These socks have a story.
When I originally picked these socks, I was looking for something relatively simple, fast, and not overly complicated. The pattern looked perfect. In fact, I chose it because it is similar to Monkey, and I love my Monkey socks. I grabbed some deep stash yarn (pre-Y2K) in a simple colourway. I cast on and thought no more about it.
The pattern is a toe-up pattern that I did as a cuff-down sock and it is worked over 64 stitches. Similar to a hundred other 64(ish) stitch socks I’ve knit before. I knit. I turned the heel. I knit some more. I did my toe decreases. I kitchenered the toe. I stuck my hand inside the sock to tighten up my kitchener stitches only to find it difficult to get my hand in the sock.
I was shocked. I was also bloody annoyed that I’d knit a sock with a 7.5” leg and a 10.5” foot only to find out that not only could I not get it over my heel, but that I could barely get it on my foot. My sock mojo left. I set it aside, with the darning needle still on the end, and left it for my husband to try on when he got back from his business trip.
He returned. He tried on the sock. He couldn’t get it over his heel either. I was shocked. And now I was annoyed. In desperation, I called in my nearly 4 year old daughter to have her try on the sock. I couldn’t face reknitting the sock. I figured if it fit okay, I’d take out a couple of repeats and save it until it fit her. I put it on her. The leg fit. The bloody sock fit my pre-schooler!
I ripped the sock back, shortened the heelflap, reknit the foot in stocking stitch (my daughter commented about the ‘holes’ in the leg and said there shouldn’t be holes in the foot), knit to fit a size 27, duplicated the work in the second sock and called it a day.
My sock fit a 4 year old. Astonished doesn’t begin to describe my feelings. I’ve literally knit hundreds of socks and I was amazed at the sizing problems of this sock. To be completely fair, I do not think it was the pattern. Although the pattern is designed for a snug fit, this should not have happened. I think the yarn is mostly to blame and it wasn’t until I picked up and started knitting on another sock that I realised how thin this yarn was. Maybe it shrank in the stash. What I do know, is that I have several more balls of it in the stash and I’ll be very careful as to what I use it for. Unless, of course, I need more 4 year old sized socks.
The details:
Pattern: Up, Up and Away by Megan S. Wright
Size: 4 year old knee sock sized (size 27)
Needle: 2.25mm
Yarn: DGB Confetti Superwash