I would like to apologize to any Estonian native speakers who are reading this (of which I am sure there might, one day, maybe possibly be one) because there is no way the title is grammatically correct. I’ve been working on Merike’s Socks from Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks in some stashed ancient Premier Serenity Sock (the link is for their Self-Striping because the solid no longer seems to be on the website, which goes to show just how ancient) and the remnants of the Regia Native Colors from my Lace and Cable Socks. It’s the first time I’ve knit a Latvian braid, which I’ve seen often on Nancy’s patterns but never attempted before. I found this awesome video on Youtube that outlines the process perfectly. The pattern does describe how to do it, but there is nothing like having someone walk you through each row. Knitting the Latvian braid still goes incredibly slowly for me, as the first pattern row has you bring both yarns to the front of your work and purl each stich while alternating yarns, always bringing the new yarn over the old one. You are intentionally twisting your yarns together, but the second row has you reverse the process, bringing the new yarn under the old one, and that untwists your yarn as you work the row. Those alternate twists create what looks like a braid on the front of your work. That does mean that you purl a stitch, drop both yarns completely, twist the positions, pick them both back up so you don’t lose too much tension, and purl the next one, a process which seems to take ten times as long as a normal purl stitch. May just be my lack of experience. I am fantasizing about a three-color Latvian braid…
The finished sock is about an inch shorter in the leg than the pattern calls for, because I’m starting to slightly stress about the amount of white I’ve got left. And the photo could be better, but my lovely white-faced boy dog who for age is just a number insisted on being involved, and struggled with me not wanting him to poke himself with tiny double-points.