Marie's Coney Island Socks Done; David Cook Videos

Pattern: Two Toe-Up Socks on a Single Circular Needle
Yarn: Felici
Needles: Knit Picks Options Fixed Circulars US 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Gauge: Good question. Must've been about 7.5-8 spi. I think I knit these tighter than my recent toe-up Jaywalkers which were more like 7 spi! In hindsight, I think I was so worried about making sure the toe increases were mega-tight that I must've continued the tight tension all the way up the sock.
Notes: I added a picot bind off to make them girly-fied :-) I used *CO 1, BO 3* and a few rounds of stockinette leading up to the BO to curl the edge. I started the 1 inch of 2x2 ribbing right after completing the gusset decreases.

Since I didn't really read through the pattern closely before beginning these (other than there being toddler and child sizes and it being toe-up), I didn't notice that the heel flap was on the bottom and worked like cuff-down socks. It was weird to pick up stitches along the sole flap and follow that with a heel turn and gusset decreases! I'm not sure yet if I completely like the resulting directional look of the stripes on these socks. With a solid color, it wouldn't be noticeable. But with stripes, I'm kind of partial to the look of stripes on a cuff-down heel flap since the gusset stripes are vertical and therefore slimming. So... I'm thinking I probably like the toe-up reverse-engineered heel better since it exactly matches the cuff-down heel. The only thing to try now is the Los Monos Locos heel with a plain sole and slip stitch heel. I've got one skein of Louet Gems sportweight yarn (from last year's Knitter's Connection goodie bag) that I might use to try this. It's only 50 grams though, so I'll have to make them snug and short. Correction: Actually, it's 100 grams, so no worries.

Last night I was on YouTube and looked up David Cook to see if he performed Billie Jean or Hello in concert. MmmmmHmmmm. Yes he did, and my, my did I enjoy. Here are two videos I found. One is of him singing Billie Jean in Kansas City last summer. The second one is of him singing The World I Know and Hello acoustically at Ford Day last September. His banter with the crowd is funny in the second video. I love his acoustic version of Hello. There are some videos of him doing Hello on the Idol Tour last year that are also good, too. One of these days, I'll have to catch his show since he's my favorite American Idol!

Billie Jean


The World I Know and Hello