I made a few mistakes, too small of needles and too thin of yarn, so the sock took forever!
My next disaster yielded a PAIR of socks. Still wrong materials, but I still use these guys. They are made of 100% merino wool, doesn't wear well at all. I wore through one of the heels. I recently decided to mend it and now I wear them for an hour or so after my pedicure and that's it. Merino
A few years ago some new neighbors moved in and the wife was a knitter! Yea! She loves to knit socks and felt I needed to knit them too. So we picked out a wonderful pattern that I have used more than once, Owlie.
We knit them together, her right handed and me left, following the chart. I chose smaller needles and more stitches, but they came out pretty much the same size. Here are mine. She didn't put hers on her Rav page and she has since moved so I can't get a picture of them. She showed me that knitting socks is all about numbers, and they are easy numbers too, the same ones every time even. Now I find a pattern or stitch I like and just plug it into my formula that fits me.
US size 1.5 needles
Finger weight yarn
Cast on 72 sts or close there of.
Work 12 rnds of cuff if one isn't written.
Work 60 rnds of pattern unless it is closer to a garter pattern, then it takes more rnds.
Work my heel flap across 36 sts, for 36 rows. I have recently learned eye of partridge and love it.
Work the gusset as written here.
Dec back down to 72 sts.
Work foot until I have a total of 60 rnds.
Work toe dec until the ere only 24 sts rem.
Kitchener closed.
This opened a door though. We then joined the Tour de Sock and Sock Sniper the next year. I then decided to be adventurous and try a pair of toe up socks. The were given to a friend under going chemo at the time. Stage 4 breast and ovarian cancer. The Lord still has work for her here. Here are the socks. Not my favorite way to work.
I have since tried doing toe up socks again and I just don't get it. I understand the knowing of having enough yarn for the foot and making a shorter leg if necessary. My thought on that is the foot is the part in the shoe and not seen as publicly as the leg. I'd rather have a longer leg, run short on yarn for the foot and have to make the toe in a different color. Another way to avoid running short on yarn, especially for sock 2, is to divide the yarn that you have in half. Wind each half into it's own ball, working one sock from each ball. There are other advantages to this as well. When you reach the hell of sock one, if you have another set of needles, you can start sock 2 and do the heel at a more convenient time. Or just work both socks simultaneously.
The casting on for toe up is quick using Judy's magic cast on. That I love. It is very fiddly though until you have about 6 stitches on each needle, that's takes some time.
For me it has been hard to get a foot that fits working toe up socks. My first try at the Port socks ended up ripped because the foot was too short. Now I did do some math and my notes from cuff down and was able to get a foot that fit. Having done all the work and knowing all my numbers for cuff down I don't see a benifit for me to change. Here are the links to the final 2 Port socks projects, one done left handed and the other Portuguese knit. Port 2a Port 2b This pattern will be available in my Rav store soon. One sock is worked from the cuff down and the other is worked from the toe up. Both use the same charts. It is a pattern I put together for a sock anatomy class I hope to teach soon.
Caring for socks is very easy to do if you put some thought in to the project first. First of all think about who you are making them for and how they will wear them. My mom and grandmother only wear theirs around the house and to bed. I wear mine in my shoes, even my sneakers. I know of one knitter's husband who wears his running every morning, for 5 miles. She using Corridale yarn for those and they are holding up.
My mom loves the merino, cashmere, nylon base sock yarn. She hand washes her and my grandmother's socks. My favorite base is super-wash merino, nylon. I throw all those in the washer AND dryer. I do have a few of hand wash only pairs, before I knit socks like an addict. For hand wash socks, alpaca, merino and other non super-wash blends, I fill a pot, sink or whatever is handy with warm water and some Eucalan no rinse soap. I drop the socks in and swish gently as these are feltable fibers and not in the washer for a reason. I leave them to soak until the water has cooled, then spin out the excess water and lay flat to dry. To spin out the water you can use the washing machine set so that no water comes in or use a salad spinner.
So choose the fiber in the base with the recipient in mind, not only how they will wear them, but how much time it will take to care for them.
If they are for children, who's feet grow so quickly I don't even make then socks, then just make tubes with no heel. Then they will fit a while longer. I also do this for someone who's shoe size I don't know.
Speaking of heels, there are many heels out there that can be worked on most patterns. The newest one I learned is the short row heel. I may like it better than the heel flap I have been working for so long. I haven't finished that pair of socks yet and therefore don't know how it will feel on my foot, but I know the knitting of it is very quick.
You can also do an after thought heel. To do this, when you get to where the heel would be put in, pick up some scrap yarn and knit across what would be the heel stitches. Re-knit those stitches in pattern using the sock yarn and continue on to finish the sock. Then come back and pick up stitches on each side the scrap yarn. Remove the scrap yarn so the you have live stitches for your heel. Now work a decrease similar to that of the toe. I don't like this one because it comes out too pointy.
Socks wear better when always worn on the same foot. So how do you know which sock goes on which foot? In my socks that go on the right foot I a small 7 stitch by 3 round purl section. It makes a bump that can be seen by the eye but not felt by the foot.
This morning when I put my socks on I couldn't remember if they were a hand wash pair or not, they are but I had to look up the yarn, In future when I knit socks from a hand wash yarn I will put another kind of mark on one of the socks so I know immediately.
I store my socks, rolled up in pairs in plastic, lidded totes. Each of these totes holds a dozen pairs, please don't judge me.
I have been knitting socks like crazy since that wonderful neighbor got me hooked back in 2014. I always have at least one pair on the needles if not more. I don't have all of them on my Ravelry page, but most of them are there now since I have decided to post anything that takes a week or longer on my Rav page. I was keeping all the little bits of yarn left over so that I could darn my socks. Then when it came to it, I decided not to darn them. I have so many new pairs to wear, why not rip out the worn socks and re-knit them into something new? Now my little left over bits are going into a Stephen West shawl, I get the pleasure of not only the yarn, but the memory of that pair of socks. Either who I made the socks for, where I was when I made them or places I have worn them to. I'm excited about this.
I went to rip out my first 2 pairs of socks and it did not work. Boo! The bottoms were so felted that ripping is going to be impossible. So instead I have started a box to collect my socks that are beyond foot wear. My idea now is to use them as pieces of fabric to make crazy cloth for other finished objects, like bags or hats maybe. Still just an idea, but I am excited about it.
I'm not here to change anyone's mind, I just want to share my sock experience. In hopes of getting everyone to at least TRY socks, for 2019 I am going to host #azariahsbabysockchallenge on Insta Gram. Baby socks are smaller and faster than full grown socks. They take small amounts of yarn and can be done in any color. For the challenge I would like all socks to be either donated or gifted, but not sold. My goal is to make a pair a week and then they will be donated to the Women's Resource Center in my area. There are many free patterns available on Ravelry. I will draw for a prize once a month. Any other info will posted on my IG Azariahs1982 the end of December. Yes I am copying what Yarnhoarder did with dishcloths, sorry.
No comments:
Post a Comment