Really struggling with colourwork socks :(
I have made many plain coloured socks before especially for my boyfriend who loves them. I thought I would try colourwork to make him some for his 30th soon but it's not working. I am trying the stone knits fish/lobster/crab set patterns and my floats were too tight for the medium size and didn't fit around his heel. I sized up and it fits great around his heel but the sock itself looks so massive. I got him to close his eyes so I could try them on his feet (it's a semi surprise) and it fits but looks too loose. The pattern gets you to increase 12 stitches around the colourwork section which makes sense but it honestly looks too big. My gauge is very loose so I stay on the 2.25 mm needles for this section, but I'm wondering if it would be better to size the sock down and size up needles for the colourwork section, but then I'm worried the stitches will be too obviously big. Omg someone pls help me I have soooo much fun working on these but I'm getting so disheartened cos it just isn't clicking :(