The Knitting Pirate

No kidding, there I was, knitting along on the heel flap of the Garter Rib Sock, carefully counting rows. I double checked the pattern for the heel turn. Remembering that when I started this 32 (40, 48, 56, 64…) sock, I had cast on 64 stitches, I noted that 64 was the fourth number inside the parentheses.

Heel turn: Sl1, p8 (10, 12, 14, 16…) p2tog, p1, turn.

I slipped one, purled 16, did the p2tog, p1, turn. I kept going along, doing the heel turning thing. About halfway through I noticed that things were off-centered. I knit one more row to be sure. Then I counted, and yeah, totally off-center. What the heck? I checked the pattern. I checked to make sure I’d remembered to p2tog or ssk where appropriate, and I had. I unknit half of what I’d done and recounted, but the heel was still off-center.

Frustrated, yet certain that hundreds of people would have noticed an error in such a popular sock, I went online to search for other 64-stitch socks with 32-stitch heel flaps. One of them would surely save me. Then I looked more closely at the sock.

What I have is a 36-stitch heel flap. And 18 stitches on each of the other two needles. I have a 72-stitch sock. I remember this now. The gauge swatch and the foot measurement and the pattern is ribbed and so draws in a little and… yeah. I have been following the wrong numbers.

It’s a good thing I ripped back that heel turn; my flap needs four more rows now.

I swear, if this sock is too big after the last one was too small, I am going to laugh a very frustrated sort of laugh. I wonder if I should decrease to 64 stitches for the foot.

January was supposed to be the month in which I made fingerless glove/flip-top mittens. But I was so frustrated at the last sock’s failure that I cast on for a new sock instead – a garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It will be good to travel with. I’m using Socks that Rock Lightweight in “Pirate’s Booty,” which looks an awful lot like Mardi Gras. These are very bright, festive socks.

Pirate-Husband gets the *next* pair of socks I make, out of two 50g balls of brown Regia. I measured his feet (geez, 10.5 inches around? that’s a lot of sock!) and I think I’m going to go for the toe-up, short-row-heel thing. I know there’s a way to do a flap heel on a toe-up sock, but it would probably be easier and quicker for me to just do a short row heel. Unless someone wants to give me a pattern for a toe-up flap-heel on an 84-stitch sock…

The yarn from the failed sock is wound into a hank, ready for a wash and de-kinking. I’m still kicking myself for not taking a gauge measurement before ripping it out, so I’m going to be smart and do a swatch before I try to make socks out of this stuff again!