still no peanut, in case you were all wondering. my doctor says that i'm progressing (as of when i saw him on thursday) but otherwise, it may be a few more days. i go back to the city on tuesday (if she isn't on her way by then) to get a sonogram to see how she's doing in there, then i'll know if i need to be induced or not. in the meantime, i'm getting a lot of sitting done on the couch, and of course, knitting!

speaking of which, here's the monkey socks. all done.

love them. wearing them right now! i made sure to block them when i was done with them and it really opened up the pattern. i know it's hard to tell in these pictures though. the variegation of the koigu kind of obscures it, but i love it none the less. once again, sock #2 didn't pool either!

here are the heels.

love the short rows and will probably smack them on every sock from here on out. i have a little formula for making them look all neat and pretty which i'll put after the jump.

the toes turned out nice too.

these are just the standard decrease (ssk on the right side and k2tog on the left) toe and i turned the sock inside out at the end and did a three needle bind off. very comfortable.

so, to wrap up...

yarn: koigu kpppm (don't know the colorway, but obviously, browns and oranges)
needles: 2.5mm addi turbos
pattern: monkey socks by cookie a.

i'm now on to knitting some socks for KP. i've chosen the gentleman's sock with lozenge pattern from knitting vintage socks by nancy bush using the knitpicks sock yarn that i picked up from veronique. i will probably keep the toe on these but sub out the heel for my short row do-jobbie.

i also started a few mason dixon washclothes with some light green and white sugar and cream i have lying around. if you aren't familiar with these lovely washclothes, check out the MDK knitalong. i have no photos yet.

oh, but here's some yarn porn because i know you all love it.

this is the sunshine yarn that i bought on etsy this week. top: rampage triple dyed, bottom: camo.

by the way, i'm on the lookout/prowl for leftover skeins of tahki cotton classic to make a crocheted rippled afghan. unfortunately, i've totally caught the crochet bug (damn you joy!) but thought that i could put my kyoto leftovers to good use this summer if i can get more colors. if you have some you want to get rid of, let me know. we'll work out payment on a case by case basis.

the short row heel formula after the jump.

ok, so you want to put a short row heel on your socks? ever take a look at your commercial socks that you buy at the store? they look really nice right? but, for some reason, the one's we handknit never come out looking the same. typically in patterns the short row heels are worked over half the total stitches (the back of the sock.) if you take a good look at the commercial socks that you admire, they are worked over more stitches than the instep. also, typically, the heels are given some breathing room between the instep/pattern and the beginning of the short rows. i sat back and did some thinking on how this is accomplished.

for the monkey socks, i decided that when i finished with the leg of the sock, i would do a few increase rounds on the back half of the sock to give the heels some more stitches to work with. i also decided that when i would start wrapping stitches, i wouldn't go all the way to the edge. this had the added advantage of making it easier to close up the holes between the short row heel and the instep.

if you want to apply this to the monkey socks, here's a sort-of tutorial (this can also be applied to any other sock pattern.) these instructions, though, assume that you know the principle of short rows and that you also learn the psso method demonstrated on misocrafty's website. i guess you can use the YO method as well, but i have yet to test that.

pattern alteration

• do the 6 pattern repeats for the leg.
• work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 1 of chart.) M1, knit across to end, M1. (66 total stitches)
• work chart on first 32 stitches (row 2 of chart), then knit 34 stitches.
• work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 3 of chart.) M1, knit across to end, M1. (68 total stitches)
• work chart on first 32 stitches (row 4 of chart), then knit 36 stitches.
• next round, work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 5 of chart), then begin short row heel on last 36 stitches. when i started my wrapping, i didn't go all the way to the edge. i knit to within 4 stitches on either side (technically, i knit to within 5 stitches and then wrapped the next stitch which gave me 4 live non-wrapped stitches) which gave the heel some breathing room between it and the instep. i wrapped 9 stitches total on each side, then went back and picked them up, doing the re-wrapping and picking up as i went along.
• when you get to the last pair of wraps to be picked up, pick up the knit side one but DO NOT pick up the very last purl wrap. instead, keep on knitting, going right to the 4 stitches that you left as breathing room.
• next round, you're back at the instep in pattern. work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 6 of chart), knit 4 (your 4 "breathing room" stitches) and pick up the wrapped stitch from the knit side. it's hard to describe how to do this, but i essentially picked up the wraps from the top and put them on the right needle, knit the wrapped stitch, and then passed the wraps over. it seemed to work. knit to last 5 stitches, k2tog, k3. this closes the gap between the heel and the instep "breathing room" stitches.
• next round, work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 7 of chart), k3, k2tog, knit to the end of the round. (66 total stitches)
• next round, work across the first 32 stitches in pattern from the chart (row 8 of chart), ssk, knit to 2 from end, k2tog. (64 total stitches)

you're done! and you can work the rest of the chart (you are now about to work row 9) and continue on to the foot.

as you can see, this formula will work well with any sock. just increase on the heel stitches and leave yourself breathing room. then be sure to pick up the last purl side wrap from the knit side. this prevents the wide gap usually experienced in short row heels.

i hope this is helpful! i can answer questions in the comments until the peanut arrives.

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