which_chick | Socktoberfest #4

Making socks that fit!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was planning on swatching the HoHI socksI because of suspected problems. The pattern for HoHI is an 82 st pattern. (The book says "increase to 84 sts" in the text, but it is wrong. I've counted the little squares three times and I've knit an inch of it and I assure you that it's an 82 st pattern.) However, I'm using skinny string and wee bitty sticks and I never did reckon 82 sts would fit my calves with that setup because, well, I'm more sturdy than sylph. My calves are beefy and measure fourteen inches (quite snugly) just below the knee. Well, anyway. I made a swatch of the HoHI pattern using the string and sticks I intend to knit with. Here's a picture, for those of you who feel there should be *illustrations* for this happiness...

That's my thumb, in the picture. For scale. I do not have preternaturally large thumbs. The swatch has 10 sts. to the inch and (interestingly) 10 rows to the inch. (Normal knitting is not particularly square, but two-color is more square than normal knitting. Because these are socks, length isn't a big concern for me -- I can just repeat the damn thing until the socks are long enough. I'm only noting row gauge so that you can see the more-square thing going on, there.) At 10 sts to the inch, a pattern of 82 sts is going to be about 8 1/4 inches around. As we all recall from the previous paragraph, my calves are about 14" around. (No, I am not fat.) Houston, we have a problem. (Aren't you glad I did a swatch? I sure am.)

So. I need about 68 more sts at the given gauge to go around my calves than exist in the design. (I could use different needles and different yarn to get the suggested gauge, but I've made socks on size 3 needles and I didn't like 'em. The directions say to use size 4's and I don't want to do that. Icky. Coarse. Big. I don't want that. I want fine gauge.) Also, the decreases shown in Ms. Meg's design allow for 5 +5 + 5 + 5 decreases from the top of the sock to the bottom of the sock. That's 20 sts. At gauge, I'd lose two inches from top-of-calf to ankle. My ankles are NOT 12" around. They're about 9" around. So, y'know, more decreases are needed than are provided for. Bugger.

Neither of these problems was unexpected.

Solution: Add 68 sts to the design. The pattern is divided front to back, with a large motif (35 sts) on front and back and a small motif (6 sts) between 'em. I'm adding a side motif to each side, set off by the small divider motifs, so that we will have the following: front(35)-divider(6)-side pattern(x)-divider(6)-back(35)-divider(6)-side pattern (x)-divider(6). I'm going to take the decreases out of the side panels that I just magically added because I *like* the front/back pattern and I am not in love with the decreases as written.

Total: 70 (back and front motifs) + 24 sts (dividers) + 2x (side pattern) = 140
2x = 46
x = 23.

(More math-oriented readers than I am could have generated X by subtracting 12 from 68 and dividing by two. I am not that good at math until after the fact.)

Now, I need to open the Latvian Mitten book and peruse charts for something suitable that has approximately 23 sts, make sure that it doesn't have three hundred floats and ensure a line of contrast between this and the small divider pattern. Got one. (Elapsed time: three minutes. I pre-thought a lot of this while I was actually making the swatch.)

I probably should generate a graph to make sure that there are no irritating interactions between the Latvian filler and the side divider. (Time passes.) Did that. It's good.

Now I have to make charts to show what I want to do because the existing chart is (a) wrong and (b) has the decreases in the wrong place and (c) doesn't include the new patches that I just added. I will likely cut and paste most of the charts out of the existing chart (because I have an office photocopier and the leisure to do this on my lunch hour) but some of it is going to have to be made more-or-less by hand, notably the part that has the added-in pattern. *sigh* Not very interesting, that. At least I can cast on the ribbing for both socks and get started on that. It's kind of mindless, but what the hell. At least I can get underway. Socktoberfest is three days in and I don't have a project started yet. Some people have their first pair of socks done already.

I realize that this particular entry looks like about as much fun as a thirty-year straight line amortization schedule. Sorry about that. Knitting is really a very creative, free-form hobby wherein you let your inner artist run free in a touchy-feely environment ripe with textures and colors. It isn't knitting's fault that my inner artist is a cost accountant with OCD issues.

For the regular readers who can be depended upon to read nearly every word I write, note that I do not mock those of you whose game instruction booklets weigh more than the pieces and who own many types of dice that are not square. I pretend that what you do is entertaining and fun even though I do not see how it could possibly be so. Give me a little of my own back, here.