Winding Up

I finished the first Sidewinder! I did the knitting in four days, but for some reason it took two days to get around to doing the grafting - probably because I'd put so much on hold for four days while knitting, eh?
So this is the sock after Act IV - all the knitting is finished, and it's ready to have stitches picked up and grafted. The toe is at the top, with the double-garter fake rib at the bottom.

And here's the finished sock. Isn't it beautiful? Aren't the stripes fun?

Does it fit? No.

The measurements must have worked, because the foot fits perfectly - just a little bit snugly. But the leg is a little tight, and the heel/ankle part is almost impossible to pull over my foot. Most sock patterns fit me without any trouble, but the direction of this knitting means there's a lot less stretch where you want it - so less room for funkiness.

So that's why I haven't done the toe graft yet, since I may have to pull the entire thing out. I planned to just sulk for awhile, but after some friendly advice from my LYS, I'm going to let it sit on the blocker while I sulk, and see if that improves the fit. If it doesn't, I'll have to make some pattern adjustments, since I don't want to lose the nice fit of the foot.

But the stripes are really cool, aren't they?