Gout socks, the game begins

As I have mentioned, I have been laid low by one of mankind's most familiar diseases, gout. Inflammation in my large toe has meant my foot swollen to twice its usual size, with no possibility of wearing regular shoes or hose or socks due to the extreme sensitivity of the affected joint and the whole surrounding area.

I've talked to people in gout-sufferer groups, and no one has a good solution. There are people who have spent years staying indoors for much of the winter because they can't go out in the ice and snow (or the cold for that matter, which is terrible for gout) when they can't wear any existing socks and the only shoes they can put on are flip flops, which is pretty much all I have been able to wear for two months.

So I figured, hey, I'm a sock knitter. And I know from copious experience when I started out teaching myself to knit socks just what happens when you knit at a loose gauge and make certain "mistakes" or changes.  And I can put that to good use to knit up a sock for myself that I can actually wear to keep my foot warm in the winter AND to wear with flip flops too.

This won't solve the problem of cold rain, snow, sleet, or ice.  But at least it might deal with the plain cold weather.

And so it begins. I'm using the pattern "Brigit" from Monkey Toes, available free on Ravelry, as a base to work from for some patterning. The changes I'll make don't need to happen until mid-foot.  The yarn is Tracks from The Buffalo Wool Co. in Spruce.