Help with socks!
Hi everyone! I am knitting my very first socks! *applause*
I am liking it very much so far. I chose Cookie A.'s Monkey Socks from Knitty; someone suggested doing them with no purling, but I'm just doing it as-is. I'll probably do them no purl later.
Anyway!
Here's the deal. I am, of course, making my Very First Socks for myself. I have rather large ankles and calves (to the point that I have a difficult time finding fashionable boots that come up past my ankles), wide feet (C width, which is actually worse than just wide, because they're narrower than most wide shoes and wider than most narrow shoes), size 9 (North American), and I usually wear shorter socks (since knee socks and trouser socks never stay up since they don't fit properly). Oh, and I need a deep toe box and I have poor-ish circulation.
With my oddly-sized feet and ankles and calves in mind, I decided to cast on 80 stitches instead of 64, and this seems to be a good choice; I tried it on after the first lace repeat was finished, and at the point where the cuff felt comfortable but not too tight, I eyeballed approximately how many repeats of the lace I would need to do before it was time to start working on the heel.
I've reached that point, which is great! But I am wondering about turning the heel and completing the foot part of the sock.
The lace pattern requires a multiple of 16 stitches, which is fine. In the original pattern, the heel takes off from one set of 16 stitches, and then is shaped with short rows (yes? that's what it looks like to me, anyway) until the gusset. So then the foot of the sock is three repeats of the lace pattern, and the sole is that one repeat only done in stockinette. The way I have been doing things, I'm going to have the foot of the sock be four repeats of the lace and the sole will be one repeat done in stockinette. Does this make sense, or should I add one more repeat of the lace pattern and put in some decreases somewhere to take it down to the size of the pattern as written? If I do that, where should I put the decreases, and how should I do them? I'll have to get rid of 16 stitches, obviously, and they need to be dropped in the right place - I'm thinking right above where the heel flap is going to start (which I guess is right at the beginning of my round).
She also says that you can work a longer heel flap, which I am guessing I might need, but I'm not sure how to do that or how to know that I need to do so. Does anyone have any tips for figuring this sort of thing out?
I am very good at following patterns, and I expect I'll be able to do the short rows without a problem (I did knit a BSJ without any issues last summer), but this particular aspect of sock sizing has got me stumped.
Thanks for any tips you can offer me!
Edited to add pattern link. Oops!
I am liking it very much so far. I chose Cookie A.'s Monkey Socks from Knitty; someone suggested doing them with no purling, but I'm just doing it as-is. I'll probably do them no purl later.
Anyway!
Here's the deal. I am, of course, making my Very First Socks for myself. I have rather large ankles and calves (to the point that I have a difficult time finding fashionable boots that come up past my ankles), wide feet (C width, which is actually worse than just wide, because they're narrower than most wide shoes and wider than most narrow shoes), size 9 (North American), and I usually wear shorter socks (since knee socks and trouser socks never stay up since they don't fit properly). Oh, and I need a deep toe box and I have poor-ish circulation.
With my oddly-sized feet and ankles and calves in mind, I decided to cast on 80 stitches instead of 64, and this seems to be a good choice; I tried it on after the first lace repeat was finished, and at the point where the cuff felt comfortable but not too tight, I eyeballed approximately how many repeats of the lace I would need to do before it was time to start working on the heel.
I've reached that point, which is great! But I am wondering about turning the heel and completing the foot part of the sock.
The lace pattern requires a multiple of 16 stitches, which is fine. In the original pattern, the heel takes off from one set of 16 stitches, and then is shaped with short rows (yes? that's what it looks like to me, anyway) until the gusset. So then the foot of the sock is three repeats of the lace pattern, and the sole is that one repeat only done in stockinette. The way I have been doing things, I'm going to have the foot of the sock be four repeats of the lace and the sole will be one repeat done in stockinette. Does this make sense, or should I add one more repeat of the lace pattern and put in some decreases somewhere to take it down to the size of the pattern as written? If I do that, where should I put the decreases, and how should I do them? I'll have to get rid of 16 stitches, obviously, and they need to be dropped in the right place - I'm thinking right above where the heel flap is going to start (which I guess is right at the beginning of my round).
She also says that you can work a longer heel flap, which I am guessing I might need, but I'm not sure how to do that or how to know that I need to do so. Does anyone have any tips for figuring this sort of thing out?
I am very good at following patterns, and I expect I'll be able to do the short rows without a problem (I did knit a BSJ without any issues last summer), but this particular aspect of sock sizing has got me stumped.
Thanks for any tips you can offer me!
Edited to add pattern link. Oops!