Socks in the Frog Pond

I was a little embarrassed to show these, since they are on the needles for their third time now, but I was encouraged by my friend and knitting guru tatt3r's statement, "I've never knitted a sock I didn't like, I send them to the frog pond till they behave!"

If she can do it, I can do it. I steeled myself, pulled out the cast-off and unravelled the cuffs. The feet were great, but the cuffs felt slouchy. Bleh!

They have a turned toe and turned heel that I made on my homemade sock frame. Although I have tried short-row wrapped heels on the needles, I still make better turns on the frame. I am not completely sure why this is, but I have a list of suspects. For one, the wire brads on my knitting frame are about the size of a US 1 knitting needle. For another, I do "row out" slightly on needles. My purl rows are just slightly tighter than my knit rows. And this one is supported by the fact that my short-row turns look better at the end of each purl row.

Since there is no way to "row out" on the frame, and since the brads are so thin, the frame makes a dandy turned toe and heel.

The first time I knitted these, I did them entirely on the frame, one at a time. The first sock fit great, the second was too tight! So, rip-it, rip-it, into the frog pond.

The second time I knitted them, I made one toe, picked it up on needles, made a second toe, and picked that up, and knitted them on needles to the heel. Then I put the stitches for each heel back on the frame, knitted the heel on the frame, and picked them back up on needles for the cuffs. I guess I overcompensated for the first round, with the tight sock, by making the cuffs much looser. I wore them a couple of times with the loose, slouchy cuffs, until they bugged me enough to unpick the cast-off and frog them down to the heel turn.

I hope third time is the charm!