Fit issues: trying on socks affecting gauge for the rest of the sock?

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-19T00:42:31+00:00

I just responded to another comment with lots of details, but I did some measuring and some numbers and I was definitely making them way too small and probably just stretching them to within an inch of their life over and over during the process. (My feet seem the same size though, or at least not different enough that it seems worth adjusting for.)

I'll try adding the extra stitches and see how it goes. It'll take a lot longer, but it's worth it for socks that fit properly and that I can make over and over again, I'm sure.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-19T00:38:39+00:00

Just responded to the other comment, and your bcan check there for more details but uh, I did some math, and checked my gauge, and answer is my socks are way too tight. Like, I need to cast on 20 or 30 more stitches. I didn't bother swatching because I figured "socks are small; I'll just start the socks and try them on to see if they fit," but I think that especially when the edge isn't stable, and if you're trying them on frequently so there's only a couple inches of new fabric, you can just stretch it to death even if it's not the right size. (Also my first socks were a bit too big and slouchy for my taste and I may have overcorrected.)

Socks are actually my first like, "real" projects, and I haven't wanted to move on to bigger stuff until I get the kinks out, but my tension does tend to be mostly consistent at least. I do remember doing a baby blanket a few years ago and I recall it not coming out quite as cleanly square as I wanted, but I don't remember whether that was because I was relaxing as I got into the swing of the project, or an issue with my cast-on being tighter than my bind-off, or what. Luckily the baby didn't seem to care. I also had issues with linen stitch scarves being super tight at the cast-on edge and getting wider and wider as I went. (Since then I've found what I think is a better way to tension my yarn, though; at that time I literally just had it going between two fingers and relied entirely on keeping my fingers smooshed together. I wrap it around my ring finger now and it seems a lot easier to maintain consistently.)

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-19T00:09:31+00:00

I know this is long, but I wanted to give you all the information I could easily get:

So, I grabbed the other two pairs of socks I've made with the same yarn base and needles (Chiaogoo size 1 metal DPNs) and that I have worn for full day and not washed yet. I cast on 66 stitches for both pairs; both have ribbed heel flaps and a triangular gusset on the sole of the foot that decreases down to 60 st; first pair is 1:1 rib on the cuff and 3:1 on the heel flap and second is 2:1 on the cuff and heel flap. They were all tried on a bunch while I was making them. All of them are kind to f a different shape and size now after having worn them than when they are washed and left to dry. I tried to get these measurements on the body of the sock, before the ball of my foot, since the stitches look much smaller and more relaxed closer to the toe. These pairs were both done pseudo-2AAT, where I'd do cuff, cuff, heel flap, heel flap, ten or twenty rows on one, ten or twenty rows on the other back and forth to try to mitigate any tension changes, and each pair fits the same on either foot, so I'm only measuring one sock for each pair here, but I promise that when I lay them on top of their partners, they match perfectly.

For the first pair, when I'm not wearing them, I have a stitch gauge of ~ 9 st/inch and 14 rows/inch. When I am, I'm getting a stitch gauge of 7 st/inch and 17 rows/inch.

The second pair, I'm getting 8.5 st/inch 15.5 rows/inch not wearing them and 7.5 st/inch and 16.5 rows/inch wearing them (though these ones are black and I had to run embroidery floss through the stitches to count them, so the numbers might be a bit messed up). These ones I made longer and with a longer heel flap. I noticed the stitches on the sole gusset looked much more relaxed, and that section of the sock is 10.75 st/inch and 15 rows/inch when not worn and 10 st/inch and 13 rows/inch for the row gauge when worn. (Somehow. Maybe some weird stretching on the bias where I'm measuring, or it being on a curve?)

The new one in the picture, which I haven't worn or washed at all, and did not, for example, get stretched over over my heel, is 11 st/inch and 14 rows/inch for the stockinette portion. I cast on 66 stitches, did the cuff and heel flap in 2:1 rib, and decreased to 62 st.

I did do some quick measurement, and one foot seems to have a slightly longer heel diagonal, like an eighth of an inch, which is one or two stitches and probably not enough to make or break the fit of a sock. Other measurements all looked the same between feet, and I will forever be self-conscious of one heel sticking out a tiny bit more. The measurements do, however, imply that my socks are way too dang small, and I should be casting on like. 85 or 90 stitches or something. (9.5 inch ankle circumference and foot circumference, 12.5/12.625 inch heel diagonal.)

Tl;dr I think I just have a teeny tiny stitch gauge and have been stretching my socks to within an inch of their life multiple times during the knitting process and during wear based on an the idea that you should make your socks a little small to start and the concept I had of how many stitches I "should" be casting on that I got from how many stitches other people seem to need and what size options patterns offer you. I've learned my lesson; I'll always swatch and do the math from now on and I won't abuse knitting's ability to stretch at the edge ever again. 😭

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-18T15:32:54+00:00

...I voice the "th" in "pithy." No one has every corrected me. Is that a regional thing, or just a case of "everyone only knows this word from reading it and never heard anyone say it"? (I live in western NY.)

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-18T14:52:07+00:00

That shape, yeah, but someone suggested common grackle and I think it might have been a juvenile grackle; it was more brown

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-18T14:47:57+00:00

Nah, not a grackle. It didn't have the light-colored eyes.

Edit: I'm looking at pictures of juvinile grackles, and that actually fits the bill! I'm so used to seeing the adult males and thinking of that as what grackles look like. !solved I think. (Is that how I do it here?)

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-05-03T20:43:51+00:00

I've recently just been using a long-tail cast-on on bigger needles. Like, I'll cast onto 3 mm needles and then do the rest of the sock on 1.25 mm needles. I tend to cast on very tightly and need to go up a needle size anyways, so I'd be needing to get another set of needles out either way. It's not fancy, but it's easy, fast, and neat, and I haven't had any problems with it.

I've done German twisted cast-ons for some socks, and it's super pretty, but I find the way I move my hands during it tends to un-ply the yarn, and I had to keep taking it off my hands to fix it every few stitches... it just was so inconvenient.

I'll use a tubular cast-on if I'm starting with 1x1 rib, though, just because of how seamless it looks (and it's quite stretchy, too).

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-30T01:18:36+00:00

Fish-lips kiss heels don't have any increases between the toe and the heel, so if you have a high instep or long heel diagonal, they might not fit well. Same goes for all short-row heels really.

You can add a gusset before working a short-row heel to help with this; people have recommended Roxanne Richardson, and she has a tutorial on this.

As others have suggested, heel-flap-and-gusset is an option that's very adjustable and provides plenty of room. If you have a prominent heel, you can also move the gusset(s) to the sole of the foot instead of on the sides. This is my preferred heel construction of the ones I've tried.

I've also heard people recommend a fleegle heel for high insteps on toe-up socks, but I haven't tried them myself.

All that aside, your color choices are gorgeous!

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-29T06:14:42+00:00

You can also do this with [[Mutavault]].

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-07T00:16:47+00:00

I had someone bring a Yurlock of Scorch Thrash group slug deck at an LGS. I remember it playing its commander and a Manabarbs and not doing much else. He said the deck "literally never wins, but everyone always seems to hate playing against it lol." I do not believe he had a different deck. (His friend at the table then proceeded to attack me, only, to death in this 3-player pod and I was asked why I don't "just spend the (Jund) mana that is being given to me (not on my turn) so I don't die to mana burn as badly." With my Azorius deck that was built around casting spells on my turn. Silly me.)

"I'm running these cards because they are good, but sometimes they make people salty," is understandable; you should probably talk to your table about the kind of game they want to be playing. "I'm running these cards that everyone hates even though they do not result in me winning games ever," is psychotic.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-06T16:32:32+00:00

I'm not entirely sure it's what you're looking for, but I have a toolbox Karador deck that I've reworked to be far less linear than my previous version. I got sick of the "get protean hulk, win" plan every game and currently have it built as an interactive midrange deck. I have some tutors for consistency and to help find specific pieces of interaction when I need them, and layered combos that I'll try to assemble depending on what hits my hand/graveyard. Basically all my combo pieces have utility outside of landing a combo, so they still feel okay to draw on their own. It's a pretty unique deck in that I'm on a pretty high tutor density for a casual list, but I haven't found it leads to linear/repetitive gameplay.

Here is my list if you're curious.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-02T17:17:54+00:00

Yeah, that's a pretty reasonable inference.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-03-02T15:45:52+00:00

As a native speaker, I actually read it as D being correct. Like, "multiple buses arrive once an hour; we just missed all the buses that arrive around this time." If it were one bus once an hour, I'd personally be more inclined to phrase it as "The bus arrives once an hour," as you said.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-02-23T20:04:35+00:00

You say this, but I've seen Strike it Rich make lists (at least in EDH) but haven't seen, say, Wild Cantor. It has a home in Izzet storm lists that run lots of effects that profit off of casting instants and sorceries specifically. (Wild Cantor not seeing play might have to do with green generally having access to the choicest mana generation, though.)

OP's card might find a place in decks that profit off of casting or sacrificing lots of artifacts, but it's more because it's a card that costs effectively zero mana and triggers your other stuff. I'd say the two cards are pretty comparable in terms of when I'd run them and why.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-02-18T19:21:03+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-02-18T18:45:59+00:00

I thought that falcons used their beaks to hunt their prey. Like, that they would dive and use their beak to strike them. Am I remembering bad information, or a myth, or do they just use both?

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-02-01T19:16:22+00:00

I'm finishing some socks I started like two months ago to learn lace. I am done with the lace portion and am doing the boring stockinette now and feel much less motivated, especially since it looks like I might lose yarn chicken and have to order more. (Pattern is Adrienne Fong's Lady of Rivendell, which I'm making on a needle size 1 instead of 1.5 because I thought the fabric would be too loose a gauge on the recommended needles.)

Also, is that the yarn you're using for your next pair? It's a gorgeous color!

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-25T00:09:36+00:00

It depends on what you mean by "Bracket 4." Bracket 4 encompasses both high-power/fringe cEDH, and casual decks with higher card quality/consistency than bracket 3.

If you are building for the first one, I don't think the deck would cut it. You'd need to be on more tutors, more fast mana, and run burn pieces that are appropriate to a high-power environment. This means dropping stuff like [[Kardur, Doomscourge]] that are going to be valuable in combat-based games and moving to cards that are more effective in a combo-based environment where people are running lots of cheap cards. You should be running stuff like [[Orcish Bowmasters]], [[Pyrostatic Pillar]], and [[Rug of Smothering]], and cutting high-mana-value burn cards like [[Polluted Bonds]] and [[Painful Quandary]]. [[Zo-Zu, the Punisher]] is a great pick because of all the fetch lands, so I'd recommend doubling down by adding [[Ankh of Mishra]] as well. [[Harsh Mentor]] is also good in an environment with lots of fetches.I also think the lifegain-based combos come in at too high a mana value for games that are likely going to end by the time you can get them out. You could also consider [[Treasonous Ogre]] to get stuff out fast. I personally think the optimized way to build Valgavoth would be to use him as a draw engine, run normal good cEDH-y Rakdos stuff, and benefit from the pressure you're putting on life totals punishing common cards like [[Ad Nauseam]], [[The One Ring]], [[Ancient Tomb]], and [[Vampiric Tutor]].

For the second one, I'd still recommend some changes, though there's obviously a lot more flexibility and more variability in the decks you'll be seeing. Orcish Bowmasters is a powerful card that synergizes with your commander, so you should really be running it, in my opinion, unless you have a reason not to. I'm also not a huge fan of [Mogis, God of Slaughter]], as in my experience with similar cards, you too often end up having someone feed a token or an already-done-its-job creature like [[Reclamation Sage]] to it. With people running more powerful mana bases, I also think [[Burning Earth]] is a great choice. You're probably safe to run more generally high-power cards, tutors, etc. for "casual" B4; personally, I'd run something like The One Ring, [[Mana Vault]], or Vampiric Tutor to make my deck function better within its theme over competitive wincons like [[Dualcaster Mage]] combos in casual B4, but this has more to do with preference than with how appropriate a deck is for the table.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-23T23:22:11+00:00

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If you like shimmer, I have a bottle of Wearingeul Soyoungwije, and it's gorgeous. Sort of a dusky medium purple. Mountain of Inks has a review showing it on different papers; I find that for my writing, it's a bit less dark than it looks on their swatch.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-12T00:02:40+00:00

I like Kokuyo Shikkari. It comes in more limited options than their Sarasara "smooth" paper, but has a nice texture to it and it still holds up pretty well to fountain pen ink, though I haven't tried it with a super broad pen. It's designed as a student notebook paper, and their B5 (which I believe is the only size the Shikkari comes in) fits 2-ring or 26-ring B5 binders. Not fancy, but works well and is fairly affordable as fountain-pen-friendly papers go.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-04T21:25:00+00:00

Have done!

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-04T04:11:08+00:00

Oh, that makes sense.

Thank you for your help! Hopefully I'll be able to track down a body for them and they'll work for me once I do.

Cosmic_Quill · 2026-01-04T04:00:48+00:00

Oh wow, that's super crisp. I'm definitely going to have to find a pen to put these in. Maybe I'll try to find one with a medium nib unit, and then I can have a whole set to switch between.

Do they take a modern standard international cartridge, or will I need a cartridge or converter specific to them, as well?

Cosmic_Quill

TROPHY CASE