Superficial Sock Surgery
Dec. 2nd, 2021 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzOne of my "finish this before the end of the year" projects was to 'fix' the Senbonzakura socks I knitted in this years Sock Madness. Although they were the right size for my feet right off the bat at the minimum requirements for the round (thanks to an absurdly tall row gauge), the socks didn't feel quite right. To figure out what was bugging me about them, I wore them around the house for a Saturday and finally put my finger on the problem: the socks sagged and didn't stay up high enough. My sweatpants have pretty short legs, so I need tall socks or suffer from cold shins, and these were definitely too short.
The problem with the Senbonzakura was that they were knit top-down. So I couldn't just take the bind-off edge off like you would with bottom-up socks and make a longer leg. To make it fit perfectly, I figured I'd need to knit a cuff and attach it to the socks in some way, making sure both were top-down. And so I set to work.
The notes on Ravelry stated I'd knit these on 2.5mm needles, and that I'd knit the 76 stitch version. Sounded easy enough! Let's do it.
This close to the winter solstice, taking pictures that had enough light was a bit of a challenge, but after finishing the first cuff I picked up a row of stitches on the cast-on edge and figured out a way to attach the two separate sock pieces together. The simplest solution was probably a variation of a three-needle bind-off.
I put the cuff over the old sock, held the needles of both parts behind each other in my left hand, and used an extra needle to knit through both the stitch on the cuff and the stitch on the sock. Once I had two stitches on my right needle, I bound off one stitch. It worked well enough.
But why oh why was I so adamant of knitting the cuff seperately anyway? There was no way my k2p2 cuff was going to match up with the intricate pattern of the rest of the sock, and I hadn't even tried to make them match. In my mind, the top-down socks needed a top-down cuff. But this is only true if you want to match the pattern of the sock to the new cuff.
These new cuffs would not match anything of the already-existing sock, in part because the original sock had a p2, k1tbl cuff with mock cables. I had no desire to repeat it since -- to be honest -- the leg of the sock had very little stretch in it. That was the reason why the socks didn't stay up high enough in the first place!
So...why hadn't I just picked up stitches at the top of the leg, and knit the cuff bottom-up from there?
That is exactly what I did for the second sock. I picked up stitches and knit that cuff bottom-up. On the outside the difference wasn't very visible, but on the inside you could see an extra ridge for the sock I had finished with the three-needle bind-off. And, even worse: the three-needle bind-off was a little bit more tight than the other one, leaving an ugly ridge on the outside of the sock just below the cuff if I wore it.
There was no other solution: I would have to frog the first new cuff I knit, and knit it the same way as the second new cuff: picking up stitches from the top of the leg upwards, binding off loosely at the end. And that is exactly what I did:
On the sock blockers the socks still look a bit low -- I always love socks that get right to the top of the blocker or even extend a little bit beyond that. But, measuring the new height against a regular pair of cotton socks -- they're almost exactly the same length now. And that's good enough for me.
I can now finally start wearing my Senbonzakura's...and I still beat the politicians with fixing this sock to their trying to form a new government. Guess that makes me super speedy.
The problem with the Senbonzakura was that they were knit top-down. So I couldn't just take the bind-off edge off like you would with bottom-up socks and make a longer leg. To make it fit perfectly, I figured I'd need to knit a cuff and attach it to the socks in some way, making sure both were top-down. And so I set to work.
The notes on Ravelry stated I'd knit these on 2.5mm needles, and that I'd knit the 76 stitch version. Sounded easy enough! Let's do it.
This close to the winter solstice, taking pictures that had enough light was a bit of a challenge, but after finishing the first cuff I picked up a row of stitches on the cast-on edge and figured out a way to attach the two separate sock pieces together. The simplest solution was probably a variation of a three-needle bind-off.
I put the cuff over the old sock, held the needles of both parts behind each other in my left hand, and used an extra needle to knit through both the stitch on the cuff and the stitch on the sock. Once I had two stitches on my right needle, I bound off one stitch. It worked well enough.
But why oh why was I so adamant of knitting the cuff seperately anyway? There was no way my k2p2 cuff was going to match up with the intricate pattern of the rest of the sock, and I hadn't even tried to make them match. In my mind, the top-down socks needed a top-down cuff. But this is only true if you want to match the pattern of the sock to the new cuff.
These new cuffs would not match anything of the already-existing sock, in part because the original sock had a p2, k1tbl cuff with mock cables. I had no desire to repeat it since -- to be honest -- the leg of the sock had very little stretch in it. That was the reason why the socks didn't stay up high enough in the first place!
So...why hadn't I just picked up stitches at the top of the leg, and knit the cuff bottom-up from there?
That is exactly what I did for the second sock. I picked up stitches and knit that cuff bottom-up. On the outside the difference wasn't very visible, but on the inside you could see an extra ridge for the sock I had finished with the three-needle bind-off. And, even worse: the three-needle bind-off was a little bit more tight than the other one, leaving an ugly ridge on the outside of the sock just below the cuff if I wore it.
There was no other solution: I would have to frog the first new cuff I knit, and knit it the same way as the second new cuff: picking up stitches from the top of the leg upwards, binding off loosely at the end. And that is exactly what I did:
On the sock blockers the socks still look a bit low -- I always love socks that get right to the top of the blocker or even extend a little bit beyond that. But, measuring the new height against a regular pair of cotton socks -- they're almost exactly the same length now. And that's good enough for me.
I can now finally start wearing my Senbonzakura's...and I still beat the politicians with fixing this sock to their trying to form a new government. Guess that makes me super speedy.
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Date: 2021-12-03 10:55 am (UTC)