Acckkk!!! Remember that part where I was gonna make my own Christmas gifts?!
Well – I think I’m in over my head. Way over. Way, way over.
Sock loom? Check! Soft sock-specific yarn (2 balls – one for each sock d’oh!)? Check! Loom instruction dvd viewed (a dozen plus times)?? Checkity check check!
Now…to begin.
Measure around the ball of your foot or widest part at base of toes, with foot resting on floor. Multiply the # of inches by the gauge of 7. Subtract 10% of this total which accounts for the negative give of the yarn. The resulting number is the number of pegs that should be used for your sock when using the Flat Stitch (FS). If you get an uneven number, add 1 to arrive at correct number of pegs.
What?!? OMG! This is math!!! No one said anything about MATH!! I’m just making gifts, I never committed to doing MATH!!!!!!!
And speaking of gifts, I’m making GIFTS! Isn’t there a handy “rule of thumb” they could provide as to the number of pegs I should use for…say…a men’s shoe size 10? The way these zany instructions read, I’m gonna hafta sneak into bedrooms while people are sleeping and slip their feet onto the floor (foot resting on the floor, reeeessssttttingggg) and then do math. In the dark. About 7 states away.
If I’m gonna do all of that, I should just buy a pair of socks and visit them for Christmas!
How is this ever going to work?! Absent the handy rule-of-thumb-with-the-pegs concept, it’s not like I can even ask people their shoe size and get a meaningful answer. And I’m sure you can agree that the shoe size question seems to be a slightly more appropriate and less eyebrow raising question than “can you give me the measurement of the ball of your foot?” ‘Cause that sort of question is just bound to need an explanation. And then what do I do? Reply, “uh – no reason,” and casually walk away whistling while furiously working on my calculator?
Well. Here goes……
Dad. Can you give me the measurement of the ball of your foot? Please??
Uh, no reason. Fhweeep! Fhweee fhwe fhweeeeeee!! [clickety, cliiiick, click]