The “Pico” Sock

I had a conversation with Markus yesterday morning that went something like this:

Me: *sigh* I’m not happy with the picot edging I started on the lacey socks. I think I may just rip it out and try something else.

Markus: Why not try the nano cast on?

Me: What’s that?

Markus: Well, pico is 10^-12, and nano is 10^-9.

Me: *blank stare* No, I mean picot spelled with a “T”.

Markus: Oh.

So Markus proceeds to look up the definition of “picot” in the Scrabble dictionary we have sitting on the table.

Markus: “Picot \ v -ED, -ING, -S: to edge with ornamental loops”

Me: But these aren’t supposed to be loops.

Markus: Well, there’s your problem right there.

Me: ?

This is what we discuss at breakfast. Riveting stuff, huh?

In his defense, he makes quite an effort to “talk knitting” with me, being a non-knitter and all. He calls himself a theoretical knitter…

So I ended up ripping out the picot (spelled with a “T”) cast on. I tried to do a modified picot cast on which looked pretty nondescript, so I ripped that out, too. Then I tried the Channel Island cast on which would have looked better had I been more uniform with my tension. Ripped that one, too. I thought about doing a provisional cast on and picking up the stitches around the edge after the sock is done to work a decorative bind off or something, but that would mean extra ends to darn in. Nope. In the end I settled on a plain, boring, easy longtail cast on.

Here is the sock in progress at the First Fridays at Frick concert, a la Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

I’m afraid the sock may be turning out too wide. These socks are a gift for someone and I’m not sure what her leg/foot size is exactly. I want to keep it a surprise so I’m not asking her for her measurements. My gauge is off by 1/2 a stitch (should be 8 st = 1″, but I’m getting 7.5 sts = 1″), and this is already using one needle size smaller than what the pattern calls for. I’m resisting starting a second sock on size 0 needles because… seriously, size 0. No, not happening. Plus the only size 0 needles I have are double points, and I’m a magic loop convert.

I’ll keep you posted.

The 2 “M”s enjoying the concert.