Saturday, February 20, 2010

mmmmmm ...

..tight, my skew fits beautifully, but it is a tight fit to pull this sock on. I'm at the top of skew sock one, and dithering. I could live with it and knit the other sock the same, just as the pattern writes ... but I'm not sure I'd be keen on reaching for socks that needed to be stretched and eased on. Part of my problem must be self inflicted, I always knit socks on 2.25 mm needles, always. And they fit, always, well when I use a pattern they fit (there was that time it took me 3 goes to get the right number of stitches for socks for Toby - but I was making that sock up as I knit). Skew is written with 2.25mm needles, but with 7.75 spi, I usually get around 8.5 spi. Usually this isn't a problem ... but because Skew is written with the rounds at about 45 degrees to the 'spine' of the foot and leg Skew is less stretchy than more conventional socks.

Now Skew fitted beautifully as I worked the foot, as I worked the heel and even once I began the leg. But ... when I decreased away the last of the gusset stitches as I worked up the leg - Skew suddenly became tighter and tighter to pull on. I want to reknit the leg without removing the extra gusset stitches, but not on this sock. I'll leave this sock and work Skew II, and work the leg with the extra stitches left in, in the hope it will be just enough to make it a little bit easier to get on.

Having said all that, and being in a dither about what is the best solution, I love this sock. As I worked the short rows to straighten out the top - the sock reduces down to 50 stitches - and this is where I suspect the 'to-tight-to-pull-on-easily' comes from. 50 stitches is a small sock to pull over a heel, the 50 stitches only exists for one round, immediately it becomes 70+ stitches as extra stitches are made to fill in the short row turning gaps (no wraps required!). Even neater is how the short rows stop 2 stitches short of each other and the stitches created in those gaps every 2 stitches becomes the purl in a 2x1 rib. Very very very neat and clever and resolved. Have I mentioned how much I like the structure of this sock?

I'm thinking that when I knit sock 2, I can just leave the extra stitches in at the base of the leg, and then work short rows as written, and will have far more than 50 stitches for that last row before the rib .. and if I cross my fingers and toes, then I just might have a skew that is easier to pull on, then rework the first skew to match. No point frogging and re-knitting if the modification might not be any better. I'll let you know how it goes.

take care - I'm off with bear, and the cubs, its sunny and sunday ... and the chores are 'mostly' done :D
Stella

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stella, I love the look of the Skew sock and the yarn you have chosen really shows off the pattern. Instead of leaving in the extra stitches have you thought of doing some of the last couple of inches using the next larger size needles. I have done this before and it doesn't change the look of the sock at all. It would give you the extra ease that you need. You could change back to your regular needles for the rib.
Darleen G

Knitting Linguist said...

Very interesting. I can't wait to hear whether the modifications work. Also, I love the description of the socks as "resolved"; you really have been writing student learning outcomes, haven't you? I hope you and the family are all having fun -- getting most of the chores done definitely deserves a reward!

KathyR said...

Despite the somewhat tight fit, Skew I does look very nice. It will be interesting to see how your mods work out - I won't even try to visualise them at the moment as it might just do my poor little brain in, remembering how I kept screwing Hodge around! I am hoping to get onto my own pair of Skew one day soon but not sure when. I've been seduced by a couple of pretty, little, green skeins which sang a siren song saying they just had to be knitted into a little cardigan for the soon-to-be new one! When I do knit Skew, though, it will be interesting as I usually knit socks on 2.75mm (large, I know, but I had never seen real live handknit socks way back then so I didn't know what the fabric should be like - my excuse!) but this time I intend to try on 2.25mm. Luckily my feet and heels are pretty slim.