rpm pattern whispers

I'm sure many of you read knitty. I recently found that the summer issue had been posted and had to take the tour. I always find something interesting and if I go back through a few months later, something else jumps out at me. The patterns are free, and you know, with free patterns as one of my Sisters of the Wool J says, sometimes you get what you pay for. But the knitty patterns are pretty good quality and if there are probs, a quick email to the pattern writer, and there's a fix up in a jiffy.

This summer issue is the extremities issue and the rpm sock caught my eye. So I have to print it out and skim it and read it and read it some more. It's top-down which is the way I used to always do my socks. I can do this. It has two heel options including a short-row heel, which is one of my new favorites. Check. 'Course I'm of the opinion that you can do any heel on any sock, within reason. But some heels "fit" some patterns better. And some heel patterns fit some feet better than others. But I digress... The short-row heel is a pgr yo style heel and I've been wanting to try that style. Double check. (My short-row heels recently have been of the wrapped stitch variety.)
I have some bright, not dull, not dark, Cherry Tree Hill yarn that needs a pattern. Thanks to G, another of my Sisters of the Wool. This is going to work.

A bit more reading. The spiral pattern has 9 rounds of pattern stitch. Well, shoot. That limits a projects knittability, for me, to times when I can think and count. There are times, like at knit night, when there's lots of chatter, and breaks to look at this project and that new book and more new yarn and and and... Well, patterns that require concentration don't work so well.

Now wait a minute. There's a note that says at the end of each round sometimes you'll have 7 knits or 4 purls instead of the "normal" k6 p3. So I'm thinking, what's up with that? And what if you don't have the end of the round adjustment. What if you... Well, I was a math major way back when and 6+3=9 which is divisible into the suggested cast-on of 54 or 63, but that's what makes the knitter do end of row adjustments to get the purls moving along.
What if you cast-on 53 (or 62)? Well, more thinking, and knitting on my vest project-of-the-moment and I just can't stand it anymore.
I pull out the Cherry Tree Hill.
I off-load the socks that are on my US1.5circs onto the 0 circs.
Cast-on 53. I can't be bothered to knit the ribbing. I have to see the k6 p3 swirl.
Knit a few rows and swirl it does. Sorry it's a little blurry. And it sure is a small nub of a sock.
But that purl3 is swirling right on around the sock and no counting. Just k6p3 on and on and on. You can count to 6 and 3 all the time or just once in a while. Or just read your knitting and whenever you're about to get to a p3 from the prior row, that first purl gets a knit, the last knit stitch of a k6. Then the first knit from a prior row gets the last purl of a p3. I just re-read the last couple of sentences and it's likely they're confusing. Let's just say k6p3 until the sock leg is long enough.

No offense intended to Aija or knitty. It's just sometimes I can't follow directions, and sometimes it just works better for me that way.

More later,
j