A Finished Bearfoot Man Sock
One Down...
Even though I haven't had a lot of knitting time this week, I did have a chance to finish John's sock over the weekend. I would have shown it off earlier, but I wanted a real daylight shot that showed off the colors in the yarn better. I think this picture gives a much better demonstration of what this yarn really looks like. Dark enough to be man acceptable, handpainted enough to be knitter acceptable.
In spite of the success of the afterthought heel that I tried on my Opal sock, I decided that I would try out Priscilla Gibson-Roberts short row heel on this sock. It was an interesting thing to watch come together, and over all I thought her instructions were very good. But I am still trying to decide whether I like it or not.
The Dream Sock Heel
To be fair, what I am actually trying to decide if I like is that corner area where it is always difficult to keep a hole from showing. I wasn't really successful with this sock (it would be easy to see if John was modeling it, and you can probably see how big and loose the stitches in that area look). Fortunately, it's also pretty easy to do a little inside work on the sock to shore that area up.
If anyone out there has done this heel before, I'd be curious to know how you get those areas tightened up. This was one of the first times I was thinking that it probably would have worked out better with double points than with my two circulars.
I didn't follow PG-R's toe -- I just did my usual simple toe. By the time I got to it, I just didn't have the energy to think through the short rowing process.
And of course, this sock did get a try on. John liked it a great deal, but gave me the sad face again and told me he thought it looked lonely -- and that it was getting warmer. So I've got the second one cast on now, in the hopes I can finish it before Spring has really Sprung into Summer.
Your Bearfoot sock looks lovely! The yarn has a really nice, soft hand. I've not yet tried an afterthought heel, I'm still trying to get the hang of a heel flap.
I usually do a shortrow heels but am never happy with the way they look, I always end up with one side looking as though it has some weird sort of seam while on the other there are little holes from gaps in the wraps. It's ok if they're for me but not if I'm making socks for others.
Mine with the PG-R heel turned out pretty well. They're here: http://www.devbear.org/project_toeup_socks.html. Scroll down to the bottom, where I have a pic of the heel of the Easter Egg sock while I am wearing it. About the corner area -- with short row heels I pick up extra stitches on each side where the gap might be, and knit them together on the next round with the stitch next to it (the first one with the last stitch on one needle, and the second one with the first stitch on the next needle). This decrease is sometimes visible, but normally not so much that you'd notice. If I am particularly concerned about it I will use symmetric decreases.
Love the bearfoot socks by the way. I can't wait to try that yarn.
Really nice sock !
I sort of do what devBear does - tweak ! I really like PG-R's sock pattern and have knit loads of them,Always use that pattern for Oliver's socks.Even made a pair for Fluffa ! Try the toe.It's fun & the construction can leave an inspecting knitter baffled !
Lovely sock! I've been using the Sherman heel from this Socknitter's message on a couple of socks, and there's no hole on the ones I remembered to pick up the wrap as well as the stitch.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Socknitters/message/59091
Lovely sock!
On short row heels I always pick up at least two extra stitches on each side at the completion of the heel and then knit them together on subsequent rounds -- that gets rid of the unsightly hole for me.
What a lovely sock -- good luck with the race to give it a mate! I have a feeling John will still have a day or two to wear these before they get put away for the summer...
Are you sure your DH and mine aren't related? I do believe that yarn is dark enough for my DH's socks. Only in my house we have a proclamation - every sock I make for him has to have 8" (no more, no less) of K2P2 ribbing. sigh
I've been really loving all the technical info on your blog - attached I-cord ribbing, afterthought heels, etc. Keep it coming!
As other have said, picking up extra stitches helps. Sometimes you can get away with knitting into the back of the stitches at the corners to tighten them up.
I like making short row heels but find that the heel is a bit too shallow for my foot.
I had that pesky hole in the first 4 pairs of socks I knit. But now (I'm on pair 13) I've realized that it's simply not an issue anymore. I think I've learned to tighten up as I knit socks, and if necessary I also pick up an extra few stitches to avoid a gap. I've never used the circular needle method, so I don't know how much of a difference that makes. From the picture, the sock looks great though. Beautiful subtle colors. I used Bearfoot for a hat and loved working with it.
I think the PGR heel is the best, once you get used to the P3tog tbl. :) I usually twist the k2tog at that pesky corner area and it tightens up quite nicely.
I also like doing her greek toe. The decoprative braid look along the top is very nice.
Hi, I have only done PGR heels and toes, and I love them. I do the pick up extra sts thing and it seems to eliminate the holey look pretty well. Those socks are bearfully beeyootiful. Get crackin' on the mate. Or send it to me, I have a basket full of singletons it can join!
Lovely sock--gorgeous colorway! I do short-row heels. I like Wendy's advice to pick up an extra stitch and knit them together--I think I'll try that next time.