Thursday, August 30, 2012

How not to stripe your stripey handknit socks

A while back I was knitting some gorgeous mohair boot socks (aka socks thick enough to keep your toes warm even in unlined boots in winter) and I noticed I was running out of yarn.  Quite a long way from the toe in fact.

So I stopped knitting and pondered the problem, which spawned a new problem, which was that I didn't know what yarn to use to cover my toes.

And that problem spawned a question: how come we knitters are quite content to wear fingerless gloves, while toe-less socks are only logical in the case of pedicures?

But we will leave aside the question for now.  Let's get back to the problem, and the solution to same.


Yeah, I striped.  Mostly the solution was to give up on getting a good match from my stash, and just to accept that it was enough to find more of the same yarn base.  So, I am living with this almost completely unrelated Easter lavender colour and guessing that nobody will even know because hello,

Boot. Socks.

Unless I take my boots off, nobody will see the nonmatchy toe.  And my toes will be happy.

(this is me, learning to be accepting and flexible.  how do I look?)


Now, the stripes start pretty close to the toe.  If I'd been planning, I might have started earlier, which would have been smart for several reasons.  Instead I assumed that both socks would run low on the main sock colour at exactly the same time (this never, ever happens, and I know that, so I don't really know what I was thinking.)  Then I noticed that the second sock's main colour was running pretty darned low about five rows short of where the other one did.


Oh, if only I had weighed/measured/thought straight.

Looks like in addition to having wrong-colour-stripey socks, I will have assymetrically striped socks.

Or do I mean, adaptable socks?

Either way: I have so much better a plan for the next pair of mohair boot socks I knit.  Because knowing what I know now, I can be 100% sure I am going to run out of yarn early, all over again.

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