ZantiMissKnit's (Miss)Adventures in Sock Knitting!

Chapter One: The Sock That Mocked Me

Socks are not my best friend.

I have been obsessed for at least a year with making socks. In fact, a year ago, I took a class on the Magic Loop method of making socks, my first foray into The Wonderful World of Sock Knitting. I made a miniature sock, which is ever-so-cute and keeps the tip of one of our Sharpies warm. . . it also fits on the tip of my nose, thanks to the little ball I have on the end of my nose, but I probably shouldn't be admitting to being so bored/easily amused that I will see if a mini sock fits on my nose, should I? But I digress. . . A few weeks later, I decided to try it out. . . my 40" size 3 Addis turbo, a skein of Lion Brand Magic Stripes, and I was off!

The leg of The Sock worked well. The Magic Loop was a little fiddly for someone inexperienced with circular knitting, but I got used to it. Then came the heel flap, or HELL FLAPS as I have come to call them. Somewhere while doing this "slip one, knit one" method of creating a nice sturdy heel flap, I managed to get my yarn stuck. On my needles. In a big knot. So tightly that I could not even slide the yarn off to frog it. (To this day, I'm still not sure how it did it.) The Sock got put into the bottom of my knitting basket, and later inside one of my stash cupboards so I would not hear it mocking me any longer.

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to try again. I was sick of seeing all these gorgeous sock patterns with the knowledge that I had a partially knit, abadoned sock in my stash cupboard. So, I got out some size 3 dpns, took The Sock out of the cupboard and took a look at it.

I decided surgery was necessary.

I cut the yarn, and was able to unknot it.

Then -- and I am still proud of myself for this -- I frogged the heel flap, and managed to get all of my stitches onto the dpns/stitch holders without dropping a single stitch. Impossible? No way! I was determined, man!

Then it was off into heel flap HELL. My hands hurt thinking about it. It is so hard to NOT knit super-tightly on the heel flap, but I think the dpns were much more managable than the super-long circular needle.

I did make it through the heel flap. I also picked up the necessary stitches and they only looked a little like poo-poo, not a lot like poo-poo like my Hopeful sweater's picked up stitches.

I finished The Sock, last Saturday, if I remember correctly. As I was knitting the foot, I thought it looked a little wide, but I hoped that I could make that up by making it a little shorter in the toe, which would pull it a bit (or some crazy rationalizing like that).

I tried the sock on. I took pictures.

I realize it is hard to tell here, because I am holding my foot up in the air, and gravity and pulling the sock down so it looks normal. But it's not.

It is Way. Too. Big.

I guess that a gal who was nicknamed "midget hands* and baby feet" by a metalhead in high school should know that one size does NOT fit all. I guess that when you wear a size 6.5 shoe and the average woman wears -- what? -- size 8.5 or 9.5 , sock patterns may need to be altered a tad.

I tried The Sock on with a pair of shoes that are a little wide on me, and the big-ness just bunched up over the top and looked like pudding spilling over.

Even worse, The Sock is too small for ZantiMisterKnit's feet. Which is a blessing, really, because I want to make a pair of socks Just For Him, and I don't want him to be the recipient of "my mistakes".

Have I frogged The Sock?

Not yet.

But I have started another sock. This time, I am using Ann Budd's "Book of Handy Knitting Patterns" (I think that's the title, but I keep getting it wrong), which gives specific instructions depending on the circumferance of your foot and your gauge. I think I may be on to
something good here.

I hope!!!

I leave you with another image of my too-big-but-looks-fine-in-this-picture-sock.

*apologies to all little people out there, but he did say "midget".