I’ve tried all sorts of sock patterns; Fleegal, Sockmatician (I joined his brioche kickstarter – an awesome knitter I was delighted to support), Cat Biori’s tomato heel, gusset, bigger gusset. If you’ve followed my blog over the years you already know this. I don’t have a single pair of socks that I’ve knitted and kept. They were all sent to my sister who has lower volume feet (same length). This is the FIRST sock design that’s shown promise for a truly comfortable fit. It’s dead easy to knit. No fuss, nothing difficult (assuming you’re comfortable with short rows) . . . and it was an easy and intuitive adjustment from the original pattern for my short high volume feet.
I have a horrible time getting shoes and socks that fit. I have insanely short feet with unbelievably high arches. I am not kidding, my foot is shorter in length than the measure around my foot at the arch. 9.5″ around, 8.25″ long. Manufacturers do not make shoes that fit feet like mine. The new barefoot movement has promise but even there the shoes that purport to be made for high volume feet don’t have enough volume.
So . . . socks. As you can guess, socks are also a problem. If they’re the right length they aren’t big enough around. If they are big enough around they hang off my toes.
I bought two patterns from Cita Steinmeier that hold great promise. They’re both knit the same way from the heel out but with different starts. The bit I don’t care for is the knitting of the heel section ends at an awkward angle where the leg and toe are destined to be knit. In addition, the edges traveled too far up the back of my leg and down the bottom of my foot toward the toe. (I did say insanely short feet with unbelievably high arches. When I had boots made they were judged to be 3FF (US), so . . . yeah . . . totally abnormal.)
So, the fix . . . I started by changing the caston. I did the classic thumb caston (3 stitches) followed by this setup worked in the round.
Round 1. K
Round 2. Inc every stitch
Round 3. K
Round 4. Inc every stitch knitting equally off onto 3 DPNs
Round 5. K
The original pattern calls for two increases per section every fourth row. I like one increase per section every other row. It’s the same number of increases, just distributed differently. After setup the rows alternate between a row knit without increases a row knit with increases. The increase rows alternate between one increase at the beginning of each of the two sections on each DPN or the end of each of the two sections on each DPN. In other words, one round has an increase at the start of each section, the next increase round has it at the end of each section. I know that seems confusing. Once it’s a work in progress it’s dead simple. Knit one round. Knit the next round with an increase at the start of each section. Knit one round. Knit the next round with an increase at the end of each section. Repeat.
When the work was about one inch from closing over the top of my arch I started doing short rows to level the work. The SRTs are separated by three stitches. Work the short row turn on the fourth stitch from the previous turn, stop working SRTs when the section marker is reached. Don’t work any short row turns on the arch portions.
I’m really happy with how this fits.
I think this will work for me. Thank you Cita Steinmeier for the pattern to start me off. (The fat ankle is the result of a horse/carriage accident. Totally my fault. The fat ankle thingy is permanent.)