Tuesday, February 13, 2007

First Conwy finished

Conwy detail

My first Conwy sock was finished this morning. I really wanted to share a picture but the temperature outside right now is 1 degree F. It's cold. Really cold. The funky winter lighting and the cold prevented me from being able to get a good photo. I'll try again later. The close up shot showing the detail on the leg came out much better. I really like the way the yarn works with this pattern. I don't think I would have liked this pattern in a totally solid colored yarn.

Here's what I think about the yarn and pattern:
Yarn - J. Knits yarn is very soft but has good memory. It produces a fabric with good stitch definition and good elasticity. The colors are very nice. The yarn could have a tighter twist and had tendency to split. There were also a few slubby areas. I was very glad I used my KP needles with this pattern and yarn - the pointy tips were definitely a necessity.

Pattern - Conwy makes a beautiful sock with twining cables all the way from the top to the bottom. The cables were easy to make once I got the hang of them and the 4 row repeat was easy to memorize. I've never done a sock with calf shaping before and I like how this sock fits. I knit it an inch shorter than the pattern called for but an inch longer than my usual sock. I wasn't sure I was doing the decreases down the back of the leg properly as the pattern only shows you how to do 3 out of 6. In the end I think I did fine because the back of the leg looks good. Again, I'm glad I was using a multi tonal yarn. As I was doing the gussets I kept the foot a bit bigger than called for in the pattern because it would have been too snug otherwise (I kept the foot at 64 stitches instead of 60 as called for in the pattern). It fits very nicely this way. I also did my own regular round toe that I always do. I just like it and don't see any need to change it.

Now I just need to get the second sock on the needles.