Fashion Feet First – Jaywalker Socks Finished!
Growing up, I hated girl shoes. HATED THEM. Anything that wasn’t comfortable or had a heel taller than an inch was pure torture. I’m still not much of a fan, but even I don’t need Stacy and Clinton to point out that my Birkenstocks don’t show off a new spring dress to its fullest.
However, I’ll gladly forsake comfort for fashion when it comes to my hand knit socks, especially if it means the difference between wonderfully striped painted colors or ugly pools of blotch-ville.
Which brings me to my Jaywalker experience. The only way I could keep the colors flowing and not knit a tourniquet was to make a much looser fabric and continue the pattern all the way around.
Yes, I’ve got ridges where no ridges should ever be and I don’t care. The fabric’s pretty.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Koigu doesn’t expand when washed. If they do, I’ll have ’80’s slouch socks.
Info
After much swearing, the Jaywalkers are as done as they’ll ever be. I had to make extra decreases at the sides before starting the toe because of terrible dog ears.
The fabric was simply too loose near the end of the foot in my quest for the perfect distribution of hand painted goodness. You’ll also notice the lavender tipped toes. A 7″ leg plus a 76 stitch cast on and 3.00 mm needles ate all the yardage.
Pattern: Jaywalkers
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM plus stash yarn to finish the toe
Started: mid October 2006
Finished: Finally
2.50 mm needles for ribbing, heel flap, heel turn, gusset decreases on sole side, and toe
3.00 mm needles for pattern
Cast on 76 stitches for leg as per the pattern. Decreased back of leg to 30 stitches for the heel flap, returning to 38 at end of the gusset decreases on the sole. I kept the 38 stitches in pattern on the instep.
After reaching the widest part of the ball of my foot, I decreased down to 60 stitches since 76 made dog ears.
If I were to try these again, I might consider going down a needle size or two rather than the extra side decreases. They weren’t as invisible as I’d hoped.
Related Posts
March 5, 2007
1 comment
Hi… I love Jaywalkers + have made several prs. I did run into the same issues you did though. I’ve used an afterthought heel instead + continued the leg patt down the back of the heel… looks nice in clogs. For the “dog ears” I simply stopped doing the side patt inc’s for several rnds before the end (but kept doing dec’s) to get rid of the extra sts. I have a very high instep/ arch so that may make a difference? But you can choose to work the afterthought heel as “deep” as your foot needs. Your socks are beautiful esp the lavender toes !!! Andrea