Still A Bit Floppy

Last night, in a fit of  frog-footed sock angst, I emailed two knit blog friends about my trapezoidal Jaywalker sock toe problem.  Then I went to sleep, dreaming about scuba diving in big swimming fins.  When I woke up, I had two responses.  The first, from my Idaho friend, while not technically helpful, did completely crack me up when she told me, "Cheer up, you wing-toed freak."  (Sheesh, it's a good thing I have a strong sense of self.)  The second email, coming to me from the fabled land near the UK Lush factory, was eye-opening.  (How magic is the internet?  I can ask for help from knitters across the globe and get responses almost immediately.)  Tracy has started on her second pair of Jaywalkers, without toe wings, so she asked me:

Tracy:  You did follow the pattern to the letter, right?

Me:  Eh, close enough.

Then Tracy mentions something about the unusual decreases in the middle of the toe on the pattern and I feel my face start getting hot.  What middle toe decreases?  Okay, in my defense, and it's a weak defense, I'll admit, the first time I knit the toe, I just sort of glanced at the pattern and happily knit my own favorite toe shaping.  Disaster.  Then I ripped back the toe and glanced at the pattern and thought I was following it.  Wrong.  Today, I really, really read the pattern and realized that I wasn't even close.  Obviously, I must have been smoking crack instead of reading the pattern.  (Not really on the crack comment, naturally, but obviously my pattern reading comprehension skills stink.)  Because I was knitting the sock on three double point needles instead of four, I was way off with my decreases.  So, I ripped the toe back for the second time and knit it up a third time.  Incidentally, the Socks That Rock yarn don't look any worse for the wear after all this ripping and reknitting.  There's no fraying or fuzzing or yarn splitting.  I'm impressed.  So, I followed the pattern exactly, and......

I still have Floppy Flipper Foot.

Sigh.

But, it is less floppy than last night.  I've come to the conclusion that following the pattern exactly helped, but the fact that my sock is too slouchy and big (damn my loose knitting) is always going to lead to this problem.  I'm going to knit up the mate and just enjoy their slouchy comfiness, realizing that I'll be channeling the '80's style slouch sock.  I'll just wear them to watch reruns of "Dynasty" or something.  And I'll have to remember to wear wide-toed shoes with them.  I'm still enamoured with the Jaywalker pattern.  I just have to get a handle on my gauge.  Time to cast on the second slouchy sock.  This time, I'll use four double point needles.

Comments

[Nicole]

Oh, they do look better. Hey, the 80s are coming back around. Soon you can wear those socks over your stirrup pants, paired with a super long shirt tied with a big fat belt and be all the rage. And you know I meant the term freak in the nicest possible way, right!

[minnie]

you need to set that sock free.

[Tracy]

They definitely look better than yesterdays!