knitting.archive
Blog for documenting knitting progress.

Socks v2.0

If Socks v1.0 were my Everest, then Socks v2.0 is my K2.

While I was happy with the results of Socks v1.0, when Cole said he would like a pair of wool socks, I knew I could do better.

Most of my dissatisfaction with the first pair of socks came from the heel area: the heel flap + shape gusset made a sock that didn’t look very much like typical socks, where the heel makes a small square shape on the back of the foot with a row of decreases going diagonally up from the back of the heel to the top of the foot.

Instead, the decreases (made necessary by picking up stitches along the heel flap) go from the top of the ankle diagonally down to the bottom of the foot, sandwiched between stitches parallel to the foot and stitches that are more horizontal.

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Diagram of dissatisfaction. Left: Construction of Sock v1.0, showing how the top of foot and heel flap+turn result in a shape gusset with stitches facing in a direction at an angle to the rest of the sock. Right: A machine knit sock, where the heel turn is more isolated, giving a cleaner look to the foot/heel transition.

Finding a sock that looked more like the machine knit sock on the right was surprisingly difficult, probably mostly driven by the saying “beggars can’t be choosers” as I am still relying on free patterns1 distributed very generously by skilled knitters. I ended up finding a really great pattern that fit my construction criteria and my design idea, where the cuff, heel, and toe were contrasting colors to the rest of the foot.

Project Info:

Pattern: Sock-a-Block by Nicole Winer via Yarnspirations

Yarn:

  • [Leg/ankle, foot] Lore by The Fiber Co., ambitious colorway, 100% Kent lambswool, DK weight
  • [Cuff, heel, toe] Double Knit by Jamieson’s of Shetland, mirrydancers colorway, 100% Shetland wool, DK weight

Needles: US 2 DPNs

Misc: finesse

I started these socks around January 8th, and judging by the size of the needles (2.75 mm !!!) and the yarn, I knew this would be a long haul. It’s not so much that the construction or pattern was hard, it is just time consuming, compared to the bulky knits I had handled before. I joked to Cole that he would have a nice pair of socks by summer.

I finished the first sock around January 14, sixish days after I started…by far the longest work time. But damn has it been worth it. As of this writing, I’m about halfway through the leg/ankle portion of the second sock, aiming to be done before the 1 month marker.

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Halfway there.

And it wouldn’t be a Sidney knit if there weren’t copious changes to the original pattern. For starters, the pattern was very ambitious with its color changes, including a color-block feature in the heel where the two parts were knitted in two colors (hence the pattern name). It also used different colors for the leg and foot portions. I opted to stick with my original color design idea. Second, I didn’t exactly follow the length instructions for each portion. Instead I modeled the fit on a pair of Birkenstock socks that Cole has, so the length of the cuff and ankle portions are probably not the same as the pattern.

One upgrade, however, is I finally committed to doing a gauge swatch. I figured if I was going to use high quality yarn to knit for a very picky person, I wanted to get it exactly right (finesse). According to my measurements and math, I decided to cast on 8 less stitches than the pattern called for. In hindsight, I probably would’ve done even less since the leg part is not as snug as I had hoped, but the heel and foot part fit Cole perfectly.

Notes for this project.

Things I like about the socks:

  • sturdy
  • color combo
  • heel construction
  • tight knit

Things I don’t like as much:

  • cuff is not tightly knit
  • seams along DPN transitions
  • toe decreases too fast
  • wool

I feel the need to explain that last one but I’ll start with the first dislike first. The cuff was done with the Shetland wool in a beautiful color (black with flecks of color throughout that you can really only see in direct light) with 1x1 ribbing…with a twist. Instead of knitting through the front of the stitch, the pattern called for knitting through the back of the loop to create a twisted stitch, resulting in twisted ribbing. And I will be totally honest: I did not and still cannot see a difference between this and normal ribbing2. In any case, this ribbing resulted in a cuff that isn’t as tightly knit as I would like, with the yarn not closing the holes as I would hope. I suspect this is just due to the make of the yarn, as it’s not as fuzzy as the lambswool. But to avoid any issues down the line from the sparse stitches, I decided to knit the heel and toe with double strands, and that worked really well.

As for the last issue, I have a confession: I find wool to be really, really uncomfortable. I once took a nap under a wool blanket and woke up with hives all over so I’m very sure my wool aversion stems from that allergy. It feels so itchy and rough on my skin, basically the opposite of what I’d want from knitwear. Don’t get me wrong, I think this wool sock is beautiful, but I would never knit pure wool for myself. That said, it seems to be just regular old sheep’s wool that bothers me. I enjoy cashmere (goats) and Merino wool (New Zealand Merino sheep) which feel much softer. And for times that call for wearing wool3, I just put on a turtle neck to shield the roughness.

Update: 2/5/25

And we’re finished. I definitely felt the second sock syndrome this time around…it’s not that the second sock was more technically challenging (in fact, I felt more confident since I knew where I screwed up the first time around), it’s just that it felt like I was Sisyphus pushing that boulder up a mountain made of wool socks, destined to never make tangible progress. But then I realized I could start the toe section and saw the light at the end of the tunnel. And they came out beautifully (and endorsed by their wearer).

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This project also marks the first time I took serious steps to block the finished work. I gently hand washed with some baby shampoo4 and pinned them to shape and let them air dry. Cole remarks that they fit extremely well. I am also happy to point out that having finished them around January 31st, I came in about a week ahead of schedule.

  1. But not true for my next project :) ↩

  2. Though in writing this, I pulled back up the guide I used to learn the knit-through-back-loop and their twisted ribbing is actually much different than their normal ribbing so I’m beginning to suspect I did not do this right. ↩

  3. Like this incredible wool sweater from Nordtrikk that looks very similar to one that Cole and I found at an antique store here in Saint Paul. ↩

  4. My go-to fashion-knower Luke Meagher (HauteLeMode) made a very helpful TikTok about how he cleans his woolen garments with baby shampoo since it’s a mild detergent meant for animal hair which is essentially all that wool is. ↩