Saturday, February 18, 2006

I broke my socks.

OK, so I have one sock done. This is a pretty comfy sock, but it has one baggy-ass heel. I have been struggling with this since I noticed it. First I noticed that the picture from the book had heel stitches that looked different from the rest of the stockinette stitches, then when it grew to a size to start trying it on, the back of the heel bagged and it didn't look the same as the book. I also noticed that in all the pics I have seen of heel reinforcement, there is a woven pattern to the inside I could not figure how to do while looking at the inside of my sock. For the picture of the sock I shot in the car, I pulled it up pretty tight so as not to show the bagginess in my photo. In reality though, it looks like this:


Humility time. One baggy-ass heel.

I am an idiot.

Sock 2 heel flap. It is amazing what happens when you actually read the instructions thoughfully and not remember the fuzzy feet pattern, assume you know what you just read quickly and go with it. Instead of Sl1 knit or purl to the end of the row, Sl1 K1 repeat to end of row. REPEAT. Sl1 P1 REPEAT to end of the row.

Oh, well, it's a learning process. They won't match, but I was only making them to sleep in, so no biggie, I guess. I do see very clearly how this sets up the stitches on the inside of the sock for that woven pattern of reinforcement yarn.

When you have that moment of pattern epiphany in the middle of the project, it sure is humbling. I am such a perfectionist that I am really fighting the impulse to rip my finished sock back and do it right. But you know what? I'm going to pass on that urge and learn to let go. I don't need my first sock project to turn into a masochistic festival of perfectionism. It isn't like they won't still keep my icy feet warm in bed.

1 comment:

Lauren said...

I've had similar things happen to me and my socks. I guess we overestimate our ankle size a bit.