Well That Was Most Unfortunate

In the past year, I've gotten used to hand-knit socks wearing out on me. After all, I've been knitting socks for quite a few years, and I wear hand-knit socks pretty much every day of the fall, winter, and spring, so they get a lot of use. Yesterday, though, I got a surprise that I was not expecting -- and it was not a pleasant surprise. I was getting changed after work to go for a run, and I took off the socks I'd been wearing all day (my Rubus suberectus socks, which were finished just last spring) only to discover that I had a soon-to-be hole on the heel flap on one of them, and close inspection of the other sock revealed some thinning in the same area.

This was such a surprise to me because usually I wear out socks under the ball of my foot or even under the heel, but the heel flap is usually a safe area. Granted, these socks have a ribbed heel flap without any reinforcement, and the yarn I used also might not have been ideal for socks, but I didn't expect these to wear out as quickly as they did given that I haven't worn them that many times (maybe a dozen times or fewer). I'm going to have to go stash diving to see if I have any of the yarn leftover that could be used to reinforce the heel flaps, but I'll be honest -- I'm more than a bit bummed. These socks were not an especially fast knit because of the stitch pattern, and other than the heel, they still look brand new. But I suppose I have to accept that if I'm going to wear hand-knit socks, they are eventually going to wear out.

Meanwhile, last night I sat down to rectify the sleeve situation on my Sople. I ripped out everything I had done, picked up stitches again, and started working the short-row sleeve cap -- only to discover when I was nearly done that I'd completely misread the directions and had to rip back again. (You know how they always say to read through the pattern before you start knitting? It's really not a bad idea.) Fortunately, what I'd missed made the process a lot faster, so by the time I put it down for the night, I'd finished all the short rows and was ready to start decreasing. I have about 12 extra stitches, due to having to pick up more than specified, but I actually like the extra space in the arm, especially considering I almost always wear a shirt under my sweaters. I need to sit down and ponder the rest of the arm instructions to figure out if I want to decrease all the extra stitches away or if I want to adapt the cuff to be slightly wider. One can only hope that when it comes time to do the second sleeve, I'll be able to get it right on the first try.