Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Houston, we have a problem



What you see are four single, handknit socks arranged left to right in the order I knitted them. These are all socks I knit for myself and wear.

The careful observer will notice a few things:

1. The foot size changes from left to right. 
Yes, the one on the left was my first knitted sock and I used needles that were too large for the yarn. These socks would fit someone with a really wide or swollen foot. I wear these as sleeping socks to keep my feet warm.

2. The cuffs get steadily longer
Very true. Cuffs are usually ribbed and I find 2x2 ribbing to be the most pathetically dull and boring stitch pattern to do. (This is where you alternate 2 knit stitches with 2 purl stitches. It's not the only ribbing pattern that can be done; but I hate to admit it, it's a really great rib pattern for socks but it stretches a lot but holds its shape.) The sock on the left is more like an anklet, the green sock just covers my ankles, and the next two are a more "proper" length. The really careful observer will note the two on the right, the ones with the "proper" length legs, only have a very short section of ribbing at the top and the rest of the leg is done in plain stockingette (plain knit stitch). Yes, I realized I'm making these socks for me, so I can do whatever the frack I like and I don't have to knit 7 inches (18cm) of ribbing of any pattern if I don't want to.

3. There's only a single sock of each pair.
This is the problem. These are all handknit socks, and each sock represents about 8 hours of work, and each of these used to have a twin.  I wear my handknit socks exclusively but I seem to have lost these socks' mates. I'm bummed about all losing all these mates but especially about the one on the right. I just finished that pair about a month ago. 

**EDIT** found the orange mate.


1 comment:

L J said...

Well, I'd be looking long and hard at the animals in your household... Somebody might be a sock stealer. Do you hand wash them or could they have been eaten by the washer?