The cankle socks

The final sock fail of 2009.

The cankle socks.

I don't mean to be mean in any way. The socks just look like they have no ankles, so in our house they have been dubbed the cankle socks. Really, they are the Butterflies and Berries Socks from a long-ago purchased kit. This is some of the first "real" sock yarn I purchased. Back when I was crocheting socks rather than knitting them. Back when I was hording yarn for some reason. Back before the blog was anonymous and went under a different name. Back in 2005 to be exact. As one of my knitting friends is fond of saying, "yarn is like wine, you need to age it". Well, this was good and aged.

I bought the yarn with the intentions of crocheting some socks for myself, it was on sale (cheaper than it's listed now I'm sure) and I figured that the pattern was just something I'd keep or pass onto a friend who did knit socks. Well, I conquered DPNs and have long abandoned crocheted socks*.

Technically, there is nothing wrong with these socks. They are a really fun knit, and the yarn is very nice. The pattern is easy enough to follow, memorize, etc. Everything I'm looking for in a sock.

Here's the but you all knew was coming: The foot portion is just too large in circumference. Hence the cankle designation. The pattern calls for size 2 dpns. I usually knit socks on a size 1 or smaller. For this design, the stranded butterfly stitch doesn't have the give that a normal knitted fabric would have, actually it pulls in some, so going up a needle size is prudent. It all works out fine on the calf portion. But keeping with the larger size on the eyelet portion is a mistake. Eyelets are lace and make a knit fabric stretch even more than it would normally. So we have the following formula:

normal knitting + extra eyelet stretch + bigger needles = cankles [eqn.1]

To correct this, I would perform a simple modification:

normal knitting + extra eyelet stretch + smaller needles = good fit [eqn 2]

You see, by a simple change of needle size we solve the problem. Theoretically, that is, I have not tested this theory on a second pair of socks. Although I have enough yarn leftover that I just might. I would simply just switch to smaller needles before the heel flap portion and I think all would be well.

In any case, here are the stats.

Pattern: Butterflies and Berries Socks by Debbie O'Neill available from The Knitter as a kit.
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Wild Raspberry. I have alot leftover. I like the yarn. It shed some color in blocking. The mohair content gives it a little fuzz that I enjoy.
Needles: size 2 bamboo dpns
Mods: I found the little shell rib to be pretty, but annoying to work, so I only did 3 repeats of it instead of the five. Similarly I reduced the number of pattern repeats in the ankle portion. I did 6 instead of 8. Also in the foot, fewer reps because I have small feet, which also required I eliminate some rows in the toe.

The end result is some warm and fuzzy house socks, which was nice since we had a freeze here and it was unpleasantly cold.

Like I said, 2009 was a bad year for socks.

*For making, not wearing that is. Hub has a vintage '05 on his feet right now. They hold up let me tell you.