In Which the Pirate Swatches.

After finishing Pirate-Husband’s socks, I was at a loss. What to do now? It was too dark to work on the Ostrich Plumes scarf, I wasn’t really feeling the Pomatomuses, too late to spin, not in the mood for cotton… so I started a swatch for the next pair of socks.

Michael’s Bloo Socks are going to be knit in Trekking XXL, colorway 71, which is a subtle series of blues. I’m going to work with Elizabeth Bennett’s Perl Sock Program but fudge the numbers a little bit to get 10% negative ease. My plan is to put two or three inches of k2, p2 ribbing at the top, then work in k3, p1 ribbing the rest of the way down. Originally I’d planned to use the pattern for Mr. Pitt’s Socks but that’s written for 80 stitches, and I think I’ll need 96. Rather than do all the recalculating by myself, I turned to an automated calculator that’s gotten good reviews.

9.375″ around foot, times 11.25 stitches/inch, is 106 stitches, minus 10% is 95, add one to get something divisible by 4 = 96 stitches. I cast on and got seven rounds done before bed last night. Hooray for new projects!