A tale of two socks

So I finally sat down and started doing something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

Ever since coming up with my Hat heel sock pattern, I've noticed that I seem to have a lot more yarn left over when a pair is done than when I was doing top-down or toe-up socks. So it seemed as if the hat heel sock was more yarn-efficient than a more traditionally-constructed sock. But all I had was a general impression, not real evidence. What I really needed to do to prove my theory was to make two socks of the same size, out of the same yarn, using the same needles - one using the hat heel pattern, one using, say, a flap heel construction.

What I would end up with, of course, was a pair of non-matching socks, so doing this experiment would mean a lot of knitting without a wearable end product. Even though the point of the socks was to test a theory rather than turn yarn into garments, this still seemed too much like a waste of time and yarn for me to actually do it.

However, since I'm trying to put together a hat heel eBook, this sort of information (assuming my theory is true) is exactly the sort of thing I should be including in it, so I chose my least favourite sock yarn out of my stash (mustardy brown and blue/grey should never be put together, in my humble opinion) and knit forth.

We have a hat-heel sock:

And we have an approaching-the-toe-decreases flap heel sock:

Both socks are being made to fit my husband (I need someone else to model these things because photographing your own feet is difficult and there are angles you just can't get), and I'm doing my best to make them as exactly the same size as possible. For example, the ribbing on the hat heel is 28 rounds high, but it used a Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off, which eats up a lot of yarn, so I made the ribbing on the flap heel 29 rounds high to try and make up for it. Stuff like that.

Verdict TBD! If the difference in weight between the two socks is 2g or more in the hat heel's favour, I shall consider the experiment a success.