One Hiking Sock down....

One Hiking Sock down... one to go. I am using Susan B. Anderson's pattern for "Ribbed Socks for Bigger Feet" which I found on her blog called Spud and Chloe. This pattern is very similar to the Wise Hilda's Sock pattern I just finished a week or so ago. Both call for k3,p1 ribbing in the cuff and on the top of the foot, but Susan's pattern starts with 64 stitches and Hilda's socks call for 60 stitches. The ribbing in these socks makes them fit great. My yarn for these socks is On Line Supersocke and the colorway is called "Hiking" (I think). There is a lot of German writing on the sock label and, despite studying German for years, the label has me a bit confused. Whatever the case may be, the word "hiking" on the label got me to thinking this yarn WOULD make great hiking socks. I set out to make socks long enough that I could roll the top down for a nice cuff. I was a few inches into the cuff when I realized that when I rolled the sock down, the cuff revealed would be p3,k1 which is not as attractive as k3,p1. I got to thinking I should have started with p3,k1 and then later switched to k3,p1 part way down the cuff. Since I did not want to rip out all of my work, I got innovative and came up with a solution.

When I was about 5 1/2 inches into the cuff portion, I turned the sock inside out. The yarn was now coming from my left needle. So I brought the yarn to the front, slipped a stitch from the right needle to the left needle, wrapped the yarn to the back of that stitch, and then slipped the stitch back to the right needle, and then proceeded to knit in k3,p1 ribbing. The sock looks a little funny when the cuff is not folded down, but it looks great when I have it on. The ribbing on the cuff and the ribbing the top of the foot both match.

Here's a photo to show you where I turned it inside out. You can (hopefully) see where the ribbing changes to the left of my finger, just before the charcoal gray stripe begins. I suppose using a k2,p2 ribbing would have eliminated the need to turn the sock inside out, as would knitting p3,k1 ribbing (at the top of the sock), but I am kind of pleased with myself in that I came up with a "new technique" to solve my problem.