A friend [Mrs. Fishtrap] and I have an ongoing discussion about how God gives us the children He thinks we can handle. Mr. Fishtrap was required to be away from the family for 2 weeks before they would fly across country to meet him. Mrs. Fishtrap did not know how she would handle 4 year old twin boys for 2 weeks without some sort of divine intervention.
Lo and behold, we had fabulous weather. Lots of outdoor play, gorgeous sunshine, picnics at the playground, fieldtrips to the waterfalls, etc. Mrs. Fishtrap had a wonderful positive 2 weeks alone with her boys. She called the weather her divine intervention.
Lo and behold, again, the day she and the twins left to go meet Mr. Fishtrap across the country… the weather turned. Storms, rain, wind, power outages, and cold. How would we make it our 2 weeks until our good Fishtrap friends came home?
We all got sick. We are all functioning, but at a lower level. The level that makes being cooped up inside not only bearable, but pleasant. And that has given me ample time to knit more socks. This was my divine intervention.
And these are my new socks.
Basic Cuff-Down socks on 54 stitches.
Yarn was sent to me by Libby for a recent Hogwarts socks swap. I was in Ravenclaw House, so she dyed the yarn appropriately herself. These were knit on US sz. 1 / 2.25 mm dpns.
Special features: It’s been a long time since I worked a short-row heel so I wanted to dust up a bit on the technique. I love the simplicty of a short-row heel, but it never seems to be large enough to satisfy me on fit. I tried to counter that problem by knitting the heel on 3/5 the total stitches instead of the normal 1/2 total stitches. I like the way these fit, and the reverse stockinette adds some visual interest.
Moving down the foot, I was inspired by Lynn to try some slipped stitches along the arch to snug the sole to the foot. I like it, the fit is fantastic. Thank you Lynn for the great idea! Next time I’ll try the socks on first though and start the slipped stitches closer to the heel.
The only thing I don’t like about these socks is how short the leg is. But that is entirely my own doing and here’s why.
After finishing the boys’ handdye socks I set out to make them scrap-cuff Ravenclaw socks. These are Gabriel’s, knit on 48 stitches. These were my first experiment with short-row heels, using garter stitch on the normal 1/2 total stitches. The foot is the right length but the heels Do. Not. Stay. On. At all.
Lesson learned. Make heels bigger.
So I started Nikolai’s on 54 sts and made the heels larger… you see what happened. I completely over-corrected and ended up with socks way too big for Nikolai, but perfect for me.
No frogging and I get new socks. Divine intervention?
Heck yes! You needed more handmade socks.
That’s really what my yarn looks like knit up? Really?
You totally just made my day – those socks are beautiful *sniff*
Love the socks and your creativity.
Way to go! We knitters really are ingenious, no?
Glad you liked the arch support. I thought it looked great in that yarn, gave it a bit of a design feature as well as a ‘useful’ feature!
Hope you are all up and going full blast soon.
Very nicely and creatively done!
oh well some have to handle more than other childrenwise. i love to think about you knitting socks there and i knitting something else here. and this morning i was asked for advice on the spiral hat from someone in portland via email. i love this little worldwide knitting community. and i will knit socks soon. have wool in my stash that is overly tempting.