Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Its time to play the music... Its time to light the lights...

The Muppet Socks are done!


For some reason NO pictures of these socks do them justice, but here they are:

My favorite thing about these socks is how well they fit. Its taken me awhile but I think I figured out how I have to modify socks to really hug my foot. I have long feet (I wear a size 9) but they are also narrow, as are my ankles and calves. The first pair of socks I made, I cast on the amount of stitches for the generic size 9 sock, and they are huge. They're comfy and gorgeous, but they are loose on me. So, the next pair of socks, I decided to cast on for a smaller size foot, but knit for the length of a size 9. Worked much better on the leg, but still had some sag in the foot. I was feeling creative and adventurous with these socks, so I decided to try to make them fit me perfectly. I cast on 68 stitches and worked the leg as I normally would in a diagonal rib. The heel flap isn't ribbed but continues the diagonal motif, as you can see (sorry for the dark pics):

Then in a flash of genius, at the end of the regular gusset decreases, I decided to do two extra gusset decreases only on the inside of each foot. I knew this would mean these socks have a designated foot to go on, but I wanted to see what happened. Lo and behold, this was the change I needed in my socks! We'll see what happens when I wash them, but if they don't stretch out, I may do this for every sock, as these really hug my arches the way they are now.



So, since I did those extra decreases on the inside, there were uneven amounts of stitches on either side of the center of each sole. So when I got to the decreases for the toes, I started by leaving the inside of the foot the same (the same side with the double decreases) for a couple of rows and only decreasing on the outside. I kept trying them on to make sure they were decreasing at the right rate. You can totally tell just looking at them which sock belongs on which foot now...



This is them without my feet in them

And there you have it. My custom Muppet Socks. They really fit like a dream. Oh, I also continued the rib pattern all the way to the end, which was pretty easy, but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Also, I got a little impatient and didn't knit as far as I should have before starting the toe decreases. I thought I taught myself the lesson with the Pumpkin Socks where I did the same thing, but I guess not. Hopefully next time I can remind myself that I need another 1/4 inch!


Pattern to follow when I have the time/energy to write it up.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

How is it that you can churn out beautiful socks so quickly yet I've been working for 2 months and haven't finished the ribbing on one sock? lol

How do you knit yours? I took a class that uses 2 sets of circular needles. Do you use 2 or 1 set or double pointed needles?

Sarah.
www.kampkoala.net

Tammy said...

These are really cool!! Isn't it great to be able to customize them to your feet? I started doing that on the second or third pair of socks I knit and really like it. Sometimes I have to fudge on the pattern, but that's ok.

Bricklyrknitter said...

Easy, Sarah... I don't have kids!