Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

My Feet

March 19, 2009 on 10:11 am | In Knitting | 1 Comment

So, I’m working on my fourth and fifth pairs of socks (for me, I’ve done six pairs for other people) and I’m finally starting to realize how to make socks that actually fit my feet.  Let’s go over the history.

First pair of socks were knit from Wendy Knit’s generic toe-up sock pattern.  I had problems with getting a stretchy enough bind off.  I think I settled on a crochet bind off.  The foot is also a tad on the short side.  Besides that they fit fine.  I’m actually wearing them right now.

Second pair of socks were Jaywalkers.  Boy oh boy.  While I love how they look with varigated sock yarn, they are a nightmare to put on.  But once on they fit fine.  The pattern stitch has absolutely no give.  But since I wasn’t the only person with that issue, I didn’t give it much more thought.

Third pair of socks were Monkeys.  I also love how they look in varigated yarn and more importantly they fit great (and maybe even a tad too long).  Finally!

Fourth pair of socks (see yesterday’s post) are also Monkeys.  I figured that since I finally found a pattern that fit well and I loved the final product that I would knit them again.  I also finally got why Cara knit so many of them.

Then the ground breaking fifth pair (also shown in yesterday’s post).  Why ground breaking?  Because I finally figured out what I’m doing wrong.  It seems that I have a high instep and need a very stretchy pattern to get a hand  knit sock over my heel.  The usual solution of just knitting a long heel flap doesn’t work if you can’t even get to the heel flap.

The fifth pair started out as Emily’s socks (Rav link) sized up for Woman’s med (using Sugar Maple to size up).  I cast on 72 stitches which is way more than I usually cast on.  So, I thought no problemo.  Wrong.  The funky sticth pattern created a fabric with almost no give resulting in a sock leg that I couldn’t get over my heel.  But unlike the Jaywalker pattern, I couldn’t find anyone else having issues.  I did some Rav searching in the forums and figured out the whole high instep thing.  I frogged back to the cuff and continued on using Tangled in Blue (sort of, I’m actually just using the pattern stitch).  This pattern is basically a 2×2 rib with a drop stitch pattern.  Mucho stretchy.  I finished up the gusset last night and tried it on (not the first time since I didn’t want to have to frog again).  And boy do they fit nice.  I’m not sure if it is the pattern or the yarn (Knitpicks Felici), but they are really soft and nice to get on.

Hopefully I will be able to get results like this on all my future socks.