Not Short on Shortie Socks

Ready for one more pair of shortie socks? It's been a summer full of them!

The very day I cast off the last pair, I cast on a new pair! I found one ball of self-striping yarn in the stash, and got started. I quickly realized that my usual short-row toe was not going to give the best results with the stripes. (If by "quickly" you understand that I knit the toe and then had to take it out.)

So I tried a more common toe that starts at the tip and increases to the full width of the sock. I started with 12 sts (on each needle, 24 total), and quickly increased to 22 (44 total) by increasing one stitch on the right and left of the sole and top every row. Then I increased every other row to 32 (64 total) stitches.

Six days later, I was casting off the first sock. Or almost casting it off. I had started the sock right where the yarn changed from blue to grey and wanted to start the second sock in the same place. Well, I only had five stitches left on the bind off and only had about 2 inches left of blue. Not enough to cast off five stitches and leave an end to start the next sock.

I was stumped for a minute, but then noticed the other end of the ball was dark blue so I used it for the last five stitches. Makes a couple more ends to work in, but I had preserved the colours. Later I noticed that I could have used the tail at the beginning of the sock too. It was longer than normal (and of course blue).

I then cast on the second sock starting at the same grey/blue colour change and hoped it would match the first. This would depend on knitting it the same as the first sock, keeping my tension the same, and the yarn being dyed consistently over six repeats (three for each sock).

And guess what! It worked!

I think I had to make a slight adjustment when I went around the heel to keep the colours the same but it's hardly noticeable.

I made the heel turn a little different, making the short rows from short to long instead of long to short and I didn't like it.

There are little bumps from the short rows and they end up on the bottom of the sole instead of at the edge of the heel. I can't feel it while I'm wearing them but I prefer the look of how I normally do them. Now I know.

I finished with a 1x1 rib. It's a little shorter than I would have done but, as noted, I was constricted by the yarn stripes.

Totally worth it!

I love the muted colours of this stripe. This was a ball of yarn my sister found at a second hand store and passed on to me because she wasn't knitting socks at the time. Then later when she got into socks again, she knit a pair with the same yarn!

These are a little small for me which is a good sign that they will fit the person I'm giving them to. :) At first I was confused about why they were small because I did the usual number of rows before doing the heel, but then realized the new way I did the toe is fewer rows than my usual toe. That would do it!

Project Stats
Started: 22 July '19
Finished: 5 Aug '19
Pattern: none (improvised); toe-up, gusset, heel flap
Materials: Patons North America Kroy Socks Ragg Shades (in Blue Stripe Ragg), 45 g
Ravelry project page: Grey self striping shortie socks

Entrelac Socks

While preparing another post, I realized I had never posted about these socks. Not even that I didn't post when they were finished, but I didn't post when there were started or any of the middle either.

These socks were the result of two things coming together: I decided I was going to use the sock yarn I had purchased in Iceland and a sock idea taken from a fellow Raveler.

User carolkimball regularly shows off her entrelac socks with replaceable soles in our "Unravelers" group and I decided to try it for myself. Entrelac results in knitting on the bias which results in stretchy fabric for a comfortably snug fit.

I found a pattern for an entrelac sock to get me started and would make the rest up from there. I started at the cuff and knit them top down. The yarn changed colours gradually,

and since the squares are built up in horizontal rows,

by the time you work your way around the sock, the colour has changed for the next row.

Which gives a really delightful effect that looks far more difficult than it is. (It also makes for some rather addictive knitting. Entrelac itself is bad enough since you do it in tiny chunks (one square at a time), but add changing colours and you don't have a chance of resisting "just one more"...)

Once the leg was done, I left the pattern completely and started my version of a replaceable sole. A picture of the parts might help:

When the leg was done, I cast off half the stitches, which would become the top of the heel. (In the picture above, the leg is on the right and the cast off can be seen to the left of the dark blue squares.) I then cast on the total number of gusset stitches at each end of the remaining live stitches. (This is the long flat side of the triangle wing parts.)

I worked back and forth on these stitches, decreasing the extra stitches I cast on as I would for any gusset until I had the original number of stitches again. Then I knit straight (this is the top of the foot) until it was time for the toe.

I debated whether the toe should be part of the main sock or part of the replaceable sole. I think most people would put it with the sole because the toes wear out quickly as well. But I've never had a toe wear out--I get most of my wear on the heel and balls of my feet. So I put it on the main sock. I did a short row toe so it flowed over the front of the foot to the back. (Seen on the left in the picture above.)

For the sole, I cast on half the total stitches for the leg (which is the same number as for the straight part of the top) and worked back and forth. I started with the heel flap. In this case I used a slip stitch variation. I did twice as many rows as the number of stitches cast on for each gusset and then did some short rows to turn the heel.

All that was left was to knit straight until the length reached from the heel to the start of the toe. In the picture above, the sole pieces look like flat rectangles, but there is a bump in there for the heel shape; you just can't really see it. (It's most apparent on the left sole--you can see some wrinkles where the red changes to purple.)

Once my pieces were blocked, I sewed them together. I decided on a whip stitch (also called an overcast stitch, I think). It's visible, but it's also very flat which is important for comfort.

Deciding to add the toe to the top of the sock instead of the sole meant the seam was on the bottom. I debated about this for a white because that doesn't sound like a good idea. But the seam really is flat enough I don't notice it.

I used a different sock yarn for the seaming. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't felt in with the sock and become impossible to pull out. The main yarn was fuzzy and very feltable so I went with a smoother yarn. (It may not even be all wool.)

The colours were similar but it matches in some spots (below) better than others (above).

But that's hard to avoid pretty much no matter what you do when you're working with a yarn that changes colours!

The changing colours that make the entrelac so pretty also really emphasize the way the sock is constructed. It's hard to miss the fact that the sole and top of the sock were knit separately.
Project Stats
Started: 2 Apr '19
Finished: 15 May '19
Pattern: Started with buttercupia: Noro Entrelac Socks by Jamie Fritz
Materials: Hjertegarn Kunstgarn (colour 07)
Ravelry project page: Memento of Iceland - Entrelac socks

Now I only have to wear them long enough to wear out the sole and then I can let you know how easy or difficult it is to replace the sole with a newly knit one!