Monday, March 26, 2012

That's what I get for ignoring that little voice in the back of my head...

Remember that post where I was almost done with the second sock?  (You know what's coming, right?  Cue Ominous Music.  Yep.)
I'd been knitting the foot portion of the sock, trying to ignore that little niggling voice in my head that kept trying to tell me that Something is Wrong.  "No, no."  I kept saying to myself.  "It's really fine.  The fact that this sock seems shorter than the first one is clearly an optical illusion, since I've knit the same number of rows of the pattern stitch from the point of the gusset to the start of the toe.  I know this because I've counted them 14 times.  Not that I'm worried that there is a Mistake somewhere or anything.  I just like compulsively counting rows of knitting.  Especially with my hands over my ears: one, la la la, two, la la la, three, la la la..."
Eventually, though, even I can't maintain that level of denial.  The second sock is clearly shorter than the first, despite my best efforts to stretch it.
Once I stopped looking just at the knitting after the gusset, and looked at the gusset itself, I found the problem.
Here are the socks, lined up sole to sole:


The one on the right is First Sock.  The one on the left is Second Sock.  See the problem?  Count the rows in the gusset - which is easy to do, since they're conveniently knit in stripes.  A fact I ruthlessly ignored in my denial.

Honestly, I could just cry.

9 comments:

kmkat said...

Put out a cry for help on craigslist for a person with one foot 1/2" (or whatever) shorter than the other. You will make them very, very happy.

Or you could cry. Sometimes that helps, too.

margene said...

Go ahead and cry. Then rip that sucker! After that you can decide whether you want to reknit it or not. :-( I'm crying for you.

Joansie said...

I say, put it down for awhile and then go back to it a decade or so from now..lol. That problem really sucks!

Judy said...

Here's desperate. Is one of Hubby's feet shorter than the other? OR Have him try them on and see if it really makes any difference. I haven't knit long enough to think of any more. Oh, wait a minute, here's one more I just thought of, undo the toe and knit a 1/2 inch of the foot then put the toe back in. No? Is there a type of chocolate or adult beverage I can get for you? Hugs!

Erika said...

Oh nooooooo!!!! That's way worse than the Sock Situation I faced recently, and I was pretty upset. I can't imagine how you feel about that sock!

Pat said...

oooops :)

PS - I love the socks!

Wanderingcatstudio said...

It's a design feature - i'm telling you!

etherknitter said...

Oooooh. Rip. Timeout for awhile until you are ready to look at them again. Or until it hurts less.

Bullwinkle said...

/snort I know it's a) all over now (and possible knit back up) b) bad to laugh at other's misery (but really - we've all done it.) and c) those are still really cool (warm!) socks! You get to knit it again! More Knitting! Yay!