Concluding the short parade of sweet little girl knits, I finished the baby beret/socks set for my colorist’s new little girl recently. I’ll do a separate FO post to keep my notes in one place, but I had to tell you about the way these little socks are constructed. Strangest. Things. Ever.
When finished, they look like normal socks. But they’re knit flat. (Recommendation to anyone doing these in the future? Just do them in the round. But my visualization skills are poor enough that I couldn’t get that from the pattern.)
After knitting down to where one would usually begin the heel flap, you begin half of the heel flap, and then turn half of the heel.
Knit back, and do the other half of the heel.
Pick up the gusset stitches as you usually would, except, you know, not in the round.
Knit flat, decreasing those gusset stitches, until you get to the toe decreases.
Weave the yarn through the remaining stitches and then seam up the back.
Now, these are for a 3-month old, so the seam inside isn’t as huge a deal, I guess, but I had to wonder while I was going through this little puzzle: Why on earth wouldn’t one just knit the sock in the round? It’s not like size 3 dpns are that unweidly. It’s a mystery, like picking up the picot cast-off stitches on the matinee coat. Next time, though, I’d just knit the socks in the usual way and save the seaming.
Of course, the whole 2 days I was knitting these socks Jacob was constantly asking if they were for him. I realized that while I’ve done sweaters and that one scarf for him and some booties when he was totally wee, I’ve never knit the kid a pair of socks. How terrible is that?!
Well, needless to say we went right up to the sock yarn leftovers bag and he picked something out that he really liked. Hence, April’s installment in the year of socks will be a much-overdue pair for a very impatient 2-year-old.
Amy Herzog Designs