Tag: Opal

Stripy Socks

Socks

This was something of an exercise in nail biting – would it be possible to make a pair of socks from just 80 grams of yarn? The answer turned out to be yes – if you don’t mind them being short, and you’ve got a little bit of something else to use for the heels!

The stripes are just less than a single ball of one of Kaffe Fassett’s colourways for Regia. I didn’t think I’d matched the repeat when I wound the yarn into two balls, and had resigned myself to knitting fraternal rather than identical socks. I’m thrilled to bits that the stripes actually match! The heels are a little bit of Opal which just happened to match the purple stripes perfectly.

The pattern is Wendy D Johnson’s Slip Stitch Heel Basic Socks. I knitted them from the toe up on two circular needles, starting with a figure eight cast on and ending with a Russian cast off. I have a high instep so I like socks with a heel flap and gusset, as they give a little extra room. I also like the way that the slip stitch heel provides a thicker fabric where the socks will wear. I might experiment in future with slip stitch toes!

I bought new needles for these – Addi 30cm circulars with angled tips. I’d been using 40cm Pony circulars, but found the extra cable a bit annoying. I’d say that the 30cm needles are the perfect length for knitting socks in the round, especially with the angled tips, but I did find the purl rows a little fiddly when I was working on the heels. My gauge is much better for socks on 2.5mm needles – nice tight fabric, and minimal holes in the short-row heels. I might buy a couple more, so I can have more than one pair of socks on the go at once.

I think the only thing I’m not completely happy with is the cast off. I know from experience that I tend to cast off tightly, so I looked around for some stretchy solutions. Unfortunately I think I’ve gone too far the other way, and the socks are very slightly baggy around my ankles. Mind you, if the socks were longer the ribbing would be around a wider part of my leg, so the cast off would probably be just fine. Perhaps I’ll give it another try before I decide against it altogether.

I may have had a little falling down in the Hobbycraft sale just after Christmas, which resulted in rather a lot of half price Regia coming home with me. Looks as though everyone’s getting socks for Christmas, now I’ve got the hang of making them!

Yarn Overload!

This week I seem to be absolutely drowning in wool. Not that this is any kind of complaint, you understand!

A friend of mine was having a clearout of her yarn stash, and kindly passed on a few goodies that she thought I might like.

Yummy new sock yarns

These are two sock yarns. The purple one is by Opal, and the other is one of the Kaffe Fasset colourways for Regia. These yarns together would make a lovely pair of the Simply Knitting socks that I’m still working on. Alternatively, as I only really wear very short socks, I might even manage to get two pairs of anklets out of 150 grams of yarn. We’ll see – I’ve got plenty of time to think about it while I’m finishing my current sock!

I’ve also come into possession of a complete pack (10 balls) of RYC Cashcotton 4 ply, in a beautiful peachy colour. I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it yet, although a lacy summer cardigan seems like quite a nice idea.

Macro wool...

Over on the Simply Knitting website they’re running a series of articles about taking photographs of your knitting in new and interesting ways. I thought I’d see what the “super macro” setting on my little camera could do, and this is the result. I like the obvious difference in texture between these two yarns. You can almost imagine how they’ll feel from looking at the picture.

The top ball is the peachy RYC Cashcotton – 35% cotton, 25% polyamide, 18% angora, 13% viscose and 9% cashmere. The lower one is Debbie Bliss Soho – 100% wool.

I’ve been updating my stash details on Ravelry to include these new goodies, and although I don’t have as much yarn tucked away as some people, I think I probably don’t need any more just now.

This is particularly disappointing, as I received an email from Colinette this morning, giving details of several new colourways. I’m also intrigued by their new Creative Project Packs, where you can buy a bag of one yarn type, but in little hanks of different colours. I can feel some interesting scarves and socks coming on…