What Is The Difference???

... between a sock cuff that took me over a week to complete and an almost identical cuff that I finished this afternoon? Answer: 1 Formula One British Grand race & 1 Indy Car Watkins Glen race plus a half hour or so of news. Presenting Summer of Socks 08 pair #1:


What you can't really tell from either of these photos is that the leg ribbing is a K3, P2 pattern that shifts one stitch every fourth row. Sounds simple - at least it did when I dreamed it up - but I found when trying to do it while reading, which is my usual knitting style, I was making too many mistakes and it was difficult to keep track while working within the black stripes of the yarn. Therefore, the first sock which was cast on at 12:01 on June 21st seemed to take forever once I got past the heel turn & the gussets. Today with two races to watch, I decided to hide the latest book and concentrate on the sock first & the races second. Next thing I knew, I was heading toward the finish line - ah, I mean bind-off. {g}


The ribbing on the right & left socks spiral in different directions so that they're mirror images. The yarn is On-Line & the sock pattern a version of the toe-up design I came up with earlier this year with the only difference being the ribbing on the leg. I used size 2 Harmony double points after starting the toe with two circulars to obtain a provisional cast-on. This is the same yarn that I attempted to knit on size 1 needles only to find that with that size I get a gauge of 11 stitches to the inch instead of the 8 stitches with size 2 needles. I'll try to get a better photo of the ribbing soon. Right now, I'm going to pick out the skeins of Vinca I want to use for SOS pair #2.