Violet and a Turned Heel

I promised you a photo of the finished, overstuffed turtle. Her name is Violet:

She is on her way to greet her new owner, my niece who is about to turn 5 years old this coming week. Hopefully they will like each other!

More progress has been made on the first socks. It has been such a busy week I wasn’t sure I was going to get my homework done for class. We were to knit down from the cuff through the heel flap (the leg part of the sock, in other words), in preparation to turn the heel in class. I finished the heel flap Friday night, class was Saturday morning.

Our regular teacher was out of town, so we had a stand in, who was simply excellent. Apparently I didn’t understand the “SSK” instructions because I ran out of stitches on one side too quickly when knitting the heel “pooch.” I thought you were to slip a stitch, slip another stitch, then knit the next stitch. Wrong! Right: Slip a stitch, slip another stitch, then knit them together. That was a whole ‘nother ball of wax, as my math teacher used to say. Finally, it worked out!

Then you have to pick up stitches along both sides of the heel flap, and redistribute your stitches on 3 needles, everafter to be known as Needles A, B, and C. Then you begin decreasing just a smidge and then start to knit the foot. That wasn’t bad at all!

Of course we were talking and a few of us got distracted and did some minor frogging, but overall it went well, and the dreaded turning of the heel really wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was kind of fun. We don’t have class next Saturday, but will finish on Saturday the 9th. So when I get to the point where we’re supposed to stop (just before the toe shaping), I will work on the 2nd sock and try to get it to the same point by the 9th. Wish me luck!