I started a pair of socks that I mentioned in my last real post for my friend Lily, in Canada. I picked the Hedera socks from Knitty, and I am loving knitting them. As I mentioned, I am just having a blast with the actual knitting of the pattern. I’m using Fortissima sock yarn in a dark blue-gray color, and I just love the lace.

You knew there was a “but” coming from the title of the post didn’t you? I have size 7 feet, and they are narrow. Not really narrow, but relatively so. I have a really high arch, but other than that my feet are pretty average. Lily wears (according to her husband, since she was being difficult and didn’t want to provide me with any info) a size 9-10 shoe, and she is a good six inches taller than I am. Well. The problem is that this sock barely makes into onto my foot. Once I get it on, it’s fine — but getting it on is a hassle. I made the large size, but it still feels pretty tight around my foot. So I was already a little worried about it. Then I made a stupid mistake on one of the lace repeats that I didn’t notice until two repeats later. Not to mention that when I put them on and really looked at them, I decided that the leg was a little bit short — even on me.

Bah.

When I really, really think about it, though — maybe a lace sock wasn’t the best choice anyway. I think probably a textured sock would be better for Lily — I think I picked the lace for selfish reasons (and it makes me a little ashamed to admit it). So rather than continue in the charade that these socks were a good choice for Lily, and working out well, I decided that I was working on my first pair of socks for me, and I will come up with something better (more suited and better executed) for Lily.

So. I have one complete Hedera sock. For me. And that frustrates me (even though it seems like it should be something to celebrate!).

Contortionist modeled shot!

Close up where you can see both my mistake in the lace pattern and my electric blue toenail polish!

The first time around, I tried to do the heel as written, but it really really didn’t work for me. I could not keep my edge stitches tight on one side, so that side grew quite a bit larger than the other side. After the second try, without seeing an obvious solution, I decided to try the sock with just a plain knit heel flap, and I was quite happy with how it turned out — it fits my foot very well. I do have a pretty significant hole where I picked up stitches for the gusset on one side, but I’m choosing not to obsess about that. It doesn’t look horrid, since the pattern has holes in it anyway. I’m trying VERY hard to let go of a few (not many, but a few) of my perfectionist tendencies.

I feel like this sock flat-out FLEW off my needles, and I’m very pleased with that. If I can decide on a pattern and get yarn for Lily’s socks before I finish the second of these, then I will abandon Hedera in favor of doing Lily’s — but if the second sock is completed anywhere near as quickly as the first was, I don’t think that will be an issue.

In other knitting news, I am still plugging away on Mother’s bag a few rows at a time (How can I knit SO much and see SO little progress? Talk about frustrating!) and I also started a pair of Fetching handwarmers for a different friend in Canada. They are fun, and talk about a quick knit! I’m using leftover yarn from Rogue (Kathmandu Aran), and I just love this yarn so it’s really a pleasure to knit these. (I will probably make a pair for myself as well once I’m done with these.) Photos coming soon!