Musings on a Sock

Oh, woolen sock,
How I love thee.
While others may mock
They won't be as warm as me!


These are the second pair of socks I've made for myself this YEAR. Both were made on the LK150.
I wore them, ahem, a lot this past weekend. I wear clogs even in the winter, and Lucy was behind me. She wanted to know why I had two different socks on. Rob says I screwed up. I tried to explain the difference between identical and fraternal socks, but I think it was lost on a 4 year old, not to mention the almost 40 year old.


And the heel flipper issue. Well, I'd say the foot is definately not long enough, and it's pulling the heel to the underside of my foot. By quite a bit. Odd, considering I figured out the gauge and how many rows I needed for the whole foot, minus the toe bit and minus the heel. I must have done something wrong with the math. And, consequencly, the leg is too short. I tend to make everything too short, but now that the heel is under my foot, the leg is much shorter. If I hadn't done a tublular cast off, I would rip out the ribbing and add more. I put them in the dryer after washing today, for 10 minutes. It has snugged up the leg some, but shortened them even more. And, the seam is really visible now, even though it wasn't before they were washed!! My other socks aren't like that!




I'd offer them up to anyone who wears say, a size 6 (I'm a 8 1/2), but there's one other big, disappointing issue: The pads of the foot felted a lot! Just from wearing! I try not to wear my wool socks on the carpet, so these were in my boots, my clogs, and my slippers. The foot is thickened and fuzzy. They feel better after washing, but they've still felted!

I have a little more (or was it a little less) than half a ball left. So I don't think one more ball would get me a bigger pair. I'm not giving up on machine knitting socks, I've just got to get everything figured out. Like, why does the seam show so bad now?

I started a pair of handknit toe up socks with some Shelridge Farms yarn. Oh, the 100% merino is so nice! I have some heel issues with them too. I did the short row heel over 1/2 the sts, but it doesn't come up the back of my heel high enough. I need 2 1/2" and most patterns I see say to start the heel 2" before the end of the foot = a heel depth of 2" as well. Should I use more sts = more rows? Can I just add some short rows to the top of the heel? Am I just being too picky, or am I becoming one of those knitters who say they can only wear heel flap/gusset socks? Share your sock fitting secrets!

Tonight--I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I love going to Z's place, AND I love going to the store. I've used up all the store yarn I bought just before Christmas, so I could either start on a lunch bag for Huey (from www.knitty.com. I asked him if he wanted flames or his initial knitted in--he said he wanted monster food on it), or finally start the Flower Basket shawl. Although STARTing a shawl during a knit night is probably not the best idea. Maybe I'll get it started over the weekend and go next....no, next week is Georgetown night, so I think that means I'll being seeing Z tonight! Hopefully one of these nights we'll get some others to come over to the dark side!