Very Interesting...

The urge to knit socks hit me last week. Do you think it is because I surround myself with sock pattern books and never finish two matching socks? Nay! Last week I came across Ann Budd's Flame Wave Socks (Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave). The pattern was nice and I really wanted to try out my Cascade Fixation sock yarn. It is stretchy AND cotton! What could be better?

Everything started off fine. The pattern was simple. I had the yarn. I had the needles. I jumped right in. The thing is...I am not a fan of checking for gauge. I find it tedious. Okay, I also make a lot of scarves (gauge rarely matters) and hats (I have a basic idea of how many stitches I need for my head), so rarely have I truly needed to find gauge. ANYWAY, I start knitting these socks on size 5 DPNS. This just didn't seem right. I told myself that this was fine, because I was going to go down to size 4 after just a few inches of the leg. "I've been running, so my new muscular calves are going to need the extra room," is what I told myself. After about an inch at size 4, I realized this just wasn't working. The sock just slides onto my leg. The stretch of Cascade Fixation was not being used at all.

At this point I started doing a little more investigation into this pattern. According to Ravelry.com, tons of knitters used size 3 for the entire sock, because Ann Budd is a very tight knitter. With all of this information, I designed a new game plan. I started a new sock on size 3 needles. I decided I could compare the two socks. Well, that, in short, was depressing. There was a negligible difference between the two. At this point, I feel I need to work on the size 3 a bit more just in case the sock will tighten up a bit (I barely made a dent in the pattern). I am a bit worried that with the smaller needle size, I am going to need more yarn, which I don't have.

What's a knitter to do? Oh yeah, I think I should look at Knitting on the Road and find a new pattern and dig out some new yarn...