The Right Sock

Begun: 11/30/07

Finished: 12/17/07

Pattern: “Four-Stitch Ribbing Patterns” in Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks (hereafter, SKS, p. 34, and using the Corded Rib stitch, p. 38, for the instep pattern.

Size Intended: Women’s size 9 foot

Needles: Two circular size 3 needles for the ribbing, heel, and toe, and two circular size 4 needles for everywhere else

Yarn: Bernat Gloucester (which tells those of you who know yarn how long that has been in my stash!), which is 100% unmercerized cotton, worsted weight. The main color is natural, with the contrasting colors being lavender, light rose, and mauve.

Gauge: I forgot to make a note of it. I’m guessing about 5-6 stitches per inch, given the cast on I chose.

Cast on: 48 stitches

Amount of ribbing: 1.5 inches

Leg length: I forgot to note it, which is stupid because that’s one of the things I want Joh to express an opinion on. I believe five inches.

Heel-to-toe length: Again I forgot to measure. I was aiming for ten inches.

Comments: I made several changes to my approach. First, I used two circular needles rather than four double-points. I find I have less trouble with ladders (stitches being too loose or too tight at the point the needles change in each round, thereby creating a line along the sock vertically) with the circulars. I also have less trouble with stitches falling off an end. I definitely need nickel-plated ones; I tried regular painted metal for part of one of the socks and developed a blister on my index finger. I ended up (by the time the socks were done) with needles from Knitpicks.com, with a 24″ length cable (16″ was too short for my comfort). The slipperiness is wonderful! Although I found the advice maddening when I first was trying to find tools, I do agree that each knitter should try a lot of needles until they find what works best for them. I must say I prefer KnitPicks.com’s size 3 fixed needles to the size 4 Options needles. I have some trouble with the stitches catching over the connection to the cable and some trouble with the cable disconnecting on the Options needles. I wish KnitPicks made fixed 24″ cable needles for size 4 and 5 needles, but clearly that’s not about to happen.

The yarn was from my stash, more from the afghan I had made. Everyone agrees that 100% cotton yarn is poor for socks because it is so inelastic, so I expect these socks to suffer from sock slouch. I used it because I had it in my stash and could use it while I searched for some other yarn to use. (For most of my odyssey in search of sock yarn, see the relevant post in the Wrong Dog Blog, Challenges in Ethical Knitting; Or, How to Do No Harm?)

I tried to follow the book’s pattern strictly, to see what I thought of it. First, I’m not sure I turned the heel right. In more than one place, the author says, “When working the last 2 decrease rows of the heel turn, you may end with a decrease; there will be no additional stitch to knit or purl. This is not an error.” I did have an additional stitch at the end, so that may be an error, but I ended up with the right number of stitches so I continued on.

I used smaller needles on the ribbing, heel, and toe on the advice of other knitters: for the ribbing, the owner of my favorite local yarn store, and for the heel and the toe, SKS. For the ribbing, using a smaller needle makes it tighter, so it holds the sock up better. For the heel and the toe, using a smaller needle makes the fabric denser and therefore more durable, and Joh says she has trouble with the toes wearing out over her big toe. I think, though, that a difference of two sizes would be better. Maybe it’s just my very loose knitting, but I didn’t see much difference in density with only one size. I’ll try that on the next socks.

I also wove the end of the yarn in quite a bit on one of the toes, to make it more durable yet, but since that seemed to make it much stiffer, I didn’t do that on the other. A comparison of comfort and durability would be much appreciated. Another thing I’d like feedback on, Joh: the toe shape of these socks. As I showed you, the toe of the Girlie Socks is more pointed than the toe of the Bed Socks, and I wasn’t sure whether that would be more or less comfortable.

I picked up gusset stitches the “plain” way rather than the “pretty” way on this pair of socks because using the smaller needles on the heel (and probably using an inelastic yarn) didn’t allow for the pretty way. I may be forced to keep to the plain way, if I continue using smaller needles for the heel.