Self-Striping Socks
Submitted by live4rabbits on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 14:41.
in
Dear Mom,
So I have been working on some toe-up socks using KnitPicks Felici self-striping yarn.
Rather than do my usual short row toe, I did a Turkish cast on with half the total number of stitches and then did and increase toe. It went pretty well and certainly looks good. When I got to the part where the heel should be, I ran into a problem that I probably should have anticipated. Short row heels and self-striping sock yarn don't mix well. The sequence of the stripes gets mixed up and out of whack.
My chaos loving husband thinks this is a good look, but I am pretty Type-A so it was bothering me. I felt that there must be a better way. Ravelry to the rescue. A quick search in the forums turned up this tutorial in the exact yarn I am using.
It uses the afterthought heel which the Yarn Harlot has also blogged about and which originated with Elizabeth Zimmerman of course. I can't decide whether to try it out on the next sock and have totally mis-matched socks or to wait and use it on the next pair of self-striping socks instead. What do you think? In addition to keeping your pattern aligned, the afterthought heel can be removed separately and reknit if it develops a hole which is pretty cool though I am not sure I would venture that far into sock repair.
Love,
Page
Those are some nifty looking socks! I would make the next one to match and then try the new technique on a second pair. Or, if it really bugs you, then frog this sock back to the point to try the new technique.
Well there won't be any frogging of this sock. I decided that after completing the heel. The stripes being out of sequence really doesn't bother me all that much. I just knew there had to be a solution and wanted to know how to fix it. Will wait for the next pair to try my afterthought heel. Thanks for your advice.