Reparo! and other sock fun

Last time we saw our intrepid stripey kool-aid dyed sock friends, they were a partially finished cuff. Since then, in the extended blogging hiatus, they have become a strong favorite of my socks, and have been in heavy rotation all fall and winter.


Unfortunately, I have discovered that the original construction of these, which included an afterthought heel over 60% of the sock stitches, placed a rather weak row of grafting right at the stress point of the heel, where I just found that it was starting to wear out! See?




My first thought was to just darn the darn things. But after darning the one row, it seemed that I needed to darn the next round, and the next round, and after a certain point, it seemed ridiculous to re-do an entire heel in duplicate stitch. Screw that.

Fortunately, with afterthought heels, you can do a heel replacement surgical procedure without having to reknit the whole foot. First, I found the woven-in end from where I had started to pick up the stitches to make the heel in the first place, and un-wove it. I picked out the stitches, putting them on dpns as I went. About halfway around, I realized that I was very carefully picking up the stitches on the heel itself, rather than on the sock I was trying to repair. This was not a good thing, and led to the socks' exposure to colorful language. Another fine educational opportunity for all involved. After undoing the round of stitches, I had one unattached heel, and one sock with 4 dpns outlining where the new heel would be knit.

Heel, or part of a teeny bikini? You decide.


Since the old heels had worn out at the point, I decided on a different type of construction for the new heels. Instead of going around and around and making another toe, with grafted end, I made an hourglass/short-row heel (directions in Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy), and grafted the bottom half to the sole of the foot. I also went down a needle size from 1 to 0 so that the fabric would be a little stronger. Knitpicks bare does not contain any nylon, so it does not seem to wear as hard as other sock yarn, but it is really soft and comfortable! The striping pattern is different now, but I'm still very happy with it!


In new sock news, I just completed a pair of plain stockinette socks with the Socks That Rock mediumweight in Henpecked that was in my Christmas stocking. Soft, warm, and I love the colors!


I did short row heels on these as well (but standard wedge toes, since I like how they fit), and I used a nifty tip for making short row heels less shallow that I picked up from one of the patterns from the Six Sox knitalong a couple of years ago (Stashbuster Spirals by Janine Hempy).



On the instep side of the foot (not the heel side), starting a couple of rows before the heel, make a mini gusset by increasing one stitch every other row (only on the instep side) for a total of 2 or 3 stitches. I use M1 increases between the first and second stitch on the needle). Then after the short row heel is done, decrease the same amount over the same number of rounds. So 3 rows before you get to the heel (toe up or top down), if you were using 4 dpns and starting a round in the middle of the heel, you'd have:

Knit across needle 1.
K1, M1, knit across needle 2.
Knit across needle 3 until you get to the last stitch, M1, K1.
Knit across needle 4.

Do one round plain.

Repeat the first round.

Do your short row heel.

When you get back to the instep the first time, knit it plain, since the last round you did was an increase round, and you're decreasing off the last stitches from the heel anyway.

On the next round: Knit across needle 1. K1, ssk, knit across needle 2. Knit across needle 3 to the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. Knit across needle 4.

Knit the next round plain.

On the next round: Knit across needle 1. K1, ssk, knit across needle 2. Knit across needle 3 to the last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. Knit across needle 4. This should take you back to the original number of stitches. Finish your sock however you like! Here's how it looks in close up:


For those of you who can't wait to try this out, and need a reason to make more socks, don't forget to head on over to the Blue Blog for Sockapalooza 4 signups! Happy knitting!