Back to the drawing board… again?
Jun 12th, 2007 by jennie
After my last post, and before I could give any of you a chance to respond, I immediately ripped out the Lozenge socks and cast on for my second attempt with this yarn — Minty’s Leyburn socks. It was love at first sight, even with the short row toe (my first). I knit all weekend — on Friday before the bachelorette party. On Saturday (World Wide Knit in Public Day) in the park
and at the wedding rehearsal. On Sunday evening when returned from the wedding.
That is, until I turned the heel. And now… well, it’s dilema time again. The pattern suits this yarn *so well*. See?
I love the way the lattice highlights the variation in color. I love the simplicity — easy to follow and memorize, but engaging and with beautiful results.
But look at this:
The heel? Wonky [short row heels almost never work for me. These were no exception. I usually fix them after the fact. The toe is pretty wonky too, but that’s what I expected for my first short row toe]
The ankle/heel “gusset”? Noticeably tight. See how the lattice stitches are noticeably tighter than the foot stitches? The ankle itself? Too baggy (see how the lattice stitches bag?).
Dammit. I was so happy with the whole thing. But the short row heel doesn’t fit right and I could go back and mess with a widdershin heel, but I don’t know how that would work with the math and the added stitches and honestly, I’m so brain dead, I’m not sure I can manage concetrated thought. So… do I rip out again? This yarn is so gorgeous… I can’t stand this rip and reknit and rip and reknit. Now I want to give up and start something else entirely. What do you think? Rip and rest, or plug along and hope it works? Mess with the math? Rip and redo the heel and hope it works? Sigh.
I have a great post planned to divulge the wonder that is my Sound Swap Package, but that will have to wait ’till tomorrow. It’s too much goodness to shove at the end of a post (Thanks Leah!!)
OK, this is what I would do. Rip. But cast on again for Leyburn. Knit top down, get the heel and heel turn that best fits your foot but use Minty’s cool pattern.
I see you’re having the same problem as I did. I am also knitting the Leyburns, and at first was loving it and how it worked with my variegated yarn. But then the lack of stretch made them fit funny and I frogged back to the the foot, unsure of where to go. Am now attempting to just do the lattice on the front up the leg and keep the backside stockinette, rather than all the way around. I am hoping this will create a better fitting sock. But admittedly the knitting has lost its excitement… Looking forward to seeing how you progress - it really is beautiful yarn and a great looking pattern!
I would set the sock aside and clear my head with a nw project before ripping anything out:) A new project always renews my excitement and I can be more objective when I come back to the dilemma project. Good luck - I do like how the sock was coming out - that damn pesky heel!!
Oh you got some bad sock mojo going. Since the sock is for your Socakapalooza pal, I rip and reknit. May I suggest the ever popular Monkey pattern? I am in love with that pattern.
I was going to say exactly what Elinor said. But perhaps as soon as you published this post you went and did something else anyway.
So glad my parcel made it there OK!!!
Ah socks. Yeah, I’d rip & reknit too. I do love the pattern & yarn combo though. Have you tried the misocrafty short row heel? It’s the only short row heel I’ll do at this point!!!
http://misocrafty.squarespace.com/journal/2006/9/21/short-row-heel-tutorial.html
Add the Nancy Bush gem of picking up an extra stitch between the gusset and the top of the sock and knitting them together & you will never have holes again!
The pattern is lovely, though . . .
You could try casting on some stitches before doing the heel, then doing a deeper heel for more room in that area. I haven’t tried that, but I plan to on a pair of socks I have with the same streeetching issues. I like the yarn in the Leyburns, especially where the stranded sections are in a contrasty color.
Sorry you are having such frustration with the socks. As I have no advice, but to seek advice. Drat.
(PS: Just wanted to touch base with you about the Sound Swap. Sorry to be quite the pest. . . as I have not heard from my pal. . . wondering if anyone else is in the same boat.)
i’m not a sock person so i don’t have any great advice, but i love how this pattern highlights the subtle color differences in the yarn. lovely! i just discovered your blog through pepperknit. enjoyed reading your latest few posts!
*Sigh…* I know what you mean. But to rip is not as bad as it sounds… I like the pattern. Show us the end result…
Oh no!! I’m sure you’ve moved past this by now… But Judy Gibson’s Generic Toe-Up pattern has a nice gusset/heel flap heel you can use, plus a nice chart to work it out with whatever number of stitches you have. I basically knit this same sock over and over (using a slip-stitch heel flap instead of stockinette), merely plugging in different stitch patterns.
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