Yet another new sock!
Yes folks, you read that right. I cast on for another sock, but this time it wasn't my fault . . . this color of Koigu just jumped into my hands and demanded to be cast on RIGHT NOW.
This is Koigu color P221 and I am so in love with it, it might be my new favorite Koigu color. Seriously. That's a pretty bold statement. That's how much I love it.
I happened to be in Purl last week (did I mention my new job is literally 3 blocks from Purl? We order breakfast from Once Upon a Tart, the shop next door!) and this color called to me from the corner of a bin. Now, I usually don't buy much from Purl because I know their prices are higher and in most situations, I don't NEED yarn . . . I can usually talk myself out of buying, knowing I can pay less elsewhere (and keep in mind I've been buying yarn with a distount for the last 3.5 years!), unless it's something like this. I absolutely can justify spending a little extra to have this color Koigu socks!
Anyway, crazy ranting aside, it's a sock. Again. And you may notice I'm knitting it toe-up. Again. I really don't know what's gotten into me. I've always claimed to hate knitting socks toe-up. Next thing you know I'll be knitting them toe-up on circulars . . . nah, probably not. But never say never!
The problem isn't really the toe-up as much as the short-row heel -- I'm aware of the other toe-up heel choices that have popped up recently, but when I'm knitting a mindless stockinette sock I don't really want to learn new tricks. I just want to knit.
Anyway, back to the short row heel. I don't mind the heel itself, the narrow bottom fits my heel very well. The problem I have is that I have skinny feet but a very tall top arch and almost no bottom arch, leading to a very thick area right around where the short row heel is shaped. Most of my short-row-heel socks fit OK, but they stretch out in an ugly manner across the top of the foot. With this pair, I decided to experiment a little (and only a little, remember the mindless requirement!). About 2" before the heel shaping, I increased by 4 stitches and worked those extra stitches into the heel, then shaped the heel, worked another inch, then decreased back down. You can see in the picture above that there's still some stretching, and perhaps in a later attempt I may try increasing even more . . . but for this sock I'm very pleased with the results so far!
Anyone ever tried this silly idea before? It seems inelegant but I can't think of a reason it shouldn't work . . .
--
Not at all relevant, but I joined a gym today! Don't know if I'll end up posting more or less given this new time commitment, but I'm very optimistic that I might actually work out regularly this time . . . since this time I have the wedding dress as motivation!
3 Responses
anne
yay for treating yourself to some gorgeous yarn!
And way to go with the gym membership. I’ve been toying with the idea of joining one as well. Last time I joined a gym, it was triggered by the fear of being photographed in a bikini on my first vacation in like 5 years. Too bad I didn’t get my bikini body back until 6 months after the vacay. Better late than never, right? Which one did you join? Maybe I should check it out.
Sara
Ivete, I very commonly do a variant of that when using a short-row heel (or the equally-shallow afterthought heel), which is that about 2 inches before I want to place the heel, I start increasing 1 st on each side of the sock, and do that every other row until I’ve got an extra inch worth of fabric on each side (which sounds like a lot, but for my personal socks, I’m usually doing a 7" or 7.5" sock, and my foot is 11" around the ankle measured across the point of the heel, so this gives me about a 9" or 9.5" sock there, and that’s really good for me), and then I work however many rows I need to get to where I want the heel, work the heel, and then work as many rows on this side of the heel as I had on the other side, and then decrease the extra stitches away, every other row, until they’re all gone, so I get nice little gussets. I usually don’t include the extra stitches in my heel turn, because I don’t need that much extra, but one could. This gives me a really good fit, with neither pulling nor puckering across the instep. I use lifted increases on the increasing side of the gusset, because I think they’re the best match for decreases.
Mairi
February 13, 2008
Hi Ivete,
I do gussets for all my inserted heels (short row or peasant). This is because I mostly knit socks that are stranded (instep ease becomes crucial) or are for me (I have cart-horse ankles) or men (who tend to have wider ankles/insteps). While I know that there are people out there who adore the fit of short row heels, they’re not people I knit for.
What I do (toe-up) is decide how many extra stitches I need (typically at least an inch in extra instep width), start increasing that many rows before I need to insert the heel (one increase each side, every other row), then decrease again on every row after the heel. This gives a longer gusset (increases every other row) on the foot side of the heel, and a shorter gusset (decreases every row) above the heel where you want it to shape for a snug fit round the narrow part of the ankle.
Going top-down, I reverse the shaping, of course, and when I’m doing stranded colourwork (Turkish or Fair Isle, for instance), I have to figure out how to incorporate the extra stitches into the pattern.
I totally agree with you on the need for a ‘mindless’ sock heel! I still do all my mindless socks top-down with a heel flap.
Cheers,
Mairi.