The emails have been building up for an example of refootable socks, so here it is. The top is a delicate kid mohair, Romney lamb and Angelina blend. It is knit in a loose gauge to let the mohair bloom. This wouldn't have stood up very well for a sock bottom. So I found a matching sock yarn with some percent nylon and knit the foot bottom for strength.
In this case, it was knit from the top down and when I got to the heel, I just continued the top ribbing until it came to my toes. Then I switched to sock yarn and shortrowed a toe. The bottom of the foot was knit back and forth, picking up a stitch from the ribbing on the edge and knitting the two stitches together. Short row heels brought me up to grafting the two open ends together
I also knit these with just the foot portion to start, including toes and heels. Then I add whatever handspun fluff on top. I have a box full of foot bottoms in Knitpicks dye your own sock yarn. I toss them in a dyepot along with whatever top yarn I like at the time and always get them to match. These can be prepared ahead by hand or machine and keep me from darning.
3 comments:
What a fantastic idea! I was sold at the beginning but when you added that you knit them ahead and dyed them to match - that blew me away!
Thank you for this--I've been mulling over fine lace stockings for a while, but the idea of putting all that time knitting and having the sole wear out w/in a few weeks was a real dealbreaker! I've got tons of dye it yourself Knitpicks laceweight merino and also several skeins of the sock weight, so here we go!
Second try--Thank you, this is perfect timing. I've been mulling over knitting a pair of fine lace stockings for quite a while, but the thought of spending all that time knitting only to have the sole wear out the second or third time I wear them was a real dealbreaker. I like the idea of the extra padding underfoot that a thicker sole will give me, too.
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