One upon a time...

There was a sock. An embryo toe-up sock to be exact. It belonged to a knitter who had never tried a toe-up sock before but took upon herself its creation with good cheer and much confidence. The toe itself was intriguing and ultimately satisfying as the little square of knitting turned into a recognisable toe.

At this stage it looked like this:


The Knitter knit on, recognising that now she was on the foot it really should be plain sailing and all would be well (foolish knitter). It was only when the heel was turned that she noticed that in addition to the little mistake she was happy to live with she had in fact misread the whole pattern and on every row knit 2 sts that should have been purled. The Knitter (on a train at the time) pulled out the needles and ripped back to the toe. At this stage it looked like this:



Again.

Peeved but not discouraged our knitter valiantly started up the foot and round the heel. She contemplated posting a picture on her blog and sharing the giggle of how she was so silly to have mis-read the pattern. She ran out of time to post but the sock looked like this:

The knitter kept knitting and finished the heel turn. She then tried it on. (minus points to the knitter for only at this stage having noticed how long the sock was) It was too long.

The knitter ripped back, deciding to take out one of the 8-row pattern repeats.

The knitter spent several hours reknitting the gusset increases and the heel. And tried it on:

Still too long (it's like Cinderella in reverse).

The sock currently looks like this (now sporting 5 rather than 8 pattern repeats).

The Knitter thinks that the yarn is beautiful, the pattern is charming but toe up socks may not be the salvation they are often advertised to be. Also the knitter could do with being less tired and paying more attention to the pattern and to the details of her mistakes.

Now I know that to climb Everest you end up climbing the height of the mountain three or four times before you eventually make that summit bid but seriously, is that really necessary with a sock? It's like trying to run in a dream only to find yourself rooted to the spot. The number of hours I have put in on this sock!! I'm off to knit some gusset increases and a heel - send me positive vibes!