It looks as though my little experiment has worked!

When I had reached the usual sock-stopping place on my first Spring Forward, I noticed that there was a considerable amount of yarn left. Ordinarily, this is no big deal… except this time I had divided the skein in half while winding it out. So, with such a surplus on my hands, I decided to try and go for a knee sock. Knitting a lace pattern in knee sock form can be a little tricky, though. You don’t want to maul the pattern, and I really didn’t want to create the faux-seam look that would have resulted from pairing the increases along an imaginary line along the back of the calf. So, after some careful study of the pattern and my options, I came up with this:

Yes, folks. A CHART. Of my very very own. I determined that the nicest place to put the increases would be in the middle of the stockinette “ribbons” created by the lace pattern, since they travel uninterrupted. I thought increases there might be more inconspicuous, and also somewhat visually pleasing. So, I hunted around a bit more for the proper math (thank you, Ravelry) and mapped out my plan: an increase of 30 stitches over about 36 rows meant increasing 15 stitches per needle. If I did my ribbon-increase plan, each increase round would up the stitch count by 3 per needle, 6 per round. So, I spaced 5 increase rounds as proportionately as I could over 36 rows, and voila:

A knee sock. I am really quite blown away by this, for a couple reasons: firstly being that it’s my first knee sock ever and I managed to use nearly all my yarn, and secondly that I successfully adapted a pattern to suit my desires. I’ve adapted patterns before, of course, to sub yarn or even gauge (that was fun, let me tell you), but never have I actually done something like this that required math AND careful planning and consideration of the aesthetic AND actual know-how. I am mightily pleased with myself, if somewhat dazed.

In other news, I have decided to take part in the Ravelympics. Dear Ravelry has created an event of sorts to go along with the summer games, in which you start a project at the beginning of the Olympics, and try to finish by the end. There are lots of different “events,” but I’ve chosen to try the “WIPs wrestling,” where you take a project that’s been languishing and finish it up in 20 days. I have put three different works on my Ravelympics list: The Bella Blouse, Aimee, and a crocheted afghan that I started when I was still in high school and never actually finished. I’m hoping that the spirit of the games will motivate me to truly finish off all these things, who are truly lovely and worthy pieces whose only sin was that they bored me, at some point or another. Oh, the shame. 🙂 But, as I have now committed myself to cleaning up my basket August 8-28, that means…

JEAN ANN, STOP READING OR SPOIL YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT!

Well, it means that I have A TON of work to do on the Peacock. Chart 5, meet the blogiverse. Blogiverse, Chart 5. I have 6 and 7 to go, and then A LOT of edging rows over A LOT of stitches. This thing is a beast. It will be a blanket to shield my mother from the chill winds of… whatever. Thing is, it’s LARGE. I’m about a third of the way done (by my calculations) and it’s already large enough to block out to shawl-status. I weep to think of how I will block this monster, once I’m finally able.

SO. The plan is to finish Chart 6 today, maybe even start Chart 7. Tomorrow will be hellacious, as I need to finish ALL of Chart 7. Then I give myself the remaining days til Aug. 8 for the edging and cast off. I can block on the 8th, that’s not totally cheating. Sigh. Needless to say, this ideally NOT travel knitting will have to become so. But seeing as a row takes about 15 minutes for me just to knit (and that’s once I’m rolling and have the pattern repeat DOWN), two rows is one leg of my commute. Oy. And maybe, 4 rows on my hour of lunch. Ugh.

So yeah. I think my lust for lace will be thoroughly quenched by the time this behemoth is stretched, drying, across my bed.