Comfort Yarn
Finished last evening. I had intended knitting the heel with the golden yarn I used for cuff and toe but given the spot where the second gold stripe on the leg showed up, I thought a contrasting heel would be more interesting so I dug through my yarn stash and came up with this dark green (almost dark grey).
Worked out well.
Socks From New Zealand Yarn
A friend recently brought me a couple of 50g balls of New Zealand sock yarn from Australia – I decided to make it up into socks straight away.
This variegated pattern, as is all of them, dependent on the number of stitches you’re knitting. I started with 72 stitches and got one pattern for 20 rows; I decreased to 68 stitches and got a second pattern; then I decreased to 64 stitches for the lower leg and the foot which resulted in a third pattern. With a yarn like this, dyed in very short segments, the difference in patterns is very noticeable. In most of the other variegated yarns, the dyed portions are of much longer length so the pattern isn’t disrupted by a change in the number of stitches. What emerges in this yarn at 64 stitches is the lime green spiral with blue patches and short red stripes.
The yarn I began with last evening changes colour every 4 rows so the number of stitches doesn’t make a big difference in how the design knits out.
Comfort Sockenwolle with Cashmere
Finished last evening. Slow going on these ones. I’d started them just before going to Toronto to have something to work on while I was there. Didn’t spend much time knitting. Resumed working on the first sock when I got back home, but the cold laid me low and I didn’t do much knitting for a number of days. Finally got going seriously about ten days ago, knit my usual 2-3 hours in the evening, finished the first sock and then the second. These socks are sized to fit a man wearing a size 9-10 shoe. I have a couple of recipients in mind.
I loved working with the Comfort Sockenwolle (Sock Yarn) with cashmere – lovely and soft and fine enough to work up with an even tension. The “denim” stripes (next to the darkish brown) invited a denim yarn for cuffs, heels and toes. They’re lively, but not so outlandish that a conservative man wouldn’t wear them.
My needles are empty at the moment but I’ll start the next pair this evening.
Opal: Moments If Love
Finally a yarn with a detailed pattern. Much more enjoyable to work with. Ran into an interesting problem – I finished the first sock, matched up the start for the second, but 15 or so rows in, the pattern was suddenly different. That will happen if there’s a yarn break when it’s being balled – there’s a knot and the pattern picks up further along. In this case, there was no knot – just about eight rows of pattern quite different than the rest and then the pattern picked up again. So needless to say, the pattern in the two socks doesn’t align. I guess they’re for someone who’s daring enough to wear unmatched/matched socks.
Boring Sock IV
Thank goodness, this is the last of that lovely, but boring, yarn I bought last summer. The yarn had a great feel was nice to work with, but Oh! it was dull to knit with. Not much change in colour – the socks seemed to take forever.
As I was finishing this pair, I went shopping for some new brighter yarn – picked up five balls in one of my usual stops in town. Then last Friday one of the gals in the knitting group mentioned a yarn shop near the airport I hadn’t heard about so Monday afternoon I took a trip to have a look – knitter who decided to go into the yarn selling business – what a wonderful selection of sock yarns. Difficult to decide what to bring home.
Assortment of New Bright Yarns
I bought another six balls…and immediately started on a new pair of socks – bright ones this time. They’ll seem to go much faster (probably takes about the same amount of time as the dull ones, but it feels like the socks grow more quickly because they’re continually changing).
At Last A Bright Pair of Socks
Here is the new bright pair I’ve just started.
Finished last evening. To liven this variegated yarn I introduced single row stripes in different colours at random intervals – gotta try something because the yarn itself is boring!
The stripes liven up the socks a bit. It’s a ice wool yarn to work with, but none of the colour bands are bright; it’s more interesting working on a more dramatically coloured yarn.
I’ve started the final ball of this boring yarn – this ball consists of shades of mauves/purples/greys. So far just working on the cuff in a contrasting colour. Not sure yet what other colours to bring in and how to do it.
Adding interest
I bought four balls of reasonably boring variegated yarn during the summer. The challenge has been to come up with ideas to liven up the color contrasts. In this case, what works is the single row of turquoise near the top of the sock and again in the instep. The rows of burgundy and rust add very little contrast.
So the next pair in shades of blues and greys will want something that pops out – need to think about a bright green or a red.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Wolfville for a Food/Film Festival. We wandered the main drag and I came across a yarn shop. My supply of variegated sock yarn was down to leftovers so I picked up four 100g balls of yarn. I knew they were subdued by looking at the balls but when the stash is as low as mine was I thought I should pick up one of each colour. Actually a mistake because the socks that knit up are so boring.
I tried livening up this pair with the light grey stripe and rose cuffs/heels/toes but no matter – what I got was a boring sock! I have three more balls left to work on. I gotta come up with some way of making the socks more interesting otherwise I’ll be bored to death working on them! And this was a women’s large size, for a friend who wears a size 10 shoe, so it took even longer to knit than my universal size for a 7/12-8 shoe size.
Finished this pair last evening. Just using up leftover yarn. Same yarn as this pair:
To extend the leftover variegated yarn I interspersed some different solids. Still a good looking sock.
This is the pair of socks I finished last evening. I had only a single 50g ball of the variegated yarn so I extended it using a complementary turquoise. In this case, most of the sock was knit with the two yarns interleaved.
Along the way I made a mistake on the first sock – I decreased a second time in the leg (going from 68 stitches, to 64, and ending up at 60), making for rather snug ankle fit. I had knit too far beyond the second decrease to bother going back and removing it, so instead, I just made a somewhat smaller sock overall! Instead of my usual sock sized for a woman wearing a size 7-8 (8 1/2)shoe, this pair will go to someone with smaller feet (a size 6-7 1/2). I even remembered to knit the second sock to match!
And BTW, I finished edge stitching my way around ALL the circles on the Double Vision Quilt – I worked on that for four days. This evening I finished quilting the complete sandwich having done a very simple piecing on the back (pictures tomorrow). In the end I did rows of straight stitching between the circles in both directions. Tomorrow I intend to embroider the border with a design consisting of interlocking circles. And I’ve selected several fabrics to mirror the colour story for a narrow binding….
jmn 