Nobody Likes a Braggart

At the beginning of last school year a student came to me with the tattle that one of their friends was showing off. While I do not necessarily deem this tattle-worthy, we did have a talk about how bragging can hurt other people's feelings and might make other friends not want to play with you. I closed our discussion with the statement that "Nobody likes a braggart." Unbeknownst to me, another teacher heard me having this conversation and word got out that I used the word braggart with my students (and yes, I did have to explain to the kids what a braggart was). It became kind of the running joke during the year. 

It gets even better. Before we went on spring break we had been reading Midnight on the Titanic from the Magic Treehouse Series. When we returned from break, we talked a little about the anniversary of the Titanic and I was asking some questions to see if they remembered what it was. My kindergarteners remembered that it was a huge ship that had sunk in the ocean (although one claimed that the captain was now in prison in Italy. Wrong ship buddy). They remembered it was called the Unsinkable Ship because the people who built it thought nothing could make it sink. They also remembered that this was wrong because it did sink. At this point in the discussion, one of my students who was sitting near the front just shook her head and said, "That's what happens when you're boastful." For sure.

 

This pattern is called Show-off Stranded Socks (thus the intro story). The stranding is just a yarn over that's been passed over. These were the socks I was knitting when I headed to California and then had the needle mishap (I started these on a size 0 needle thinking I'd be smart and get a nice tight gauge. Gauge was too tight. Foot wouldn't fit in sock. Needle broke off cord literally a moment after I realized this). I restarted them last weekend so I'd have something to knit on my trip to Boston.  For this pair I used a skein of Madelinetosh Sock which, when I wound it up, I noticed was lighter in the center and darker on the outer part of the cake. Well, if you look carefully, the bottom sock is lighter (this was the first one knit) and the second one is a bit darker. It's really no big deal but I do find it interesting the contrasts seen in hand dyed yarns. 

 

I also found the heel construction on this really interesting. I generally don't like heel flaps and gussets and tend to do short row heels on my own socks. This heel flap, however, kept my interest the entire time. It's done by adding additional stitches on either side of one half the stitches (increasing every other row) while continuing to knit the sock in the round. After the increases, the heel is turned by doing short row decreases to get the number of stitches back down to the original. Once this is done you resume your knitting in the round again. It's pretty cool. 

 

This makes my third pair of socks this year. One more and I'll have reached my goal of four for the year. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I prepare to frog a sock in progress.

Pattern: Show-off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell (FREE!)

Yarn: MadelineTosh Sock in Grenadine

Needles: US 1.5 (2.5mm) and US 0 (2mm) for heels and toes.

Began: Officially June 23rd (restarted after ripping to cuff July 7)

Completed: July 14

Ravelry Link