Cat Bordhi was in town!!!

Well, I knew that Cat was coming to town (Lorilee, or "L2" as I like the call her, kept talking about it and trying to get people to attend Cat's "Sockitecture" workshops). I never really did plan on attending the workshops since the dates and time conflicted with my work schedule. On top of that, I didn't think I really need to attend since I've already knitted several pairs of socks from Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One with success. I'd figured I'll just come in on book-signing night so that Cat could sign my copy of the sock book and the novel Treasure Forest.

Things didn't quite go according to plan (story of my life). Sometime Monday night L2 (the owner of my LYS ~ City Knitting of Grand Rapids) and Cat were having a chat, and for some bizarre reason I came up as the topic of conversation. I am not exactly sure what L2 told Cat (something about my fondness for geometric forms or something), but the end result was that Cat wanted me to attend her last workshop scheduled for Wednesday. So, they both typed up an "urgent" E-mail to me with the gist of "come to the workshop or else!" I didn't open that E-mail until Tuesday morning, in which I threw in the towel and said, "that yes, of course I'll come!" That day I snuck in a 'personal day' request through Human Resources and got my Wednesday off.

I have to say that I would have regretted it if I hadn't attend that workshop on Wednesday. It was a really interesting topic of just casting on and proceeding to design ones own sock by combining patterns from her book. Cat went over the basic architecture of any sock, the proper way to do short rows for the heel turn, the really easy math to figure out your instep increases, number of wraps, number of stitches to add to the wings, etc. Needless to say, the lightbulbs where going off on top of my head! The one important thing that Cat has taught me is the confidence to toss the book and go with my inspirations. That was pretty much what I did, and I knitted up a sock that fit my ideal.

First I knitted a whirlpool toe, and then the foot with reinforced soles over the balls of the foot ~ my socks tend to wear out too quickly in that area. My instep increases was over the top of the foot using the same increases as for the standard toe. This seem to give the sock a streamlined look. I reinforced the sole again at about 10 rows before I got to the heel turn since I wanted a larger area of sturdy fabric to cup my heels. The cuff is pretty basic: stockinette ending with 2X2 ribbings.

I am so pleased with what I've knitted, how well it fits, and how surprised I was when I realized that I knitted that darn stucker without referring to a book!!!!! I am naming this sock the "trailblazer", and I hope Cat would be pleased with how much she contributed to my growing confidence in knitting from my own inner creativity. Hey Cat ~ you rock! And L2, thanks for convincing Cat to come to City Knitting!