Finished Object: Leyburn!

As I mentioned before, I took my second Leyburn sock-in-progress to an all-day training session and came home with a finished sock.

Many thanks must be sent in the direction of my friend Heather, first for being a wonderful friend for many years, second for allowing me to nibble (gently) on her little boy, previously pictured on the blog, and third for using her professional photography training to help me get photos of these socks. Now if I could only enlist her help for all future finished objects.

This pattern was wonderful to knit. I know many people prefer either toe-up or top-down; I don’t really have a preference, but enjoy doing both, actually. These are toe-up, and it’d been a while since I’d knit sock from the toe up, so this was a good change of pace. The pattern is written in an easy-to-understand way, and the quilted stitch pattern is easy to memorize and works up very quickly.

I didn’t really do too many modifications, but one of the things I did do was bind off the top of the socks with a tubular bind-off. This was the first time I’ve really cast off with this technique, and I did this on a plane for the first sock. It’s an easy cast-off method, creating a really stretchy edge, which is always a good thing when it comes to socks. I plan on doing a tutorial on tubular bind-offs in tomorrow’s post.

I used some Colinette Jitterbug in the “Salty Dog” colorway. I’ve noticed that Jitterbug is now about 350 yards in a skein, but they used to be 320 yards. You can totally make an average pair of socks with one skein of the 320-yard Jitterbug—I did it, and I have size 11 feet. It’s just helpful to wind them into two balls before you start, so you’re sure to have enough yarn for both socks.

Now to just finish up my mom’s cardigan by the 15th and I’ll be “on schedule”! I’ve joined the arms and am working on the raglan decreases, so I think I can do this.