be 10 inches, begin the toe decreases when the foot is 7.75 (7¾)inches long.
*k 7, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 6 rounds plain
*k6, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 5 rounds plain
*k5, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 4 rounds plain
*k4, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 3 rounds plain
*k3, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 2 rounds plain
*k2, k2tog, repeat from *
knit 1 rounds plain
*k1, k2tog, repeat from *
k2tog around.
Break yarn, leaving an 8-inch tail. Thread yarn into a tapestry needle and draw the yarn through the live stitches. (I go through the stitches a second time.) Take the knitting needles out of the stitches, pull the tail through the center of the toe to the wrong side, and pull to tighten the stitches and close the toe hole. Secure the tail and weave in the ends.
I like the round toe better than the wedge toe because it fits me better. Some knitters prefer it because they hate to graft (Kitchener), but I don’t mind grafting and sometimes do the round toe decreased until I have 24 stitches left, then graft the toe. YMMV.
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All Kinds Of Knitting 