Tension Smension

So, I've been working on the citrus socks. Every night, I pick them up and try to knock out a few inches. I guess I was a little tense last night.


Do you see that? Let's look a little closer.


All that, just from a change in tension. I used an F hook on the toes for strength and then switched to a G for the foot. I was working very loosely, because I want the socks to be flexible. But I forgot that when I started up again last night and went back to the tighter version of stitching that I usually do. I don't really want to admit to you how long it took me to figure this out and realize it was not some weird color shift in the yarn, but note that the foot of the sock is about 4 inches too long since I was trying to "wait out" the color shift. And if you look closely at the top of the shorter sock, I even started there as well. In the words of the immortal Bard "D'oh".

So there will be frogging tonight, all the way down to the toes. Whee! And then I'll start again, probably with the G and the tight tension, because I like those stripes more than the F stripes. And hopefully the socks will block a little looser.

On the sunny side of the street, I did finish and photograph Dad's socks. They turned out thicker than I though they would, which was another moment of duh on my part because I was using worsted weight. Worse comes to worse, it's yet another pair of Dad slippers.

So here they are:


I used Plymouth Encore in two colors just happen to exactly match my couch.
The pattern is this, with a few modifications.

And here's a question for the peanut gallery. Melanie is using this yarn for a blanket right now and I just used it for the socks (obviously). Both of us have developed weird dry patches and irritations on out fingers. We think it's somehow related to the yarn which is 75% wool, 25% acrylic, but neither of us are allergic to wool. Our thought is that it may be the sizing or something the yarn is coated with during manufacture. Hopefully it's something that will rinse out or my dad is going to have some dry, flaky feet. Has anyone else had this issue? And if so, what did you do about it? Just tough it out and hope your fingers don't fall off? Or figure out some way to wash a full skein of yarn without making a knotty disaster?