A pair of Stitch Surfers

To say that this pattern intimidated me is an understatement.  Having queued it in May of 2014, purchased yarn in about September 2014 I simply could not bring myself to cast on.  I packed the yarn and brought it with me to the UK, thinking that at some stage I would make them.  Instead, I attended knitting shows and visited various shops and bought other yarn, knitted other pairs of socks.

Finally, it seemed like the time had come.  The start of a new year, a commitment to exploration and various online ‘learn new skills’ challenges.  Also, some time off, and some you tube videos saved from 2014 to assist!

The pattern
Stitch Surfers by Louise Robert, published in Knitty, Deep Fall 2012.  Quite poorly written I thought, with too much room for interpretation.  You Tube certainly helped in this regard. Called ‘Stitch Surfers’ because the pattern is described as creating the waves by surfing left, then surfing right.

Basically, this is intarsia in the round which requires wraps and turns, so the socks are knitted and then purled, which is not the fastest knitting around.  The other option would be to knit flat, and then seam, which would probably involve an after thought heel.  There is a little ridge on the inside, both at the wrap and turn point, and the twisting the yarns around one another point (normal intarsia method) but neither are noticeable when worn.

The yarn
Night Vision (grey and green) and The Ginger is a Clever One (orange, blue and purple) both by Purple Goddess Designs.  10% cashmere no less.  Lovely, mostly saturated colours with little blips to remind me that it was a hand dyed product and therefore complete with its own idiosyncrasies.

The knitting
Cast on and increase up to 68 stitches for the foot, and I ended up doing a Fish Lips Kiss Heel, increasing to 36 stitches on the bottom needle in the round before starting the heel.  I also did the heel entirely in one colour, which means it looks a little off centre when the sock is just languishing in the sock drawer, but really makes no difference as to fit.

72 stitches for the leg, though 14 rounds without surfing immediately after the heel, and then just a little, before ribbing.  I had considered doing the ribbing in just one colour but decided it would look too abrupt, so I kept up the intarsia in the round, but without the surfing.