Sometimes projects flow seamlessly from start to finish, and sometimes they start over.  Sometimes when that happens, it’s very frustrating, but sometimes starting over is a good thing.

I made a tragic error on the lace in the Marigold Socks when I moved from the foot rounds to the leg rounds.  I lost my place horribly and kept getting inadvertant yarn-over increases.  So I did the only thing that I could do, given the complete mess I’d made of it…

I frogged it.

I believe I lost my place because the pattern is really designed with people knitting with the magic loop method.  I decided two circulars would be the  best way to simulate that technique, since I’m not feeling mentally up to the leap required to do the magic loop.  I went to the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry, and found FluffyKnitterDeb’s tutorial on the Turkish Cast-on, and used that to fix the pooling in the toe of the sock.

The Turkish Cast-on was very easy to do, especially with FluffyKnitterDeb’s tutorial.  I used a 16″ circular and a 24″ circular and the difference in the length of the needle portion of the circular served the same purpose as using a bamboo and a metal circular together.  The differences between the two circulars helped me distinguish between the two sets of needles quickly, and keep my place while I was still figuring things out.  By the time I’d finished the tutorial, I felt really confident with both the Turkish Cast-on and with using two circular needles to knit in the round.

I’m pleased with the improvement in the overall look of the sock, especially at the toe.  Pleased enough that I took pictures in horrible lighting in order to share the difference from the old sock.  Before, using the cast-on suggested in the pattern, the color in the toes pooled and I had to hide an ugly spot by changing where the instep of the sock started.

Just look at the difference:

Now, there’s even stripes on the toe leading into the body of the sock, exactly as I envisioned when I selected the pattern to go with this yarn.  Two circulars is an easy technique to use, though I still like my DPNs and don’t envision giving them up entirely.  I’ll be able to use them to knit in my planned “afterthought” heel while the sock is still on the circulars, so when I’m done with the sock, I’ll be completely done.

Overall, this is a much better plan, even if I didn’t originally plan to do things this way. I’d originally just planned to learn how to do afterthought heels, so I wouldn’t interrupt the lovely flow of stripes on my sock. Instead, I got two learn two more new techniques and my sock looks better for it.