My first toe-up sock

And it sucks! Weeeeeeee!

I fell in love with the Baudelaire pattern in the summer Knitty, and I immediately searched the stash for appropriate yarn. I found it, and then actually read the pattern. Whoa! Toe up? Gulp. No problem. Heh. Heh. I can do that. Gulp. Heh.

I fought my way through a figure 8 cast on, which looks deceptively simple written out, but hot damn is it fiddly, and then patted myself on the back when I got through it. The stitches at the end of the toe were all loose and ugly, but I figured I could fix that right up with my handy dandy tapestry needle and the yarn tail. More on that later.

So I knit the sock. Loved the pattern. I love the way the heel came out. I go to bind off. I check the pattern to see what I'm supposed to do. Er, sewn bind off? As in sew? Pfffffffffft. I am a knitter, I say, and I do not sew. I was cocky. And we all know what happens when knitters get cocky.

So I scour the web for other stretchy bind offs to try. I find one that looks simple enough. Supposedly you just p2tog, loosen that stitch up, and then put it back on the left needle and do it all again. Well, apparently some people's definition of "stretchy" varies from my definition of "stretchy." Because that shit was not stretchy at all. I struggled to get it over my fat heel and fat ankle, but it would not go up over my fat calf at all. I let out a little whimper as I realized I had just knitted an entire sock that I can't wear.

So I did what any obsessive compulsive (and a little superstitious) knitter would do. I ripped out the cast off and about 4 rounds of ribbing, said a silent little apology to Cookie and the late Elizabeth Zimmermann, and redo it with the EZ sewn bind off that was suggested in the pattern, the one I would have used if I had not gotten cocky. Cookie? If you read this and you felt a twinge of righteous indignation this week for no apparent reason, that was most likely my "whoopsies!" energy heading your way.

So now the sock fits, and I'm happy with it except for that damned toe. I was way wrong when I thought I could fix it. It rather resembles a cold nipple. Seriously, it's so pointy that it's not allowed on airplanes. Ouch. See? I just poked my eye out with it. There's blood all over.

For the second sock, I'm going to use a different toe. I just don't think figure 8 is for me.

And I'd leave you with pictures of the pointy, bloody sock, but I have no idea where my camera cord is. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere. Moving sucks.