Can’t stop won’t stop

There will always be sock knitting in my life – what other project is so perfectly portable and tolerated by my co-workers? Here is my latest pair:

These are made from a Wandering Wool North Country Sock Set. These little matched cakes are irresistible.

These socks are for S1. We both thought it would be fun to make them fraternal socks. They are both worked top down, but I re-wound one ball so it is VIBGYOR instead of ROYGBIV.

This pair presented some unique challenges. First, I wanted to be sure that the whole rainbow would appear in each sock. I ripped out my first try after realizing that the red section was going on and on and on. I decided to wind off part of the red yarn and set it aside, and also to make the sock legs longer than I had planned. This required adding some calf shaping. So the sock has 72 stitches in the CO, and then decreases to 66 by the time we’re 24 rounds in. I don’t love the way the shaping looks, though:

On the first sock (ROYGBIV), I started with K3P3 ribbing, and then decreased so that two columns each of K and P disappeared (6 stitches). It isn’t pretty! But S1 said “don’t rip back because it will never show under my pants.” I also didn’t quite realize that it wouldn’t be centered on the back of the leg. I could have kept it centered if I had been willing to start and end the stitch pattern on the top of the foot with P3, but I wasn’t – I thought it would look nicer with K3. So the feet look great, and the top of the back leg does not.

I went a slightly different direction with sock #2 (VIBGYOR) and CO a P9 segment. Then I decreased until those 9 purl stitches are only 3:

I don’t love that, either. When positioning the heel flap on this sock, I realized that I could have centered it correctly if I’d worked a 9-stitch section of K, not P. Alas!

These socks are quite snug fitting, thanks to the slipped stitch pattern. The pattern is simple:

R1: *K3 P3*

R2: *K1 slip 1 wyib K1 P1 slip 1 wyif P1*

But the handsome slipped stitch pattern makes the calf shaping even more important, as this fabric is not nearly as stretchy as regular rib (and not as flexible as stockinette, either, in my opinion).

BUT – the socks are very wearable, extremely cheerful, and also educational. I need to plan better for calf shaping in the future! Do you have a preferred approach?

It is almost time to start Dave’s 50th birthday socks. I neglected to measure his feet when I saw him in July, so I had my personal videographer (Boy 2) make a video with instructions.  If you’re curious about how I measure feet for socks, wonder no more! I definitely think I need to plan for calf shaping for his socks, so I will be reading more about this.