Yo Adrian!

Yo, as in YO, a familiar abbreviation to knitters for yarn over.  A simple stitch really...just bring the yarn when knitting from the back of the work to the front of the work by going under the right needle and, then, back over the right needle to knit the next stitch. The result is an extra stitch.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it? I thought so too until I started the lace edging for Andrea's Shawl.



Andrea's Shawl on Ravelry



What happened? I knit the first 24 rows (that sounds like a lot but the edging is knit first in a 7-9 stitch pattern with a 4 Row repeat so it really was only a few minutes of knitting). It didn't look anything like it was supposed to look.  Why? It appears that I have been knitting YO completely wrong forever!! Instead of under and over, my yarn went over and under.  Honestly, I never noticed a problem until this pattern.  So, I hurried on over to the Knitwitch website and watched her video on yarn over.  With the correct stitch correctly on my needles, I've knit about 100 repeats of the pattern now:

I love the way the YO's (when knit correctly!!) make this lattice pattern:



With only 30 or so repeats left, I plan to start the lace portion of this shawl tonight.  Then, I'm going to go through some of the patterns that I've knit using YO incorrectly and decide if there's anything I'd like to try again soon to see how the project knits with the correct stitch!  

Oh Noes! What Did I Do to My Sock???!!!

Sunday night, I finished turning the heel on my second River Rapids Sock.  I turned the heel perfectly.  No extra stitches as sometimes happens.  Wasn't short stitiches as happens on other occasions.  It was perfect.

And, then, I compared it to the first sock.

Oh noes! The heels were not remotely the same at all.

See?

What did I do on Sock #1???

I had perfectly followed the pattern for sock number 2.

So what in the world did I do for number 1???????

River Rapids Sock #1 - Great Pattern!

Apparently, I didn't follow the pattern instructions toooooo closely.

So, what's a girl to do?  I frogged to the end of the cuff....no more perfectly turned heel, no more perfect, exactly followed the instructions heel.  Even though these socks are for me, I'd like them to be the same (as much as I am capable of doing that).

So rippppppppp.  And then I tried to guess what I did.  Well, attempt number 2 (in which I just repeated rows 1 and 2 of the heel instructions) resulted in too long a heel and the tension was all wrong.  Hmmm...what's next...well, I was fairly frustrated at this point so I frogged back to a point where the two heels are the same length.  The cuffs matched up perfectly.  So, I figure I will take Spindiva's advice and avoid clogs when I wear these socks!

By the way, I am using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport.  The colorway is Midway and it is perfect for the River Rapids Sock Pattern.  Soft and squishy and I can't wait to wear them!  I bought the yarn at Jimmy Beans Wool, another interned yarn store that I love, love, love!

Hopefully, in a few days, I will have Pics of the finished socks.  Stay tuned!