1st Sock Exchange

My closest friend and fellow crafter decided to do a sock exchange. I had never done one before, had tons of sock yarn, and hadn't knit a pair of socks in awhile. What the heck, I thought!



We chose the Lindsay Sock pattern from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book. I love the finished product, but true to what I had read about her book, the pattern was written very poorly. If you're thinking of knitting these socks, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. The "set-up round" is knit once. But the pattern does not mention to then start with round 2 for the first pattern repeat. That is the only way I could get the pattern to work. Most set-up rounds I've knit in the past, is just that... a set-up to the pattern. So, I kept knitting the set-up round once, like stated, and then going to round 1 of the pattern. I had to start over a few times before realizing that the yo's in round 1 would leave you with enough stitches to have a whole other repeat. Thus, huge socks.

2. The 6-stitch ribbing is not included in the chart, or mentioned. Only a k2, p2 and then another p2 at the end of the round. A quick note about those stitches being the ribbing would have helped.

3. The ssskp is not a commonly known decrease. Slip, Slip, slip, knit, pass slipped stitcheS over knit stitch. Why not put a description in there. Or, what's wrong with a ssssk? Most of us know a ssk, so an ssssk would have been fine, no? Which is what I ended up doing. I think it looks fine.

4. And the only way to get through this pattern with any sanity in tact is to knit round 6's knit stitches very loosely. So, in row 7 you can do the k4tog and ssskp (ssssk) with relative ease. Otherwise, a crochet hook is in order, or a lot of cursing and hand cramping. I'm a fan of neither while knitting.

So just a quick note to editors of knitting books and patterns out there: more information is generally more helpful.