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Toe up this time!

I’ve tried again, and at first glance the finished sock doesn’t look too bad. I’m still not happy with it, but at least it will go on my foot and it does (more or less) fit. The yarn is Trekking XXL, colour 135, 75% wool, 25% nylon. Same yarn as the first attempt, but this time 72 stitches in total instead of 58.

The first finished sock

So what’s wrong with it? Well, the colour sequence is fine, but it doesn’t suit the way I knitted the sock. I used a provisional cast on (machine knitters will know this as cast on with waste yarn, knit one row with ravel cord, then continue knitting with your main yarn). The cast on row on this sock is the right side of the large red patch on the sole, near the toe. I knitted a short row toe with double wraps – imagine going up and over the toe from that cast on edge, going from red to blue to pink on 2 needles in short rows, then knitting on 4 needles to the heel shaping. And that’s where the colour sequence again doesn’t suit the style of sock. It might have looked better if the heel had been green and blue instead of orange and red.

The heel

It’s a short row heel with double wraps. It looks OK, but it’s not what I really wanted. It was also a bit fiddly. I do like a bit of a challenge, but I don’t want to have to struggle to knit through 3 loops without dropping anything. And I did drop quite a few stitches!

The toe

The same as the heel – short row with double wraps. This toe is far too long for me, it would have been better a lot shallower. The last half of the blue part is just surplus fabric.

I’m not about to waste this effort by unravelling it. The sock is quite wearable, just nowhere near perfect. So, here’s the second sock in progress. The stripes won’t match the first sock as this one has an orange toe, so I shall just call it a design feature….

Although I’ve been hand knitting for 50+ years, and machine knitting for about 20, I don’t think I’ve ever hand knitted socks so I thought I’d give them a try. So far so good… now you have to remember I’m a beginner sock knitter…. my first attempt isn’t so good.

I’m not particularly happy with the way the heel looks, knitted from top down with some sort of heel flap and gusset (no idea what this type of heel is called!). Worse yet, the sock is so narrow I can’t pull it over my heel. I followed the pattern, my gauge is correct – I used 58 stitches altogether with 2.5mm double pointed needles with 4 ply sock yarn, so they should have been OK. Yes, I have wide feet with a high instep and I hadn’t taken that into consideration. I shall try again…