February 24, 2008

Aaaand, she's back!

With a new favorite pair of socks...and the will to live (it's amazing how much better everything seems when you don't have a 102 degree fever)...

TrekkingFO6

As for the socks, they're just plain old stockinette, in Trekking XXL (colorway 100). For basic stockinette socks, I have a standard sock recipe, just varying the number of cast-on stitches and heel flap length to suit the yarn and recipient.

This mostly works out ok (shut up - it does too).

Not so much with these socks, though. Upon finishing the second sock, I realized that the first sock was kinda short. By about two inches, in fact. That first sock could fit on my size 9.5 foot, but the heel turn was nowhere near the actual back of my heel.

I briefly considered leaving the socks mismatched, since it's awfully cold here in New England and maybe I'd get frostbite in one foot and all my toes would snap off. If that happened, I would totally need mismatched socks just like these. Added length would just be a bitter reminder that I used to have toes, as I hobbled around in my now-ill-fitting sock.

Crazy Fantasy Time lasted about ten seconds before I remembered these socks aren't actually for me, so I really did need to rip out the first toe. Stupid toe.

So I picked up stitches before the toe decreases all the way around the sock, using needles one size smaller than I was knitting with.

PickUpIP

In a futile moment of first-sock-finishing glee, I had already woven in all the ends on the too-small sock. And I couldn't for the life of me un-weave the toe end, no matter how many different darning needles I used. So I just cut the stupid toe off....

TheCut6

...and frogged merrily....

Frogging4

A few hours later, I was done. Really done, this time.

I'd say the extra effort was worth it...

TrekkingFO1

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! You go girl, snipping and reknitting! : ) I love this Trekking colorway, makes awesome socks.

Macoco said...

WOW! Way to go with the scissors. I don't think I would have the guts to do the snip snip.

Sarah said...

You're back with a vengeance. Serious sock surgery there, quite impressive.

Kristy said...

It looks like ripping out the toe was the right thing to do, and you did it as painlessly as possible. (Gee, that would sound funny outside of a knitting context (: )

I love that yarn!

Jenny said...

Oh they look SOOOOOO good! I also have to rip out the toe on my first Sock (That Rocks) because it's too short. That does not rock, but meh, it happens.

Rebecca said...

wow. i don't think i'd have had the nerve to cut off the toe!? wow. you're really something. and those socks. i love 'em. i know i have that trekking colorway somewhere.... and now i've made it my mission to dig it out and make some plain old socks of my own.

Quirkles said...

Beautiful socks, now that they match! Welcome back to knitting! We missed you!