One sock on, one sock… on
Socks on the needles today. These are for a certain father in my life (and if you are that certain father, you should not look at these pictures!). It is a little hard to tell in the photos, but the main sock yarn (and the large ball on the left) is heathered grey, and the heel and toe yarn (the smaller ball on the right and the butterfly skein) is heathered denim blue. I spun these from pencil roving last year, and couldn’t figure out what to make with them. Duh!
I happen to know that the father whom these socks are intended for is particular about how high he likes his sock cuffs (nice and high) so I’m leaving sock one on the needles while I get sock two going, then I can knit the cuffs at the same time. I’m using both ends of the grey yarn at the same time. Oh, did you notice? I’m knitting these from the toe up. This is probably the only way I will ever knit plain socks again. You start at the toe, then you can make the cuff as long or short as you need. Never again will I run out of yarn two inches from the toe, or have 15 feet of leftover self-patterning yarn that could have gone into the cuffs.
I discovered at long last how to make the hourglass heel properly. Look how nice that one is! The Knitting Fiend has some fabulous photo tutorials that made it all clear. Also check out her wonderful Sock-u-lators. I just finished knitting a pair of socks before discovering her site, and just for chuckles I punched in my foot measurements and yarn gauge, just to see what the pattern would be, and whaddayaknow? Spot on with my own calculations. An added SUPER-benefit of her calculators is if you don’t have someone’s foot measurements, just plug in their shoe size, and the sock-u-lator calculates approximate measurements for you.
For the last several socks I’ve knit, I’ve used this toe, called the hourglass toe, or short-row toe. It is worked the same as an hourglass heel. It’s so comfy, stretches really well, and the sheer novelty of it makes it a clear winner.
The toe from the tip.
