Socks, Socks Everywhere And Not a One To Wear

So I finished my first pair of socks and they look quite strange at the moment... I ran into a little problem. I decided to use some yarn that I had spun back in level 1 and I'll be honest, it was pretty inconsistent yarn. But I wanted to use it up and get it out of my stash. So I gathered up all the balls I had, which were several and I started in on knitting the socks.

I finished one in no time and realized that it would need to be dyed since I was using the ugliest colours on planet earth. They were all beiges and various shades of putrid yellow because this was the yarn I had used to do the dyeing portion of level 1. No wonder I wanted to get it out of my stash!

I finished the first sock and was proud that I had turned the heel with little or no problems. I then proceeded to finish the second sock. That's when the problems started.

The pattern that I am using in the men's socks from the latest issue of Piecework magazine called Manx Loaghtan Boot Socks.  I followed the pattern precisely for sock number one and then I followed the pattern precisely for sock number 2.... After I had them finished, I threw them into the dye pot with the idea of dyeing them a nice Christmas green (this was Daughter #2 idea) however, I stupid-like used my rice steamer which is a dyepot and actually not a rice steamer, but sits on my counter in the kitchen waiting for stray dyeing projects which happen on the spur of the moment.

For small projects the rice cooker works like a charm. So I mixed up the dye, brought it to a boil, stirred it vigorously with the vinegar already stirred in. It looked great, so in went the socks. When I went back a short time later all the dye had exhausted. Perfect except there was a portion of one of the socks that had pushed up from the bottom and was actually out of the liquid. Thus the dye had not taken evenly. This I knew would not be a problem because I would just redye them and make sure they were fully submerged in a slightly darker shade of the dye. I took them out of the rice cooker and rinsed them out and hung them to dry... I did this because I had used up all of my vinegar in the previous dye bath and I needed to go to the store to buy more.

All day, the next day, I waited for Teapot to come home he was going to pick up the vinegar from the store on his way home from work. That evening I mixed up the pot of dye with the new bottle of vinegar and grabbed the socks with the intention of rewetting them before throwing them back in the dye pot for round 2. It was then that I noticed a problem... one sock was shorter than the other!

How on earth could that have happened.... I thought. Well I had followed the pattern and where I had used 16 repeats of the pattern in sock number one I had written it down and done exactly the same on sock number 2. I knew I had. Really. I was sure.

I sat there staring at my first socks ever in dismay... that when I thought, Ok check to make sure they are actually the same. I counted the repeats of the pattern and sure enough I was right. 16 repeats for sock number 1... 16 repeats for sock number 2. Yup right... perfect. So what was the matter... I closely examined the socks. That when I realized that sock number one was larger than sock number two because my spinning sucked. The yarn I used for sock number one was the early spinning and was therefore thicker.... the yarn I used was yarn from the same batch but it was slightly thinner than my first yarn. Inconsistent spinning makes for inconsistent knitting. so now I had a useless pair of socks. I wanted to cry!

I threw them down in disgust and worked away at the next pair of socks also in the same pattern which I was knitting for my nephew. I kept thinking about the other pair of socks. I wanted to cry some more. But I got a brilliant idea. why didn't I pull out the knitting back to where I started to decrease for the toe and just add in one more repeat of the pattern. Would anyone really notice that one had 16 repeat and the other had 17 repeats?! So I did that. and now the socks match.... well... at least in size. Daughter #1 tried them on and said that they felt great. But as a result the socks now look like this...

I will need a very dark colour indeed if I am to have them look even remotely consistent. So more than likely I will dye them black or very dark charcoal grey and then maybe I will add a little embroidery to make them look pretty. Meanwhile after I had Daughter #1 try them on, I started to realize that maybe the other socks that I was knitting might be too small for my nephew... I thought the size that I was knitting (men's size large) seemed to be a might bit too small for a 16 year olld teenager boy. Hmmm....

So after raveling back the socks I am now re-knitting them one size larger and on slightly larger knitting needles. so far so good.

Still after all that work, there are socks, socks everywhere, and not a one to wear...

But stayed tuned because I'm determined that all socks will eventually be wearable and beautiful too....