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Thread: Sock repair...

  1. #16
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    Apr 2008
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    I'd mend them with some fine wool & nylon blend from the yarn store, and try a bigger size next time.
    Each day is a gift, that's why it is called the present.

  2. #17
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    Nov 2009
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    Quote Originally Posted by malkin View Post
    I'd mend them with some fine wool & nylon blend from the yarn store, and try a bigger size next time.
    The thing is, the larger sizes are just so big in my heels...

  3. #18
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    Sep 2007
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    Uncanny Valley
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    Even the women's specific SW socks? They don't do that to me, even with my men's EEEE forefeet and women's B heels...

    You might give the wool Injinjis a try too. They're a little bit too thin for me, but if you prefer a thinner sock anyway, they could work. I'm very unimpressed with the SW toe socks.
    Speed comes from what you put behind you. - Judi Ketteler

  4. #19
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    May 2010
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    Just wanted to throw out there - I have pointier feet than most socks are made and I do better with foot-specific socks. Have a few pair of Keens that are wool blend and are designated left/right and those don't seem to wear through on the toes as quickly. Maybe that would help?

    "I never met a donut I didn't like" - Dave Wiens

  5. #20
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    Nov 2009
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    I was a little bored last night, so I started looking at all of my sports-related socks. The only socks that I have this problem with are the wool socks, which are for the most part all PHD socks. I do wear cotton socks during the summer for riding as well as very thin wool socks. My thick smartwool tall socks have never had this problem - but they are too thick to wear with my bike shoes. I noted today when I was putting my shoes on for riding that there is very, very little room between my toes and the front of my shoe. If the shoes aren't too small then they are right at the border. Most of my cotton riding socks are right/left specific - and I've had no problem with those outside of one pair I've had for a couple of years...

    Food for thought, and I appreciate the ideas! I can't swing another pair of bike shoes right now, but I will seek out some right/left specific socks in the next larger size and see how that goes. I do not think any of my wool socks have been that way.

  6. #21
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    Sep 2007
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    Not really relevant, but I just had to mention that today I'm wearing for my run, my very first pair of SW socks, the ones I got in my goody bag when I did a retreat in April, 2006 - the retreat that got me back on a road bike after 12 years.

    Granted I don't think SW's quality control is what it used to be ... they may all have been USA made at that time, also ... but there are a lot of miles on those 6-1/2 year old socks, they are actually a size too small for me, and they're not so much as getting thin in the toes!
    Speed comes from what you put behind you. - Judi Ketteler

  7. #22
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    Apr 2008
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    3,176
    Agree about the QC, especially for the lighter weight ones.

    Quote Originally Posted by Catrin View Post
    The thing is, the larger sizes are just so big in my heels...
    They might not stay big if you wash 'em and wear 'em a few times. I sometimes get brewer's hand-me-downs when they don't fit him anymore. You could start out wearing them for slippers or something. For me, I'd want bigger shoes, especially if the shoes are not leather, with its friendly give and take.
    Each day is a gift, that's why it is called the present.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    20
    Catrin, when socks wear out that fast usually two things are involved. 1) the socks are too small, and thus stretched too snugly. This exposes individual strands of yarn to abrasion. What protects knitwear from abrasion is sharing the abrasion between yarn strands, if the strands are separated (as they are when knits are stretched over a larger surface) individual strands are at risk. Particularly with wool, which reacts to abrasion by fraying when unprotected. 2) the shoes don't fit in some way. Because you're having holes in the toes, it's likely that either the shoes are too short (forcing the toe ends to contact the shoe) or the toe box isn't tall enough for your toes. My toes turn up and I always used to get holes in the toes of my socks (any socks--or pantyhose back when I wore those.) So in a "flat" toed shoe, the cut end of my toenail would contact the shoe's toe box, and any sock or stocking in between was going to be rubbed into oblivion. It doesn't matter how short you cut your toenail, because the top of the toenail will press on the inside of the shoe if the toe box isn't big enough.

    When you have both snugly stretched socks AND a toe-box that ensures rubbing, socks are doomed quickly. Modern commercial socks are made with quite a bit of elastic, so that sock makers don't have to make socks for every shoe size--and that means that if you have feet at the high end of a sock range (medium, say) the knitting is stretched more than if you wear a larger sock. Ideally, you want a lot of sock-fabric between your foot and the shoe--both for comfort and for resistance to abrasion. Even so, if the toe-box doesn't fit your foot, socks will fail at the toe. I had to change the kinds of shoes I bought, and make it clear to shoe salespersons that it's not all about length. (I also have permanent nerve damage in one big toe from wearing too-flat-toebox dress shoes too often, finally on a several mile trek on pavement and cobbles one night...so it's not just a sock issue.)

    For maximum sock wear, you need a toe box that allows your toes space in all 3 dimensions, and then socks that are not stretched tight at the toes. I have large feet, for a woman, and with deconditioning over a period of years and weight gain, also developed swollen ankles. The elastic in commercial socks--and the tight top row--cut into my leg painfully and unhealthily. If you have such problems--or just can't find socks that fit you without being too stretched out to be durable--there's another way. Knitting.

    I now knit my own socks (just learned this year.) The difference in how my feet feel is amazing. Those of you who have knit only "flat things" before (like me--scarf after scarf after scarf) would find sock-knitting much easier than you thought. Those who don't knit might have a friend who could be persuaded to knit a pair or two for you so you could see if they worked for you. These socks fit my feet without stretching--the natural stretchiness of knitted fabrics mean they stretch enough to go on and off easily, but otherwise they just rest on the skin, so the full thickness of the fabric can resist abrasion (and I thicken around the back of the heel, because I have narrow heels and most shoes slip up and down...no slippage, much less abrasion.) Combined with shoes with an adequately tall toe-box, I'm getting no signs of wear on the toes, even on the first pair I finished (back in March, and worn at least once--often twice or three times a week since then.) I wear trail shoes most of the time, and walk out on the land where I ride (and wear them riding as well), and on a trip to NYC walked miles every day in them. If I could buy comfortable wool socks that fit me, I probably would--but since I can't, I am very glad that knitting them turned out to be feasible. (And I can have any color the yarn manufacturer makes! So far I have bright red, bright green, deep teal, medium-denim blue, a different green, and turquoise. Purple is coming up.) Most current sock-knitters use thinner yarn than I do because they like thinner socks--but I want cushioning (and also--I can't see the stitches in fine yarn--can't use the tiny skinny needles.)

 

 

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