Here are my new socks

Started this last Thursday and I'm already this far. Can you tell I like these a lot better? I'm keeping the pattern simple with just a 4x2 rib and using Cat Bordhi's Foxglove master pattern for the gusset increases. It's not so much a pattern as a guideline to where you can place the increases. In this case, you can put them anywhere. I've decided to put them just before the sole stitches and am incorporating the rib pattern. I've never liked how gussets end up just being a (small) sea of stockinette, so this is a nice solution. It's also a good test for another pair of socks (that just so happen to be in the same yarn, but different color) I plan to rework using Cat's construction techniques.

Asked and Answered

I made it this far:



After my last post, I ignored everyone's responses and decided to just finish the rest of the first sock since I was so close. I wanted to see how the pooling would play out and also test a cast off. Fine on both counts, so I started the second sock.

I convinced myself I was ok with the pooling on the foot knowing how the leg would turn out. All was well until I hit the heel increases. I don't know what it is about Knit Picks multi-colored yarn, but the pooling just deteriorates far too quickly for my liking. I'm generally ok with either wide fat stripes or tiny barely-even-stripes, but not both in the same sock. Plus the longer I looked at the foot, the more it looked like a dark brown sock that had been bleached.

I started a new pair of socks today with this yarn and I'm already several inches in. I feel much better about this. I don't know what will become of the brown yarn.

Conundrum

IMAG0020, originally uploaded by Camping Jason.

So I picked this sock back up after it lying dormant for over a year after finally finishing off my pair of green socks. I initially started to knit the established pattern, but quickly realized all the reasons I put it down in the first place: dark yarn, small stitches and mock cables were not making for a very enjoyable knit.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and simply continue on with a 4x2 ribbing pattern. (The switch happens about halfway up the leg, so not a normal starting position for the ribbing at the top of a sock.) I really like how it's turning out, both the fabric of the sock and how the yarn is pooling. I told myself that I wouldn't care about where the ribbing started and that I'd even knit the second sock in all 4x2 ribbing and not care that they will be fraternal twins.

I like the pattern I'm knitting now so much that I'm wondering if I should rip out the mock cables and make a pair of socks that I'll really like instead of a pair I'll just tolerate. The problem is I know that if I rip this sock out, there's a very slim chance that I'll actually restart it instead of knitting some other more fascinating project. However, I do hold the slim hope that if I finish this sock as is, then knit the second how I now want to, that it may give me the push to "fix" the first sock.

So what do I do?
A) Continue knitting sock #1 as is, knit sock #2 in 4x2 rib and hope it inspires me to reknit #1?
B) Frog sock #1 immediately and try to restart in 4x2 rib knowing that I may abandon the project completely?

Conundrum.