Tuesday 24 January 2017

Slow socks

Just after Christmas I offered to knit a pair of socks for a friend. She wants a pair of hand-knitted socks, and while she can knit, she's struggled to knit socks that fit in the past, and I always have socks on the go and there are only so many pairs of socks I can wear myself, so I offered to knit some for her. Simple.

I chose the yarn, Sirdar Heart and Sole that has been in my stash for a while, and cast on a pair of toe-up socks. I used my usual pattern and set to work. But they weren't growing (I hadn't finished the toe increases a whole week after casting on). While I knew they were on the needles, I wasn't wanting to knit on them, and I wasn't sure why. So last week I decided that I was going to knit a stripe a day on them to make sure they get done in time for my friend's birthday in March.


I got two and a half stripes into the first sock and there was a funny join in the yarn - a single ply had been knotted, and an end twisted in a little untidily. I persevered and knitted over the end, which seemed good and strong, but when I got to the end of that stripe, while I was looking closely at the join section, I noticed that my sock was getting larger the further I got from the toe. I thought about it for a bit and remembered that I'd had similar tension problems last year using the same needles. So I did the only sensible thing: snipped the yarn and cast on a new sock on new (and totally different) needles. I'll unravel the old toe some other time. The needles have gone in the bin (one tip was bent anyway), and the other pair of needles that are the same will also be leaving the house. No one wants to battle with their needles while they're knitting socks!


Since I swapped needles the sock has grown much faster. I now have a different problem - the new needles have reopened the small cut in my finger tip. Argh! I can't wait to get these socks finished... Do you ever get the impression that some items just don't want to be knitted?
 
 

4 comments:

  1. I have a similar problem with my finger when I knit socks. I put a tiny patch of micropore tape over the hole on my finger. It is small enough and thin enough that it doesn't impeded the knitting but lets my finger heal.

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    1. Thanks Rachelle, I'll try that this evening. I've been using Elastoplast finger strips, which was getting expensive! I bought the Boots version yesterday, but they lose their stick really fast.

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  2. How about spray on skin/superglue? I mean the medical type not Loctite... My son had a deep cut in his side last year and they just glued it back together in a&e. I guess you need to stop it reopening somehow.
    How were the needles affecting the socks?

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    1. I've tried the spray-on stuff before and it's rather flaky with wear, so I'm not sure about using it on a finger. I might see if actual glue is available. I tried Rachelle's micropore trick last night and quite liked it as I could barely tell it was there.

      I was unable to get even tension with the needles. I'm not totally sure why, but I know they measure slightly small (more like 1.8mm than 2mm) and I was getting far too many wobbly stitches. I was also struggling to get any sort of rhythm going. Not happy sock-knitting!

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