Monica Knits

Even though I haven't posted many knitting articles recently, I have completed 8 pairs of socks over the past 3 weeks, including another pair of lily of the valley socks as a gift. I'm adding additional tips to my knitting notes, because a friend has asked me to order the pattern and some wool for her, so I wanted to make sure there weren't any surprises in the pattern. I didn't follow it exactly the first time; this time I decided I had better do so, or I wouldn't be able to answer questions on the instructions. The first tip concerns the use of stitch markers for parsing lace repeat patterns. Read more ....

The lily of the valley socks have a 16 stitch lace repeat pattern and it is extremely beneficial to use stitch markers to separate the repeats. These help prevent errors from being carried forward to the next repeat and are particularly helpful when starting this pattern. I always use a yarn tail to indicate the start of round, but in this case, the pattern doesn't develop for a few rows so the "green" stitch marker indicates the center of the first needle. Green for "go", red for "stop" or end of round. This helps avoid twisting the knitting to the inside if you need to set it aside before the initial fan stitch is evident. In fact, I had a visitor arrive right in the middle of row 3, so the stitch markers were helpful for me even though I've knitted this pattern a few times.

Related Posts
Lily of the Valley socks (describes construction)
Knitted horizontal braid (clarifies how to knit a horizontal braid)

Pattern Source
Lily-of-the-Valley socks pattern purchased from the Knit Picks' February, 2008 catalogue (pattern 50590 by Susan Lawrence). I used the suggested yarn (Knit Picks Bare, Merino/Silk, natural color, fingering weight) for these comfortable, elegant, mid-calf length socks.