The morning after.

feelbetter-
That didn’t make the socks any funnier. (I’m considering whether I had enough chocolate and wine…perhaps moderation was my mistake) Today, since the socks have all but sucked the very will to live from my body, today we answer comments.
(Before I answer comments, I just want to say this: Ken, I noticed that you didn’t comment. I actually noticed that you haven’t been around here much since you started this whole entrelac thing. Don’t think that you can get me into this and then just wander off. I have not forgotten that the socks were your idea buddy…you aren’t just going to walk away from that. No sir. I don’t care if you fear my wrath, stand up and take it like a man. I have linked to you so that my readers may take this issue up with you on your own blog. Stop that laughing.)
Dear Commenters:
-Thank you for the wine tips. I am going to the liquor store today to see if “better wine” (and not just “more wine”) will improve my attitude toward the socks. I personally am not holding out much hope, but a decent wine never hurt.
-Thank you (I think) for the voyeuristic interest in me knitting these socks. I appreciate your thoughts (like “better you than me”) and the way that you are popping by the blog to see how I’m doing much like you would slow down to look at an accident.
-Thank you for contacting my Nana.
-Thank you for giving me permission to abandon the socks if it comes to that. At present I am still walking around referring to myself in the third person and being all brave. I’m saying stuff like “The Harlot does not quit”, “The Harlot cannot be defeated”. It helps, the third person always does. Try it. “(Insert Your Name Here) cannot be silenced.” See?
-Thank you for telling me that your Lornas Laces is doing the same thing. (Thanks for telling me that *now* especially. Not, you know, when I showed you the yarn or anything.
-Thank you for suggesting that I cast on the second one right now. Good thinking. Darned good thinking. I think I’ll wait though, I never implied that I was going to knit both did I?
-Thank you (to Aubergine especially) for asking me about the heel and gussets. The impending horrors sent fresh waves of nausea through me, and re-doubled my efforts to have some kind of *accident* with the yarn. What was it you suggested? Having it stolen? I’l consider the possibility of taking a hit out on my knitting if the heel is half as bad as you infer.
-Thank you for calling me “inspirational”. It’s so wonderful to know that long after the (*&^%$!!! Entrelac socks have killed me/driven me mad I’ll be remembered fondly.
Speak well of me….

40 thoughts on “The morning after.

  1. Really, I had assumed you were on a roll now and things weren’t going to get really ugly again until the heel. Sorry; we weren’t to speak of the heel, were we. On the plus side, the sock looks s’mores.

  2. Entrelac has intrigued me since I first learned about it. One of these days I am going to try it out. The sock is looking wonderful in spite of all of the problems that you are having with it!

  3. Woman versus socks. Well, you have to admit, it is epic stuff. I for one freely chuck entire hated projects mid-stream and send them off to prison knitting programs (where they belong), because well, life is just too damn short.
    No sock purgatory for me. I have tried to persuade myself that socks are just mittens without thumbs (and I do love to knit mittens — the Zilboorg, angora-lined variety — it’s like knitting a sweater for a squirrel, they go so fast), but my brain and needles aren’t fooled, so no socks.
    Clearly this is a Higher State of Knitting that can only be ascended to after whipping out snowdrop shawls and the like.

  4. Sauterne w/choco is very, very heady. Sugar rush! We had Paul Bara champagne last night with Scharffen Berger ganache. Much gentler on the metabolism.
    70 st on 1’s = 5×14 of Broadripple, which is rather nice in a plain yarn and would probably work for a low-contrast LL. I just can’t get over how ucky the white bits look in garter ripple. Tried subbing a bit more eyelet lace for the plain vertical bands and it’s too lumpy. I do prefer a sawtooth edge all around that segues into tooth/plain band/tooth…
    Your entrelac looks like dragon scales and must be infinitely more interesting to knit than Dublin or Broadripple. It is tempting.

  5. Steph, Steph, Steph – your fortitude is impressive and amazing, and a leeetle bit frightening. You’re not the sort of person who finishes a project just because she started it, are you? That way lies madness… (says the recovering finish-what-you-start person).

  6. Steph-
    I was suggesting you drop the sock in a park or sidewalk trashcan and then explain to your friends and bloggers that it was stolen. That’s not going to work now though. I’d go back to spilling red wine… or blaming it on your kids.

  7. Stephanie, I just want to say, despite the trials and tribulations the sock is causing… it is BEAUTIFUL so far. I really think that yarn was meant for Entrelac. I have faith that ye shall overcome the Entrelac, and yea, ye shall be rewarded with gorgeous socks. 🙂

  8. Steph – so sorry to be one of the devils-who-made-you-do-it. It does look beautiful though. Beautiful enough to just knit one and frame it, as if that was your intention all along(we’ll never tell). As for the rest of the yarn, it could become gloves or mittens or baby hats – and the colour distribution might even work out better.

  9. You could always do them into pompom socks, don’t have to do the leg part then, just a little bit past the heel turn and you’re done. I’ve never seen pom pom entrelac socks, you could be the first, going where no sock has been before.

  10. Since I am well known in my little circle for never finishing the second sock in many a pair I have no grounds to even pretend to encourage you to finish it or make another.
    My LL Tube sock is being punished for it’s wayward spiral…shoved back in a bag where I don’t have to look at it. Personally, I think you are quite adventurous to try the entralac in a sock anyway…small yarn, small needles…argh!!

  11. I’d rip them out and find something else to do with the yarn. Something fun. (slip stich pattern socks with a coordinating solid? at least the color pools would be less obvious.).

  12. I think that sock is absolutely lovely, and it is inspiring me to make a pair. So, if you don’t feel like finishing the sock or doing a second one, I will gladly take in your orphan. I love how the blocks of subtle color work, and the basketweave texture. This is a great sock!

  13. Got a ticket for the Bitter Bus, did ya? 😉
    I may be a lone dissenter, but Lene Cannot Be Silenced! (dang… you’re right. That feels *goood*!)
    I hate the socks. I really do. I do find entrelac fascinating and often beautiful (yes on the dragon scales – can we try again in something a little more jewel-coloured?), but… Maybe it’s the teenyness of the squares – they look like a particularly sweet conconction of so-milky-it’s-disgusting hot chocolate with sickeningly sweet marshmallows. Or something. It makes me a smidge queasy.
    Maybe it’s the colourway. I was utterly in love with Aslan in the skeined form (to the point of having impure thoughts), but I’m finding that knit up in a sock, it’s really disappointing. Too much beige, has no tawny qualities whatsoever. I keep thinking it’d be better in a baby sweater that you can give to someone far away, along with a copy of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and pretend it’s all a wonderfully inventive gift, rather than getting it as far away from you as you can, because dear GAWD, this yarn has caused you more trouble than any other.
    Methinks I should silence myself now, before someone does it for me. 😉

  14. Lene – I’m relieved I’m not the only one who thought of marshmallows.
    Steph — I love watching the sock grow, but if it’s really so horrible, stop. Life is too short to knit icky socks and stuff. (This is advice I wish I had when I began and made the mutant muppet head shawl.)
    I say knit a couple rounds in stockingette, make a bunch of yarn-over eyelets, another couple of stockingette rounds, then cast off and make it into a drawstring coin purse. (See the Twisted Sisters sock book for inspiration.)

  15. I need to read your blog… (please don’t go nuts) you have proved you can do it. You can stop now. Call it a toe warmer and wait for someone you know to break a leg and need it.

  16. Admit it. You hate the sock. You need booze and chocolate just to look at this sock. Cast off. Keep it in the bottom of your basket. If you are ever, ever, tempted to do this to yourself again, take it out, look at it, drink wine to forget. Better yet, mail it to Ken. Tell him you will pay return postage on the completed pair.
    Quitting can be a virtue. (This is what I said to myself halfway through a size 42 sweater 8 st. to the inch that I realized I hated….hated the colour the pattern and the yarn) “insert name here” knows how to quit, and feels no guilt!
    Barb

  17. Steph: Let GO of the sock.
    Remember the red intarsia farm sweater? Remember how good you felt when you put it in the garbage? I’m willing to bet that ripping out the dreaded entrelac and using the yarn to knit something to send very far away will make you feel better than chocolate, or even . . . well, better than chocolate.
    Unless knitting something else with this yarn is going to give you nasty flashbacks . . .

  18. I like the broken leg/foot angle…of course, my mind’s gone straight to the gutter for an idea to avoid a second sock — it could become a very fancy willie warmer, LOL….

  19. I believe Devbear (http://www.devbear.org) is working on the same entrelac sock pattern. She found an error I believe in the heel – read back in her blog archives to see. I know she found someone who helped her who had done the pattern.
    I highly recommend the entrelac sock pattern in the Spin-Off sock book if you’d prefer to go another route.
    Either way, good luck! I’ve been exploring the intricacies of entrelac this week for a swatch for the TKGA Master Knitter program. I had to knit it over three times until I liked how it looked.

  20. The Harlot has _not_ been defeated, the Harlot has _conquered_ teeny little entrelac squares and discovered she does not enjoy it. (although the socks really are lovely) Life is short. Unravel, make something else or gift the yarn to someone who will enjoy it. I particularly like the idea of sending it off to a prison knitting program…

  21. A prison knitting program? isn’t the loss of liberty enough punishment? Must you make them knit entrelac socks, too??
    Oh, the humanity!

  22. Whereas sadomasochism is desireable (enjoyable, even) trait in some walks of life, I don’t think that knitting is one of them. Quit torturing yourself with that crap. Quit torturing us with that crap. Lene thinks they look like marshmellows in hot choc. I think they look like something the dog yakked up. I’m all for the prison program. No such thing as cruel & unusual punishment in my books!

  23. you can hear it whispering in the background: brrrrroadriiiiiiipppple.
    I agree with the prison knitting program, too – I bet they save entrelac for the really bad inmates. Cool Hand Luke flashback: “What we have here, is a failure to inibriate – some socks you just can’t finish (sober!)”
    Please bring back the happy Steph 🙂

  24. Oh my, all we need here is a bookie! I lay odds that Steph is a sensible woman and will trash the sock, the yarn and perhaps the blog!
    Steph, if you keep knitting on that sock and listening to us you will go nuts! And we love your blog, so please trash that sock before we log on one morning to an ephitat posted by your DH!

  25. On the + side:
    1) The colors are not streaming down one side of the sock.
    2) You have clearly conquered entrelac.
    3) You have discovered that you were ALWAYS a knitting prodigy, knitting backwards at a time when few thought to try.
    4) The wine and the chocolate were good.
    5) You have major blog support whatever you decide to do.
    On the – side:
    1) The shoals ahead at the heel may not be worth the effort.
    2) The color array, while not pooling unattractively, seems to be a pattern only a cup of hot chocolate could love.
    3) The resulting sock may be uncomfortable as well as full of marshmellowy goodness (or badness — the blog seems divided on the desirability of the the colors now).
    4) It seems possible that you actually hate this sock — or so plots for sabotage would seem to suggest.
    By my count, you are ahead in the positive column by one — wine and chocolate. And you DID abandon the Dublin Bay when it prove unattractive to you, now didn’t you? So you are willing, for aesthetic reasons, to abandon a pattern you LIKED, but you are unwilling to abandon a pattern you seem to find (ahem) frustating in the extreme? Does this mean that you LIKE the way these socks look? ‘Fess up.
    And where is the intarsia Eeyore?? Off now to post an endless annoying response on KEN’S blog, for I note that the entrelac gods may be punishing you because you ignored your original pie chart and followed Ken’s seduction suggestion! Clearly anything that happens now is HIS fault.

  26. I was against the entrelac from the beginning, and I should have spoken up I guess. I thought I’d let those who know more about it help the decision along. I am, however, FOR the wine and chocolate. Have some more. Start something new. Jennifer will not be beat up by socks.

  27. Stephanie, I have been reading and enjoying your blog for a couple of weeks now…..May I volunteer as a mad sock murderer? I do believe that the sock should not be allowed to drive you to insanity! Just let me know where to meet you on a dark and stormy night. I will use the passwords “Entrelac Socks SUCK” you can respond with “Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will not be driven down by a sucky sock!”. We can stuff said sock in a 50 gallon oil drum and light a match to it. My theory is that sucky socks self destruct if you wish hard enough anyway. I don’t want to see my new favorite blogger driven to drink by a lone sock.
    By the way, I loved seeing both of the snowdrops. How is the new one doing? She is beautiful.
    Thanks for the great knitting stories. Keep it up!

  28. I hate to say I-told-you-so. (that is not completely true, there is some measure of smug self-satisfaction). Not too long ago, you were thumbing your nose at the knitting gods – you were gadflying about doing who-knows-what – and whatever it was, it went against all knitting laws and regulations. I feared a smoting was headed your way — it appears your plague of locusts is socks!

  29. Samina – I also thought it looked like dogbarf at first, but thought it would be unkind to say it.
    So glad you did, though. 😉

  30. I do agree with Lene and Samina. Please trash the sock and put the otherwise beautiful yarn to better use.

  31. Ok, it’s a toss up. Either knitting these socks will drive you to a place of vile depression and resentment or you will have that sense of elation when the impossible is actually achieved. I know what I’d do… Frog Pond… all the way, baby.

  32. I quite like the sock. If it’s a hot cocoa accessory, well, then put up your heels with a mugful and enjoy. And I can just see sticking with it just to show Nana up there that knitting backwards is the way to go–see? See? I’ll bet she never made anything quite like that! And if you did, I just betcha by now she’d be going, (now that you’re no longer a Mere Child) go, Steph! up there.
    Or maybe she’d be one of the demons down there rubbing her hands and cackling with glee as you flog more minutes of your day on the thing. Whaddya think?

  33. I referred to myself in the third person for an entire month before realizing how unbelievably irritating it was to everyone around me. The socks kick ass, and once you complete them successfully you will be filled with (deserved) pride. Keep plugging away (but take breaks with fun projects…. I have 3 on the go and started a new sweater. Whee!)

  34. Funny… I can hear it Kathleen… “Brooaaddriiiple.” The funny thing is it sounds an awful lot like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Don’t do it Steph!

  35. Steph –
    What an absolutely beautiful entrelac cast toe-cover you have knit! Oh, how lucky the next person you know (Ken??) who breaks their leg and is allowed to wear this magnificent knit item to cover their poor frozen little tootsies as they dangle from the cast.
    Good job. What’s the next project?

  36. Broadripple guinea pig chiming in again. It is definitely becoming a he-who-must-not-etc. The idea of it appeals to me, but it is a bit of fuss and it’s too thick and DD (who has good taste) gave the garter one look and cringed.
    I love triangles and odd sock tops, but this one doesn’t have the grip of ribbing. I think the only way to get it to stay up, since the garter band is so heavy, is to make it too small around, which decreases the peak/oomph of the points and ruins the comfort rating. There has to be a better way to achieve a similar look.
    YH, what are the lengths of the colors in your toasted marshmallow LL yarn? Can’t you sub an easy-peasy heel? Have you considered doing entrelac only for the shank, perhaps with a s’more-size instead of mini-marshmallow number of stitches per?
    Has anyone swatched this or a similar color period yarn in Liz Clouthier’s sideways sock pattern to see whether the colors pool? Are color pools becoming more attractive in the wake of innumerable tiny entrelacs?
    Do you need more chocolate?

  37. Steph,
    I just finished a pair of entrelac socks. They are not quite the same as the ones you are working on. I was contemplating doing the ones you are doing. I may be glad I did not do that one. Then, I came across another entrelac pattern and made it. I had no problem with mine. I love doing entrelac. The pattern I used in the book “Socks”. It is a Spin-Off publication published by Interweave Press. It was copyrighted in 1994 and is still available. I saw it this weekend at Sock Fest in Toledo. The vendor, Susan’s Fiber Shop out of Wisconsin had it. (www.susansfibershop.com) I made my socks in Koigu.
    Kathy N. (in Cleveland)

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