Fit, Ease, & Socks

I never used to care about my own personal gauge when I was knitting. I just followed the pattern with the needles called for or one size up when it came to socks. I made my socks fit and didn't care if they were too tight or anything. But something changed when I started learning more about my knitting and gauge and fit.

My current goal has been to get the perfect pair of socks. It even led me down the road to taking the gauge of all of my sock needles so I know exactly how I knit. The last two pairs of socks I knit fit well, but were a little slouchy and slipped off easily whenever I would take off my shoes. It was frustrating going from knitting socks that mostly fit but were a little loose around the ankle or too tight around the toes to socks that wouldn't stay on my foot when I wasn't wearing shoes.

That's when I starting reading up about ease.

The easiest way to describe ease is the space between your skin and your clothing. Imagine a loose fitting t-shirt. That item would have positive ease so that you can move around easily. Now, imagine a clingy slinky little black dress. That item would have zero ease. Now, imagine a simple ribbed stocking cap that you would wear in the winter. That item has negative ease and clings to you so that the hat won't fall off, but still fits.

Socks should have negative ease so that it clings to your foot and stays there so you can take off your shoes without your socks falling off. Reading around the Socks Knitters Anonymous (SKA) group, a lot of people like their socks with about 10-15% negative ease. That will make them small enough to cling, but big enough to stretch to fit your foot.

Yarn Over Cable Pattern by Charlene Schurch

So, what does that mean about the christmas socks that I'm knitting for my mom? Simply put, I have to do some math, but (luckily) the math is relatively easy thanks to the handy charts in Sensational Knitted Socks.

Her shoe size is seven which means that her leg will be about 8 1/8 inches around. With the five stitch pattern I'm doing with my personal gauge being 9 stitches per inch, that means I would have to cast on 70 stitches for a sock with zero ease. That means it would be a slouchy sock.

At 10% negative ease I would have to cast on  63 stitches. (10% of 70 is 7)
At 15% negative ease I would have to cast on 60 stitches. (15% of 70 is 10.5 round down to 10)

This means my goal cast-on number would be anywhere between 60-63 stitches. With the pattern that I'm using, sixty stitches turned out to be the perfect cast on number. This means that I should be knitting a sock that will fit mom's foot perfectly and not be too snug or too loose. But because this is a gift, I won't know for sure until Christmas day.

Ninety Days

I know you don't want to think about it, I know you don't want to hear about it, and I know that it is far too early to even start talking about Christmas, but knitters everywhere have to remember that Christmas is only ninety days away. This is the first year that I am really counting down the days until the big gift giving holiday of the year because it is the first time that I am only going to give handmade themed presents to my family this year. Of course, I am one of the lucky ones that my family doesn't read my blog so I can talk about my holiday knitting!

This year I am making my entire family (that is immediate family and my fiance) Christmas socks. No, they are not going to be all of the same pattern. That would just be too insane even for me and I would get really bored and stop knitting them. Instead, they are all going to have the same color palette but have different sock patterns. This way my family can't get them mixed up in the wash either.

Earlier in the year when Knit Picks announced that they were going to discontinue the Felici yarn line, I had a massive order that included ten skeins of Felici Jingle. I didn't think that I would like the color when I ordered it, but I did anyway because they were Christmas colors and perfect for gifts. It was a happy surprise when the yarn came in and the normal fire red, holly green, and snow white were instead replaced with a toned down rust red, forest green, and soft almost off white. This way they are nice winter themed socks at first glance instead of the obnoxious ugly Christmas holidays sweater tones that aren't really suitable for wear outside of the holidays.

The hardest part was actually planning the patterns that I wanted to use. Since Felici is a self-striping yarn it does play well with texure, but I also wanted to play with the stripe movement in some socks while still keeping the patterns simple and (hopefully) quick to make. Best of all, every single pattern I picked out are socks that I haven't made before, so there is no chance of me getting bored!

The line up is:

1. Jaywalkers for Dad.
2. Yarn Over Cable Socks for Mom. 
3. Circle Socks for my brother Hunter.
4. Vanilla Latte for Will (the fiance for any newer readers out there).
5. And Hedera Socks for me.

Since my parents will be out of the house for a full week while they take their annual time-away-from-kids-empty-nesting trip, that means that I will have time to knit on their socks while they are away without them peeking. Between my work and looking after my brother to make sure he survives a week without the parents, I should have time to get at least one pair of socks done before they get back which will leave me just enough time to cast Will's socks on for my lounge around the family knitting project.

Are you doing any Christmas knitting this year?