First stranded sock done, entrelac socks started

So the first stranded sock is done. It was all knitted by Thursday morning, but it's grafted and off the needles now. I had to drop the needle size down to 1s to make the toe fit correctly (after having first done it on 2s... argh, frogging). There's also a small hole at the gusset, and the part between the 2 circulars puckers a bit more noticeably than elsewhere, but maybe if I block the heck out of it, it will be fine. Maybe I don't need to block at all, though, as the pucker disappears when I put it on.

The entrelac sock is coming along pretty well. The colors weren't quite what I was hoping for, but I had very little solid-colored sock yarn stash, so I was kind of at the mercy of what was available in the shop. I wanted to do autumnal colors, but it didn't quite turn out that way. I ended up with three different shades of green, the brown (same yarn from the stranded sock), the red from the Superman sock, and this rust-colored yellow wool/silk blend (I was hoping for a brighter yellow, but that really wasn't possible unless I wanted to go pastel... bleah). Of the three greens, my favorite is the dark-green 100% alpaca yarn. It's so soft and feels so wonderful on the needles. The other green is a blackish-green / white cotton blend that I think is going to end up being the main color. And the last green is this olivey-green felted tweed yarn that I'm not sure I like in this context.

It's really interesting to knit with so many different types of raw materials in the same sock. I hope my feet don't get confused about how much heat to trap. The striping work is interesting, too. I learned a few good tips about that from the class and ways to avoid the purl lines on the new color bleeding when you're doing ribbing.

So now I understand why entrelac can't be done on 2 circs. You have to work "between" the joints where the needles are so often, and knitting stitches from needle A onto needle B is impossible when you've only got 2 needles. You need the angle that a third can provide you to do that. Even if you could figure out a way to do it on 2 circs, it wouldn't buy you anything, as the needle transfer time isn't really the factor slowing you down. I guess some things are best knitted with traditional dpns.

Well, it's getting late, and it's definitely time to tear myself away from the entrelac rectangles.

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