A Quest!

I am on the quest for the perfect sock. I want something that fits well, stays on, and is comfortable. I’m sick of knitting socks that aren’t stretchy enough to stay up, or that are too baggy in the heel. I’m talking to you, Monkey and Embossed Leaves. Just plain sick and tired.

I also have a hatred of matching socks that apparently goes against the knitting imperative. According to my fellow knitters, socks come in pairs because we have two feet, and they should match.

Well, fellow knitters, you’re wrong. Socks don’t have to match. My concept of “matching” is distinctly different from most other people’s when it comes to socks. Which makes no sense, really. I’m being logical. When you wear a shirt with jeans, you don’t wear a shirt and jeans that are identical colors, fabrics, etc. They simply have to go together. I take the same approach with socks.

Right now? I’m wearing a gray knee high with a striped knee high. They match because the grays are the same. It’s that simple.

Ok, back to my quest.

I’m on the quest for the perfect sock, which means knitting single socks until I find the right one. When I find the right sock, I’ll proceed to knit hundreds – nay! millions! – of that particular sock pattern. My feet will be pleased.

So I’ve completed two different socks. The first was a 2-by-2 knit/purl rib with an afterthought heel. This is affectionately known as the Clown Barf sock:

And an afterthought heel:

(Which I promise becomes less pointy at the grafted spot after about 5 minutes of wear. I don’t block socks.)

The Clown Barf socks fit really well. But, I added a decrease row in when I should not have, so they aren’t quite perfect. Lesson learned from Clown Barf socks: don’t decrease on the foot!

Then I decided to try my hand at knitting a sock with what’s called a Princess Foot. I find that the purl side of stockinette stitch can sometime irritate the ball of my foot. So I tried purling instead of knitting:

With much success. It is so lovely, soft, and comfortable. I knit the Princess Sock in stocking stitch, which fits well, but I think I prefer the 2-by-2 ribbed version.

I kept my afterthought heel – it fits so well! Plus, it’s a great method for knitting heels. I also learned from my lesson and didn’t decrease on the foot.

Which led me to my next lesson: I need to increase on the foot for about 1/2 an inch after the heel, and then decrease down to a smaller number after I move beyond that wide part of my foot. Or I suppose I should say tall part of my foot.

So the sock quest is on. Also – the big bonus? I’m using up tons of stash yarn for this. So what if I only use half of the skein for each sock? I can use it again later. Now that I know how each color knits up, I can pick a more appropriate project for it.

Except for the Clown Barf. There really is no appropriate project for Clown Barf.

So that’s the beginning of SOCKQUEST! STASHDOWN! 2010. We’ll see how far I make it!

Tagged as: sockquest, socks, stashdown