With the US4 needles, the stranded colorwork part was the right size, but the rest of the sock was way too big. Decreased an extra 4 sts after the colorwork. This will be fine for house socks, but still slightly bigger than I’d like. Would use smaller needles next time for everything but the stranded parts (and switch to the smaller needles for the plain rows in the colorwork section as well!). Or, use the same needles but use the pattern numbers for the 8” foot size (largest child size), but go up a needle size for the stranded parts.
My gauge was way off - on the US4 stockinette sections, it was 21.5 st and 30 r over 4”.
Cast on 56
worked rib for 11 r
decr to 52
After colorwork, decreased to 44 and followed pattern for the 8” sock
worked 12 r before starting heel
worked 15 heel rows
55 rows from heel to start of toe decreases (7”)
08-06-2014 (from my old blog):
I didn’t bother swatching because they’re socks. By the time you have a good swatch done in the round, you’ve knit a good portion of the sock. But if I had done one, I would have discovered that my gauge was much looser than the pattern gauge.
But all was well – I just decreased the number of stitches after the stranded colorwork pattern, and they ended up fine.
Since this yarn is DK weight, the socks are pretty quick to knit. Of course, that also means that they’re too thick to wear with most of my shoes – but I really expected them to just be house socks anyway.
If I made them again (or one of the many other cute stranded sock patterns for Karisma), I would definitely go down a size in needle, and maybe still knit a smaller size of sock. I started out with the medium ladies’ size (9.5″ foot length), but ended up decreasing down to the child’s large size (8″ foot length). By the way, the sizes listed on the Ravelry pattern page don’t match the ones on the actual pattern page.
Whatever needle size I used again, I’d definitely consider going up a size for the stranded colorwork rows.
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