Sunday, April 6, 2008

A most vexing pair of socks!

It's the Child's Sock in Miranda Pattern from my last post. After finishing the first sock and starting the second, I realized that the way the sock bulges at the ankle was really bugging me. I mean, why bother making a fitted sock leg if it doesn't fit?

Take a look:


(Grrrrr!)

The bulge is caused by the pattern's calf shaping, which starts wider at the top and then gets narrower as it reaches the ankle. Unfortunately it doesn't match the actual shape of my leg. The sock is still too wide when it reaches my ankle, and then its width narrows one more time. The end circumference is good, but it doesn't happen soon enough. Thus, a bulge.

So for sock #2, I tried adding another pattern repeat before starting the heel. I repeated rows 52-65 of the pattern, which added another inch to the ankle.

Believe me, it took me a while to go ahead and try the extra repeat for sock #2. I had lots of doubts - would I run out of yarn? did I really want to go back and re-knit the first sock? what if it didn't work, and I had 2 socks that didn't fit right and didn't match? I considered starting completely over but making ankle socks that had no calf shaping. . . Yeah, I think too much about things sometimes.

However, I'm happy to say that the extra repeat made a big difference:


(Ahh, so much better!)




So, I just need to kitchener the toe, and I'll have one finished sock. Again. I have only a whisper of the skein of Lorna's Laces left.

I'm going to have to do some frogging and re-knitting, but it will be worth it.

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