Now You See It......

After finally working through the vertical cast on, I was glad to get into the actual knitting part of the stockings. It took all day Saturday to figure out how to even start the toe. Sunday was going to be for knitting.

Toe the first on #2 needles: (my colorwork tends to be tight, and I like CTH on #1's usually, so I figured #2's should be right for tension)

Tension is good, but the sock is way too big. Like too big for my husband too big.


Toe the second on #0 needles: (I thought jumping down two needle sizes would work)

No such luck. It fit my husband comfortably. Unfortunately, my sister has a lot smaller feet than he does.

This was getting really frustrating! Was I too confident? Jumping into something I shouldn't be doing? Resting on the laurels of my only other colorwork sock? So, I got out said sock and before I ripped, I compared.

The Mamluke was also done on 80 sts with #1 needles. The Regia Silk I used was a bit heftier than the Cherry Tree Hill, and not nearly as tight a twist. Why, even on #0's was it still so much bigger? (and the photo isn't even with the Turkish toe really flat - it was curling a bit at the edges, so it was actually even wider!) By now, I was totally frustrated and mentally exhausted. I sat and stared at the book, at the knitting and back again. I looked at other stranded socks that I could find to see how I may be able to do these top down. I studied the pattern and tried to figure out the heel and how it came together (after that cast on and toe, how bad could it be?). I tried to lessen the stitch count in the sock, but I was worried that it wouldn't fit or go over her heel.

So, after 2 complete days of knitting on the Turkish Stockings. This is my progress.

We'll just leave it at that.