Don't worry I'm not punishing the Hubby by making him wear bad socks. I have another sock tale for you.
You all know my passion for socks started with my hard to fit foot. People raved about how wonderful hand knit socks are. Once you wear hand knit socks you will not want to go back. I don't know if that is 100% true, but I know I no longer wear "normal people" socks.
I decided to test the theory and make socks for D. I was still a relatively new sock knitter and honestly still a new knitter. I had been knitting for less than a year and D's first socks were also my 7th pair of socks...ever. Seems like such a long time ago!
I used my most useful sock book at that time, Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I measured D's foot in 4 or 5 key areas and knit a gauge swatch. I do believe that since his foot is so much bigger than my foot his sock needed to be much bigger too.
I was wrong. I did not understand negative ease and why it is desirable in a sock. D even likes a much closer fitting sock than me. But back to the story. I cast on a whole bunch of stitches and knit for a while. Even I realized it was too big and ripped it back. Then I cast on 102 stitches and figured it must be right, it simply must be!
I knit two socks, almost. I knit one and 3/4 socks and ran out of yarn. Now this was still the days when ripping back and starting over was like ripping out my heart, cooking it up and serving it to you on a nice platter. I had put in so much work...a whole month of my time!
Then I remembered that I had a bit of yarn left over from the same manufacturer. (Oddly enough I still have a hard time mixing yarns from different makers.) The only difference was the color.
So that is how D got Bad Hubby Socks. He even wore them when he was flying one business the next week. You know you have to take your shoes off to go through security. Everyone was going to see that "design element." He still wore them with pride.
They are his least favorite socks because I was still getting my sock knitting mojo working. They are big and baggy not exactly the makings of a favorite sock. I have tweaked my knitting numbers and can now make him acceptable socks. Oddly enough I use the same number of stitches for his socks as I do mine.
So that is my not quite a fail, but close story. Poor Hubby looks like he dipped one toe in ink.
Oh man, I have a cardigan that is from my early knitting days that I've tried and tried to like, but it's still not very flattering. Bad fit... too short, the edges curl, the collar doesn't sit right. Argh. Maybe someday I'll do something about it, but I've got so much other pretty yarn to work with!
ReplyDeleteAhhh our early knitting the lessons we learned. It is so hard to rip back something that has been used for a while, especially when the basket of new yarn is sitting right in front of you.
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