When I arrived at the regular Thursday Tangle knitting night, the first thing my fellow knitsters asked me was are they done yet?

No, gentle reader, they are not done. Yet. I have about 10 more rounds of pattern and then an inch of ribbing, and then they’ll be done. Pics tomorrow, I hope. Because I still need to knit at least 4 inches (preferably 6-1/2″) on the class socks by next Tuesday, and I have all of about, oh… two rounds knit. Yeah.

Deadlines + Judy = not a happy combination.

In the rest of my life I can meet deadlines. But knitting? It’s just not happening.

KarenK from OR suggests:

It looks like you’re using two circs – try using one size smaller needle for the heel and sole stitches than for the instep stitches – it makes for a firmer and longer-wearing fabric on the bottom of the foot. There is a slight difference in row gauge but I make a couple of short rows on the sole as it’s worked, and it makes up for that.

Thanks for the suggestion, KarenK. I usually try for a firm fabric all the way around. I’m a fairly tight knitter, so the sizes I mentioned in my last post give me a pretty firm gauge. But I can see that if I needed to use a looser gauge on the instep for some reason, that knitting with a smaller needle on the sole would work well. I’ll definitely store that away in the hint book!

I hope that your part of Oregon isn’t too wet. I see that the next storms in line are coming today and Sunday.

~Kristie asks:

If I want to knit a pair of socks as a gift, & I only know the recipients shoe size, is their a “tried-and-true” pattern that works for all feet?

I don’t know of a “universal” pattern. You can find patterns out on the web that have instructions for multiple sizes. Also on the web, if you google something like shoe sizes in inches you’ll find a chart that tells you how long a shoe size is in inches. An average foot is approximately square – i.e. if the shoe size is 9-1/2″ long, then the person’s foot is probably about 9-1/2″ in circumference. Of course, nobody’s feet are average. But that’s why ribbing was invented. If I’m knitting for a man, I usually go for a subtle rib, like a K3P1 or something similar. Just enough to give some stretch, but not enough to yell ribbing. If I’m knitting for a woman, I might try for something a little bit fancier, like a traveling rib. But I’d keep to a pattern that had a lot of stretch in it and make sure that I had some negative ease in the width. Hope that helped!

Of course, I’m ignoring my own advice by knitting Jaywalkers – a not-very-stretchy pattern – for someone whose feet I have only a vague idea of sizing for. Yeah. Do as I say, gentle readers, and not as I do.