Rippin' socks

I've bragged so much about these damn socks that it was inevitable that I hit a snag.

This is the second set of mother and daughter socks from Claudia's Blue Sky fingering, and I've loved the colors and the yarn and the general knitting. Until it hit.

The lady who commissioned the socks (and I'm not going to spellcheck that, either; that's just the mood I'm in) gave me a piece of paper with her foot outlined and "size 10 ladies" written on it. Now I'm a size 8, and my foot fit that little drawing perfectly, so I knew that I couldn't go by that. A simple "10.66 inches" was all I needed, which is what I got from a chart I found online. So I knit the first sock, measured, knit some more, measured some more, kept knitting until I thought it was safe to decrease for the toes.

So I decreased. And when I measured the sock against my foot, it was more of a size 9, maybe. Definitely not a size 10.

The lady tried it on and it was just a tad too short, so, being the accommodating creature that I am (Tom, don't you laugh at that), I told her I'd take the toe out (after all that careful grafting and making sure the seam would never ever come undone) and make it longer. But first, I knit the second sock, measured it repeatedly (usually it was shorter each time) (how on earth does that happen? It always happens.), was satisfied that it was long enough, and decreased for the toe. Got to the grafting part, and get this--it was shorter than the first sock. Shorter.

The air was blue that night. I ripped that damn toe out, picked up those damn stitches, and reknit that damn toe, this time longer. And longer. And longer. I swear, it had better fit this time, because I'm done with those socks, including the first one, which I ripped out last night (without cursing too much, which was pretty good considering that I'd spent two days working in the school's attendance office which is the school version of Hell and considering that I've been decreasing my dose of Effexor XR, hoping that I won't feel as stupid) (yeah, that's working real well, isn't it?) and started reknitting. It only needs to be .5" longer, although it could be 6"; at this point I'm not sure. And I don't care.

But there's a silver lining; I've heard that Claudia's fingering skeins aren't long enough for a bigger sock, and I've worried that I'd have to switch to a new skein at the toes of these size 10s. I hate having to weave in ends on socks; there just doesn't seem to be a comfortable place to put the ends. But I had over a yard of yarn left! More than 36"! And I didn't make the legs short, either. I made them the length I like, which is pretty long according to most sock patterns. I don't want my dry winter legs peeking out between my socks and my slacks.

So that's good news for the second sock. Now I just have to finish the first, which was, you might remember, too short and had to be ripped apart so I can make it longer, which means I'll have to have two more ends to weave in somewhere in the toe area. *sigh*



One pair of toddler socks and I'm done with this order. I'm so done.

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But they're so pretty. I can't stay mad at them for long.