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September 18, 2008

Possibilities - the Chart

I love those Mason Dixon girls. I love their books. Their books make me wish I had only just learned how to knit, so I could experience the wonder of all those knit possibilities opening before me. But what am I saying? I've been knitting for by far the greater portion of my life, and their books still have that effect on me.

December 2006 I went to meet Ann on New Years' Eve, she was visiting London, and I was completely honoured when she invited me to come up with a pattern for the new book, published yesterday. I received my copy a week ago and have been wasting hours of valuable time, poring over the pages when I could be knitting. It has had me visiting online yarn shops, filling my virtual basket over and over again, before sternly reminding myself that I have far too many unfinished projects awaiting attention to justify any more new beginnings, and navigating away.

The Errant Socks, which you will find on page 48, were originally conceived as fraternal twins, a non-matching pair, but space limitations brought the eventual published number of errant sock possibilities down to one. But in the wonderful world of web, there are no such limitations! So here is the prodigal Chart 3. To make your Errant socks even more errant, complete Sock 1 exactly as written in the book, for Sock 2, replace the second paragraph of instructions under the Foot section thusly:

Repeat this round until the piece measures 6 and a half inches (16.5cm) less than the length of the food. Then begin working from row 1 of Chart 3 across instep stitches (all sole stitches are worked in knit only). When 24 rows of Chart 3 are complete, begin Gusset shaping.

Gusset
Round 1Work row 25 of Chart 3 across instep stitches, on sole stitches, k1, m1, knit to last stitch, m1, k1 - 2 sts increased.
Round 2Work row 26 of Chart 3 across instep stitches, knit all sole stitches.

Repeat these 2 rounds, following Chart 3 for instep stitches, until row 53 of Chart 3 has been completed - 94 sts.

Work row 54 of Chart 3 across the instep...

&c from pattern. Enjoy the mismatchiness - which is after all the nature of handknit socks; and the movement from chaos to order - the nature of knitting.

Posted by Anna at 07:39 PM | Comments (11)