Socks : The Pain of Frogging - 11 July 2024

I’ve been delaying the ‘frogging or unravelling’ of this 'failed' sock. To clarify : I had not finished the sock yet so it's not 'failed' but after what happened to the other pair of socks I decided to take drastic action to prevent future disappointment. I’ve also been searching for possible ways to avoid the inevitable.

A couple of days ago I took my sock project bag with me on a short trip and while I sat waiting I ‘frogged’ the whole thing. I’d already knitted this far and I’d completed the other sock cuff band too.

When you unravel knitting you get very curly yarn. You then have to decide if you are going to wash it or knit it as it comes.

You can clearly see the curly yarn above. Sometimes the knitting looks a bit messy if you just knit it without washing it, but I think I’ll risk that and see what happens.

That went really fast ! I’m about to start on the culprit : the 100 % wool ribbing of the cuff.

Let’s now hope that I can just get on with proper sock knitting. The disappointment didn’t last long because I started again straight away. I'm also very keen to try out a new knitting technique which involves a different way of casting on than just using the cable cast on.

Normally when I cast on for socks I just use the long tail cast on :

This is the recommended method of all the sock instructions I’ve seen and followed because the result is stretchy and therefore suitable for a garment that needs to adjust to your lower calf contour.

I don’t normally use the cable cast on method when making socks because the result is not stretchy but it’s suitable for cardigans or sleeves so theoretically they don’t give so much :

Finally here’s the method I will be using this time : the alternating cast-on method :

Since watching the above video I’ve noticed that one of the You Tubers I watch and who makes many wonderful socks referred to this cast on method so it must be good enough ( I will try it anyway !)

My first attempt looked a bit messy but I'll persevere and will come back to show my progress.

Thank you for reading.