A Bluestocking Knits

Thanks to a set of back-to-back "Doctor Who" episodes on PBS last night, I finished these socks rather quickly.  (It was "The Empty Child" with the Ninth Doctor.  Creepy, with a dark, supernatural note, but of course — being Doctor Who — it all has a rational, if futuristic, explanation in the end.  Christopher Eccleston is quite capable and amusing, but I have a bit of a crush on David Tennant, so I’m looking forward to the next series!)

These are the Oak Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush, worked in Regia Silk in the Venezia colorway.  I have no compunction in renaming my version, even though I made only one minor modification, since they are called "Oak" in the book merely because that is what color Nancy Bush used — "Venezia" these are to me, and always will be!

I was sure that they would be too small as written, at 63 sts, but they are not at all — perhaps this is a combination of the stretchiness of the rib and of the wool, and that I find I rather like the closer-fitting socks now that I’ve made a variety of patterns.  I did cast on with US1s and switched down to 0s after three inches, so that helped a bit with the fit — my gauge on the smaller needles was about 32 sts to 4 in./10cm.

This is my first try at the French heel.  It’s a bit more snug than my usual, with only four sts at the turn.  The "seam" at the back of the heel is, I guess, a vestige of the days when socks were cut from flat fabric and seamed up the back — it doesn’t seem to serve much purpose otherwise, but it makes a pleasant change.

It’s also a bit deeper heel than usual, which gives it a rather luxurious feel, especially with the hint of silk from the Regia Silk.  Good for those with high insteps, I would think, without having to modify the heel flap length.

This is also my first try at the Round Toe.  It is worked with K2togs, spaced across in ever-decreasing rounds.  It is perhaps a bit narrower than I like, but certainly interesting and worth trying — it is not uncomfortable by any means.  I wasn’t thrilled with the belly-button effect of drawing the end of the wool through the last 8 sts, and so I grafted those sts together on the first sock, but with that last round being all K2togs, the graft is quite irregular, and in fact does look better with the drawstring.  I did some Googling and found out that the pointiness of this finish tends to smooth out over time, and so I did one with the graft and one with the original drawstring (Nancy Bush’s, I should say, since the original Weldon’s version had the knitter simply bind off) — time will tell!

All in all, very comfy!