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After Christmas every year I usually settle down to do some intensive knitting for myself. This year, however, I was too sick between Thanksgiving and New Years to get off the couch so my Knitting Giftees had to make do with boxes of yarn, needles and proposed patterns which is a kind of Promise of a Gift rather than the Gift Itself. So after I began to recover I settled in to knitting for Christmas Just Passed. Once those were out of the way I realized that my go to winter footwear, which is hand knit socks inside and hand knit socks inside boots outside, had not been attended to for several years. There were holes everywhere....just everywhere. Now I could just mend by darning but I find those wodgy bits under my feet to be really annoying. So I did an assessment of what I loved, and what I could wear to bed until the holes were just too much.
Now notice the blue socks on the sock blockers on the left above. Those are basic, knit out of worsted yarn, old fashioned Maine Winter Socks. They are warm and serviceable. They are very easy to knit which is both a blessing and a curse. I can crank them out but I hardly ever do because they are boring. So I had only one pair of those with holes in the feet. These have become bed socks because they aren't interesting enough to warrant mending. Therefore they will get worn until they make it through this winter season and then they will become mulch...for the garden. If you put your little plant into the sock full of dirt and then into the garden the wool will wick water, gradually decompose and keep the roots slightly warmer than they would otherwise be. And it allays the guilt of just tossing them out for those of us with creeping hoarder tendencies. Ahem....
Now those others are the interesting socks. Don't want to mend them by darning, but also don't want to dispense with them because they are lovely. So I have figured out a couple of ways to resole them. The rose brown ones with the striped soles were made from Peacefleece which is a lovely yarn but too soft for the wear and tear of the soles of socks worn continuously on my hardwood floors. But I really loved them. So I clipped the toes, unraveled the socks up to the bottom of the ankle bit and then used the yarn to reknit the top portion of the sock foot only. I then used the raveled yarn together with some new sock yarn (which has nylon in it and is tougher) to knit up the striped heels and soles and toes, joining on to the edges of the instep as I went. This seemed like such a good idea that I decided to make the socks at the far right, which are new knee socks, with this method from the get go. If those babies get holes I'll just clip the toes, unravel the striped portion and reknit without going to the trouble of reknitting the top of the foot section.
If you look at the blue socks second from the right you will see another method of reknitting the soles of the socks, which is EZs (Elizabeth Zimmerman's) moccasin sock sole. Also a fine method of resoling socks although I believe the stripey version may be more hard wearing. I will road test this year and let you know.
I now have two more pairs of knee socks to resole and then I will have caught up. And Joe has finally worn out one of his sweaters so I should be getting to that as well. And by then winter should be over don't you think?
Now notice the blue socks on the sock blockers on the left above. Those are basic, knit out of worsted yarn, old fashioned Maine Winter Socks. They are warm and serviceable. They are very easy to knit which is both a blessing and a curse. I can crank them out but I hardly ever do because they are boring. So I had only one pair of those with holes in the feet. These have become bed socks because they aren't interesting enough to warrant mending. Therefore they will get worn until they make it through this winter season and then they will become mulch...for the garden. If you put your little plant into the sock full of dirt and then into the garden the wool will wick water, gradually decompose and keep the roots slightly warmer than they would otherwise be. And it allays the guilt of just tossing them out for those of us with creeping hoarder tendencies. Ahem....
Now those others are the interesting socks. Don't want to mend them by darning, but also don't want to dispense with them because they are lovely. So I have figured out a couple of ways to resole them. The rose brown ones with the striped soles were made from Peacefleece which is a lovely yarn but too soft for the wear and tear of the soles of socks worn continuously on my hardwood floors. But I really loved them. So I clipped the toes, unraveled the socks up to the bottom of the ankle bit and then used the yarn to reknit the top portion of the sock foot only. I then used the raveled yarn together with some new sock yarn (which has nylon in it and is tougher) to knit up the striped heels and soles and toes, joining on to the edges of the instep as I went. This seemed like such a good idea that I decided to make the socks at the far right, which are new knee socks, with this method from the get go. If those babies get holes I'll just clip the toes, unravel the striped portion and reknit without going to the trouble of reknitting the top of the foot section.
If you look at the blue socks second from the right you will see another method of reknitting the soles of the socks, which is EZs (Elizabeth Zimmerman's) moccasin sock sole. Also a fine method of resoling socks although I believe the stripey version may be more hard wearing. I will road test this year and let you know.
I now have two more pairs of knee socks to resole and then I will have caught up. And Joe has finally worn out one of his sweaters so I should be getting to that as well. And by then winter should be over don't you think?
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