Holes in my socks

[MarineWife]

I get holes in my socks at the ankle where I pick up stitches after doing the heel. Anyone have any ideas of what I can do to prevent this?

[cristeen]

Where are the holes located in relation to the stitch? Do you see the holes while knitting, after blocking, or only when they're on your feet?

I've noticed with several pairs of longies that if you pick up the stitch through one leg of a stitch it can distort that stitch and create a hole (when worn, it's not seen otherwise) - picking up around the entire stitch helps prevent that distortion. You can also instead of doing a straight pick-up, you can do like a M1F or M1B with the stitch you're picking up in - twisting it to prevent a hole.

[MarineWife]

There's always a small hole right at the corner of the ankle but it's not usually noticeable even when worn. In one sock I just made, though, there's a big hole that I could see after knitting a few more rounds. I do pick up through an entire stitch. I don't know why it happened with just this one sock. I'm thinking either the one stitch I picked up through was too loose or maybe I should've picked up the stitch closer to the end of the row. It didn't happen on both sides of the sock, just one.

[zech13_9_goforgold]

It's sock character. Don't stress about it too much as it screams "handmade", which is what I want my socks to say.

I was also thinking that you could stitch with regular thread to tighten up the yarn around the heel.

[MarineWife]

Yeah, maybe. They're for a 2yo, so he won't know the difference. I might stitch it up.

What I want to know, though, is there any way to prevent this from happening again?

[iowaorganic]

Here is what I do.... When the pattern says to pick up 15 stitches (or whatever number)- I pick up about 3 more than that and just keep on decreasing until I get the correct number for around the foot. That has solved my problem with the hole.

[MarineWife]

oh, that's a good idea. i'll try that.