Failure to Plan

I figured since I did so well on the last pair of socks, I should do another pair. So I am, but I hit a snag. I failed as so many knitters often do; to plan ahead. When I finished the last pair of socks I was so smitten with them I cast on the second pair less than five minutes after I closed the toe on the last sock. When I got to the heel I rooted around my reinforcement yarn drawer and found two cards of Schoeller Stahl's Fortissima Socka in dark brown. In my mind that would be a perfect color for my newest socks. So away I went. Here is how the first heel looks.

Because I seem to have such a problem with the ball of my socks wearing out much faster than the toe or heel of the sock, I thought I would be smart by starting my reinforcement on the foot of the sock at row 40 instead of the toe decrease. I usually have to have 70 rows from the gusset decrease to the point where I would start the toe decrease. This time I started the reinforcement at row 40 so that the complete ball of my foot would be covered. I thought I was so smart!

I wasn't sure how the dark brown would look with so much of it at the end of the sock, but I had gone too far to rip it out. The second sock was to the point I needed to do the heel so as soon as I finished this sock, I could whack out the heel and be in the home stretch to finish my July socks in July! I have gotten behind in my commitment to knit twelve pair of socks for the year. I am still one pair down on the count but maybe in August I can catch up!

Here is the first finished sock. I thought it turned out well after the adjustments that I made. I have ever expanding calves so my total stitch requirement for the cuff is expanding also. Tidal Wave calls for 64 stitches and I changed that to 72. After I finished the ribbing I decrease two stitches per needle as evenly as I could and then started the body of the sock. I tried the sock on and it seems to be much better for not stretching the cuff to within an inch of it's life. So now I know that I can make this adjustment and I am feeling confident that eventually I am going to feel comfortable with changing more sock patterns to fit my Flinestone feeties.

My failure to plan my need for reinforcement thread as put a stall on my second sock. The heel is about halfway finished. I did an Internet search and found a resource for the thread and I went nuts! I ordered 14 spools so that this won't happen again for a while! So here I sit and wait for the mailman to bring me the fruits of my Internet thread spree and thinking about another pair of socks.

Sock Stats: Yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka. The colorway is Mexican Country hence my naming the socks Mexican Tidal Wave. Needles are Knit Picks #1 1/2 2.5mm.