Multi-Colored Disappointment

This week’s post starts with disappointment and a long story.
After successfully making socks, I wanted another stab at it. It went very smoothly the first time.

I shouldn’t have been afraid to do it all these years! However, the socks were made out of regular wool, which means much too itchy for sensitive skin. So off to Michael’s to buy a cotton, polyester or smart wool blend. There wasn’t much selection so I bought Loops & Threads “Luxury Sock” yarn. Even though it still has some wool in it, I like working with, and it doesn’t seem to bother me, so I will buy more of it.

I went on Ravelry and picked out a great sock pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lacy-spring-socks. Very cute. I perused the notes from others who made it, as one always should, and discovered it ran big for lots of people. So I checked my gauge and measured my leg and figured it would be just fine.
After I had gotten quite a ways down the length of the sock, I kept fretting and fretting, trying to reassure myself that it would fit. After awhile, I got venturesome, and, while in fear that I might lose stitches, I slid in my leg and tried it on. It didn’t fit. It fit around my leg perfectly but without tension--so, not good for a sock whose predator is gravity.

I had worked hard, though, getting to that point so I decided to just finish it. Maybe it would fit my mom’s leg. I have oddly thin calves and she has normal sized ones. I knitted along happily as I convinced myself about the socks' future happy home in my mom’s sock drawer. And she was excited about it too it seemed. I finished it up, she tried it on, and it was too big for her as well.
So now I have a completed sock that is pretty but no foot to wear it.

What does one do with this? I have a few projects I’ve made through the years that I chalk up to experimentation and I put them together in a bag in my closet. Usually those projects look like the island of misfit toys so I feel sad to put this beautiful sock in with them. Sometimes, I will  rip up a project and use the yarn to make a scraps project, but the sock yarn is so weak that it doesn’t really lend itself to that. So, to the island it must go.

Of course, instead of making it a pair, I decided to use the remaining yarn on something else: socks that would actually fit me. I’ll make my mom socks the next time around. I’ll have to pick up some navy blue yarn (her favorite color).