I gave up on the cabled cardigan when it got too complicated to knit while watching tv and started a 2x2 ribbed sock instead. As I have 2 100g balls of the yarn (Wendy Happy) in the same colourway (I've got a couple more too), I thought I'd try a pair of knee high socks. I got to the top of the last yesterday and I'm pleased.
The yarn was a gift, one for a birthday, one from Christmas I think. It wouldn't have been my choice for sock yarn - it's bamboo (rayon) with 25% nylon. Obviously designed for socks, the self-striping pattern is probably optimised for 64 stitches, but looks ok on this (which are 72 in the foot and grow to 120 at the calf). It seemed a bit thin and not at all bouncy/stretchy, hence the decision to knit it in rib. Knitted up, it's not bad. It's cooler than wool. I can imagine wearing these in spring/summer with a red or pink cotton skirt. The yarn's a bit splitty, which is a con when knitting in front of the telly (mostly watching Alias with Rob), but it's fun watching the colours change.
Not sure what happened in the middle of the leg - there's suddenly an extra long orange and red bit. It wasn't a break, the yarn was continuous. There were a couple of knots, where I removed a section to make the colours continue as if there hasn't been. Oddly, both of the sections I took out looked like a whole red section. It's like this yarn wants to be red. I prefer the pink/coral/purple sections.
New skills: first time adding calf shaping. I used The Keyboard Biologist's handy calculation tips. Could probably have worked it out myself, but it's nice to have your hand held.
I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off at the top, which does what its name suggests. It's simple to execute and very stretchy. I'm not sure whether I like how it looks, unstretched, but when it's on it looks fine, which is what you want.
On to sock 2. Further notes are on Ravelry.
