Dressdiary: Aragorn sock: New beginnings.

[janestarz]

I have some bad news....



This pile of hopelessly frogged yarn was once a nearly-finished sock. It took me three weeks to get to this misarable point.

I can't for the life of me calculate if a sock fits correctly until it's very nearly finished. When all you have is a cuff, it's hard to pull it onto your leg. For some strange reason I can hardly get it past my heel at that point in the knitting.
When you've finally started on turning the heel, the very last thing I want is to pull stitches out of whack by pulling on a half-finished heel. I want the sensitive stitches near the hinge point of my ankle to have at least some support from their surrounding brethren. And it's hard enough to pull a sock on when some of those stitches are still on the needle.

By the time I got to a point where I could see how the stitches looked, and how the sock fitted... it was very close to completion.


The sock on the foot, and what it looks like after I've pulled it off... a frumpled mess.

But the truth is, the stitches on the foot looked stretched all out of whack, and that means you can see the tension problems I've had along the way. There is too much pull on the stitches and the sock looks horrible because of it. It's nice to know this cotton stretch yarn is so very stretchy (after all, it's the first time I'm knitting a cotton pair of socks), but it's not a nice result. This is not what these socks are supposed to look like.

And so it was time for a good frog. And it will be time for a new beginning.
I'll probably use a different method of casting on -- the cuff was a bit too loose to my liking) and I'll have to wind everything into a ball. That means I can start at the other end of the yarn and maybe avoid that weird little pip that was poking out one of my heel stitches.

Next up:
Winding that pile of yarn into a ball and starting over.

Gosh, won't y'all be really appreciative if I ever gift you with a pair of hand-knit socks?

Comments

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

I've knitted socks myself, so if anyone gifts me a pair of hand knitted socks, I'll treasure it even it the socks don't fit well. Knitting a sock is a challenge and they come in pairs.

Do you have the same problem with getting the sock on your foot halfway knitting when you knit from the toe up? Is it the needles that cause the difficulty with getting the sock past your heel, because then a circular needle or putting the stitches on a string may help.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I've not yet tried my hand at toe-ups and I'm sure once I've knitted a dozen pairs I'll have the basics down. But until then, knitting is still sometimes a surprise.

I find it hard to gauge (haha) if my socks will fit before I've knitted past the heel. Because the leg section is always much tighter than the foot -- I don't have very fat feet -- and I have trouble getting the leg section past the heel before I've knitted the heel.

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

Knitting toe up isn't that different from knitting the other way. I've finished some toe-up pairs and I like knitting toe-up. I started my first sock ever at the cuff, but never finished that one before some moths decided to dine on it. My first finished pair was with thick gifted yarn, so they turned into a bit loose, but comfy house socks for the cold winter days.

I like the pattern of your sock. I can imagine you want to get it right when you spend so much time on it.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I really want to try my hand at toe-ups! I just need to knit the Aragorns, then do the second gray/magico II gradient sock with separate toe and knit the second fingerless mitten for Windsong before I can start something new.

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Sjesuz! En je ging net zo lekker! Maar ja, als hij niet past heb je er nog steeds niks aan... Succes met de volgende poging. Kunnen de dames op Ravelry je niet helpen met de juiste hoeveelheid steken?

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Ja, drie dames die het te strak vonden zitten zeiden allemaal dat ik misschien maar de L moest proberen. Dus nu staan er 72 steken op de naald, in plaats van 66.

[steelweaver.livejournal.com]

Ahww, what a shame. At least you're getting lots of practice in...