Hats on my Feet

I have to say, "Hats off!" to Kathleen Sperling for this ingenious sock design! Instead of starting at the top or at the toe, you start in the middle. Simply revolutionary.

Knitting a "hat" to fit the heel, you then add "earflaps" (shall we say) which narrow and meet at the top of the foot to form gussets. Picking up stitches on either side of the heel/gusset piece and knitting out gets you a foot and a cuff. It's so crazy it works.

It not only works to actually make a sock, the sock is very comfy and easy to size. These are the best fitting socks I've made. Wonderful.
Speaking of sizing, however, I did have to make some modifications. The pattern is written for sock yarn and I decided to use some worsted. Worsted is a lot thicker than sock yarn, in case that's notProject Stats
Started: 27 Oct 09
Finished: 31 Oct 09
Pattern: Hat-Heel Sock, free from knitty.com
Materials: 2 skeins Wooly Stripes by Nashua Handknits (colour WS09 Faded Blues), $9
obvious.

I started with the woman's size just to see where I was at. After knitting the heel, I took some measurements and started again in the "small child" size. This worked like a charm. If anyone else is thinking of trying the same thing, I was working with size 3.25mm (3 US) needles and got 6 sts and 8 rows to the inch. (And I wear size 8.5/9, although that's not crucial since you can make yours any length you need.)

I altered the toe shaping slightly as well. There were 44 stitches. I decreased on every other row for 8 rows, and then every row for 4 rows. This left me 12 stitches (6 on top, 6 on bottom) which were kitchenered together. The shape fit me well.
Worsted weight socks are too thick to wear in most shoes, but they'll fit great in my winter "duckies." These socks will probably mostly get worn over another pair, in part because they came out so short. (I only had two skeins, so when the first one ran out, that's as tall as the sock was going to get.)

If you've been reading along in the blog, then you know that I got these socks knit up during my travels to the AQS Quilt Show in Des Moines. As well as being handy warm socks, they will also make a wonderful souvenir of the trip.

My feet dance in their new warm socks!