I had a new experience recently—a pair of socks I knit for myself started to wear out. The socks in question are the corn ones. I knew this would happen at some point, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I’d only worn them a handful of times, five or six I’d guess, and not under extreme conditions like hiking or fire walking. I’ve worn other hand knit socks many more times without ill effect, so I was surprised when I noticed how thin some spots on these were getting. Another odd thing was how the wear seemed to be happening only on the solid colored heels and toes; the print sections right next to those areas was holding up just fine.

I was so puzzled I e-mailed the yarn company, Crystal Palace Yarns, attaching a picture of my now-fishnet heel. The very next day I got a reply saying the solid purple (color 1207) had been recalled (along with one other, color 1217), as it had been dyed at too high a temperature, which damaged the corn part of the fiber. Well okay then, mystery solved. Even better, in addition to giving me an explanation, Crystal Palace is going to give me more sock yarn, and I got to choose the color and fiber. Since I already have more Maizy in my stash (all dyed at appropriate temperatures, I’m now assured), I’m going to try the Panda Soy and the Panda Superwash. I’m quite happy with how things turned out.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these socks. Seems like I should be able to replace the heels and toes; I’ve never tried such a thing, but I bet someone on the internet has and has written about it. The toes were too square anyway, so this would be an opportunity to make them better. I’m sure there’d be some grafting involved, which doesn’t delight me, but it might be a good challenge to take on. I’d need to decide what yarn to use for the replacement. Obviously the purple Maizy is out; they don’t even sell that color anymore. I think it might look odd if I used the purple print, though. Maybe a completely contrasting solid? I’ll have to ponder while I’m researching how I might go about the knitting part of the replacing.