FO: Denature (Modified)

This knit was a long time coming...which means settle in and listen to the story of a knit.

About 2 years ago, I saw a pattern that I thought would be perfect to knit up for my mom's birthday. They were DNA socks (or 'Biological Clock Socks') from The Eclectic Sole (my mom used to be an AP biology teacher so I thought the DNA pattern would be perfect). I drug my feet because I wasn't completely taken with the pattern. So her birthday came and went with no socks. During this same year, Elinor Brown and some others held a sock pattern contest and this pattern (Denature) was one of the contestants. I loved it at first sight and thought it would be perfect. Christmas was coming up and I was bound and determined to knit Mom socks. But I didn't think I could get Denature done (pattern called for a huge amount of yarn [over 500 yards] and I didn't have any in my stash that would work...searching for, buying, and waiting for shipments takes awhile when you live in a town with no yarn shop). And by this time, I decided I needed to know if she would even like these socks...I am loathe to knit something that complicated without knowing for sure she would like them. Her and Dad came for a visit that October and I showed her the pattern. And oh, by the way, the pair of oh-so-much-easier Kai-Mei's that I had just finished up. I asked her which she wanted.

Bad plan. She wanted both.

Of course.

So I set out to do the Kai Mei's for Christmas since I already had yarn that would work and already had the pattern basically memorized. With the plan to do the DNA socks for her birthday last year.

Not only did I not even attempt the socks by her birthday, I even forgot her birthday. I called her that night because I hadn't talked to her in awhile and she told me that they just got back from a dinner...I asked 'what was the occasion?'. Yeah. I had just done my defense, give me a break!


Anyway...next holiday up...Christmas 2011. Now, I don't normally procrastinate on a knit quite this much. But I had a mental block with these socks and I simply didn't want to start them. I appreciated the idea of the DNA denaturing when it hit the heel, but in reality, I wasn't completely sold on that design. Nor was I sold on the number of charts and how often you had to knit off 2 different places on the same chart at the same time.

So I decided that to get the darn things knit I needed a new plan. I went to knit night with a couple ideas in hand and asked for advice. In the end, I went with the favorite idea which was running the DNA strands down the front of the leg over the top of the foot but nowhere else. Sue and Meg suggested adding in a rib on the back of 5 or 6 stitches in case removing an entire cable panel caused a fit issue (which in the end, I loved as a design feature). With this plan, I was mentally prepared to cast on the knit.

I took it to Alaska and since I had a day with nothing to do and it was 40 below outside, I happily sat in a warm hotel room, knitting and watching old movies. Happy story right? No.

I don't swatch. I know. I know. However, because I was changing designs and because I was concerned that the pattern was going to be too big anyway given the number of cast on stitches, I swatched for these socks. Did you hear that? I swatched for these socks. And knit half a sock. All the while thinking that with the stretch of the fabric, they would be too big. Finally I took them off the needles to try them on and yes, swatches lie.

Normally this would cause me to throw a tantrum and not pick up that skein of yarn for a year or more. But I so wanted this gift off my plate that I immediately regrouped, recalculated taking into account that stretch and cast on right away. Maybe I'm maturing. Anyway, no further problems and I had a beautiful (in my opinion) pair of socks for mom to open Christmas morning.


The true color of the yarn is actually sort of in between the dark purple shown just above and the color shown in the pictures I took of mom's feet.

Details on the specific changes I made are on my Ravelry project page.

A final note...I'm not completely sold on this yarn...Cascade Heritage Sock. The price and yardage are great...the colors are great. And it feels super soft in the skein. But knitting with it felt a bit like knitting with cotton (several reviews on Ravelry had the same comments). In addition, as I've mentioned, it is super stretchy. I was knitting to both the gauge of the pattern and the yarn label (8 stitches per inch) but with the stretch, I think a smaller needle with much tighter gauge would have worked better for this yarn. I just don't have the experience yet to really know if this change would work. They did soften a bit after soaking but I need to remember to ask Mom how they feel when she wears them for a long duration.

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Now playing: These Old Wheels by Mandolin Orange


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