Lace of hearts

It’s official now: I’m a sock knitting addict. I love making them, I love wearing them. They seem to fit so much better than the ones you buy in the store! And they are great projects to knit on the train: small, compact and no poking other people with long needles.

To get something of a challenge into the sock knitting, I decided to try and do some lace work. I used the basic Sokbasis pattern I had used before and added the lace pattern from the Falling in love lace pattern.

What I liked
I was a bit afraid at first, I didn’t know what to expect. But in fact, lace work is not that hard. You just need to keep your head clear and keep count. And once you have the pattern in your fingers, the repeat gets easier and easier.

What I altered

• Because I used the Sokbasis pattern, I needed 64 stitches in total, while the lace pattern only called for 62. To solve this problem, I added a knit stitch to the start of the front part and the start of the back part. In hindsight, it would have been better to make it a purl stitch, but the knit stitch looks OK as well.
  
• For the cuff, I decided to plain knit 18 rows instead of just binding off when the lace pattern was complete. Now it has a nice curl-down at the edges.
  

• To get the curved top of the heart right, the pattern calls for k4tog. This required some practice. It’s also best to knit the previous row not too tight, to make it easier for yourself.
• The edges of the sock have a cable pattern as well. For the first sock, I sometimes missed the cable twist: I either forgot or twisted it the wrong way. Concentration for lace and cable patterns truely is everything!
  

Falling in love lace pattern:

Sokbasis pattern (Dutch):