Inevitability

If you knit enough socks, there are certain things that you can expect to experience, and I got to experience one of those yesterday morning. I was preparing to put my socks on (I usually stick my hand in first to pull out any fuzz that may have accumulated from the last wear and wash) when I discovered this:

I know it's blurry, but I'm sure it's sufficient for you to see the big hole that seems to have magically appeared in the sole.

My Ravelry projects page tells me that I finished these socks in April 2008, so they had a pretty decent run. To be honest, I kind of knew all along that these socks were not long for this world. I knit them out of Claudia Hand Paint yarn, which is beautifully dyed but is only a two ply and feels a little too soft (to me, anyway) for sturdy socks. They felt a little delicate every time I put them on, and I didn't wear them as often as I wear some other pairs because I was worried about them wearing out. In truth, I was starting to get a little annoyed with these socks because, although they were knit from two skeins in the same dyelot and have been washed exactly the same way for their entire life, one sock had recently become noticeably lighter in color than the other.

There is still a very thin thread remaining where the stitches were (it's almost like all but a few fibers in the strand of yarn just dissolved), so theoretically I could darn this sock, assuming I still have some yarn scraps leftover. I'm not sure how worth it that would be, though, so I'm thinking about just throwing them in a hot wash to felt them and using them for sock puppets or something.

I think it is appropriate that on a day when one sock bit the dust, I finished a new one:

This is the first of a pair knit out of handspun superwash merino (this yarn, if you're interested). I'm not doing anything really fancy with this pair (though I did move the gusset decreases to under the heel, a la my Scullers Socks, for a bit of fun). Any real stitch pattern would have gotten lost in all this variegation, so I kept it to simple ribbing and stockinette. I have just started the cuff of the second sock, but I expect I'll be able to finish it up fairly quickly. Unlike the sock above, this one should last a while, judging from the tight twist of the yarn and the firm gauge at which I'm knitting.