One of these things is not like the other! :o)
There are two things I want you to guess from this collage. (For purposes of this contest, let’s pretend that skein of yarn is a picture of the sock that it is being knit into.)
1 – MOST of these socks have something in common. What is it?
2 – ALL of these socks have something ELSE in common. What is it?
First person who guesses BOTH things and leaves a comment by Friday, January 28th at midnight will win a goody bag from me. 
A few weeks ago, Cristi was looking for volunteers to test-knit her new sock pattern. I offered to do so and I’m glad I did.
These are the Calvin and Ripple Socks, named after Cristi’s two famous cats by the same names.
The design is modeled after the fact that Cristi’s cats are identical from the back, but from the front, they are totally different. In her pattern, one sock has a slanted slip stitch pattern on the instep and the other has a ripple pattern. The back of the leg in both socks is knit in mistake rib. You can choose to do a patterned or a plain toe. I went with patterned. I think it’s sooo pretty! Here’s a toe pic just for you, C.
Speaking of toes, I love how Cristi calculates the toe for the top-down sock (Ripple). It’s going to come in quite handy for other patterns as well. I didn’t do her pattern exactly as I didn’t do the ripple on the Ripple sock. I went with mistake rib over the instep as well as the back of the leg because my yarn was so variegated and dark that it was hard for me to follow the knits and purls.
The yarn itself was nice to work with and the color is very rich. This is the Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sock I purchased at MDSW this year. It took me some tweaking in my picture editor to get these pix to as close a color to the original as possible.
By the way, one of the socks is knit toe-up and the other is top-down. Can you tell which is which?
Of course not, because Cristi managed to design a perfect replica of Cat Bordhi’s toe-up riverbed pattern in top-down form. You did well, my friend!! They are identical!
So for the price of one, you essentially get TWO sock patterns. And, you can, of course, mix n’ match them however you please. Knit two Calvins, or two Ripples, or one of each like I did. Either way, this is a very fun sock pattern to knit. And, no, I’m not saying that because I’m biased.
A few weeks ago I saw Lisa‘s extremely cute Socks for Veronik. So, you all know me, I see shiny and I chase shiny. I got home, wound up my Malabrigo Sock Yarn in Rayon Vert that had been marinating in the stash and took off.
The lace pattern is very easy to remember. I got through the first sock fairly quickly, following the pattern as written. That’s when I realized the sock didn’t fit.
I started making a deal with Cristi where she would take the socks and trade me for sock yarn at some point (we have a constant trade going on, she and I). See, I REALLY DO NOT LIKE TO RIP, unlike some of my friends who must rip a project at least 3 times before they’re satisfied.
Once I’d struck up a deal, I moved on the second sock. When I got down to the heel flap, I decided to try adding another 10 rows to the flap (about an inch). I’d found the flap kind of small on the first sock but decided to ignore it. Not this time. I also added one more repeat to the foot, AND worked the toe decreases until I had 10 sts left, cutting the yarn and pulling it through all sts as if it were the top of a hat.
Well, guess what? The sock fit. So, I had to suck it up and rip out the first sock. But I now have a very pretty comfy pair of socks in a yarn which colorway I actually hunted down once I saw it in person when Mary Ann got hers. The decreases on the top of the toe are interesting since they’re done with those p3tog that you see running up the middle instead of the more traditional decrease on each side of the foot. The bottom of the toe does have the decreases on either side tho.
All in all, I’m happy with my purty new socks.
