Skewed - at last

Last month I finished knitting a pair of socks using Lana Holden's Skew. This clever pattern using a bit of 'high school algebra and geometry' to twist and turn simple stocking stitch around the shape of the foot.

The pattern starts at the big toe and works diagonally across the foot, but its when you get to the heel that the really clever business starts.

The stitches swirl around the heel, so there is no obvious join and a pattern that shows up especially well in variegated yarn.

(the socks are not quite this colour in reality, not nearly so luminous in real life)

I knew I had been working on this project for some while, but I was really surprised when I looked on my Ravelry page and saw that I had started these in June 2011. Yikes, that is more than a year a sock! This is not a bad refection on the difficulty of the patten or how much I like the socks; for something which looks so complex the pattern was very clear and easy to follow, and I like the finished socks.


I tend to use socks as a handy travelling project, they are small and easy to carry and you can sneak bamboo sock needles through the scanners at airports. In addition, other projects have got in the way and these had disappeared into the depths of my knitting basket. It was only when we were packing up to move house that I re-discovered them, and made the effort to get them finished.

I think I must have finished the first sock fairly quickly and then left it a while before making the other, and either my tension has changed dramatically in the interim, or, as I suspect, I used different sized needles for the second sock, 'cause one is long and tighter than the other. Its not too noticeable when they are on, and not many people carefully examine by feet, but I am little annoyed. However, on the bright side, the socks do fit and they are toasty warm, which is just as well as our heating has been on the blink.

For those who are interested I used Colinette Jitterbug in Lagoon, and I have lots left over for my blanket.