New Socks

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve been finishing a book lately, which means I need to some mindless knitting in the evenings. Socks are the perfect choice. I just finished this pair in Fleece Artist Trail Socks, which appears to be discontinued. Hmm. That explains why I haven’t seen any for a while. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The colourway is Nightshade:

Socks in Fleece Artist Trail Socks, Nightshade, knit by Deborah Cooke I used my usual memorized pattern for these, casting on 72 stitches, working the ribbing for a while (12R of 1×1 in this case), then looser ribbing to the heel for 72R total. I did 6×2 ribbing this time, and worked a cable twist every 12R, which made counting the rows easier. It does make the socks a little more snug to pull on. I have 12g of yarn left, which will probably make one mitred square for my leftover-sock-yarn afghan.

I’ll have something more interesting to show you next week. 🙂

Toe-Up and Cuff-Down Socks

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Deborah Cooke

Things have been quiet here, and I apologize for that. I’ve been finishing a book (one that doesn’t want to end) and trying to complete some knitting projects, too.

I finished these socks, finally, but still don’t like the feel of the yarn. It’s Estelle Sock Twins, which comes in two balls, each with the same gradient. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I found the yarn splitty.

It looks like a gradient, but the colour transitions are quick: I think it’s more like steps of colour instead of a steady gradation. You can see the change from the last blue bit to the dark orange in the third stripe from the top on the right: the blue/orange just ends. The finished socks look the same, so I’ll just use the old picture: Socks knit in Estelle Sock Twins knit by Deborah Cooke I knit them toe-up because I wanted to use up all the yarn in the gradient. This time I used the Ann Budd tutorial from Interweave Knits. It took me forever to get around to knitting the second one, because I still don’t like knitting toe-up socks. This is about the tenth pair I’ve made and I just don’t enjoy the process, no matter which pattern I use. It’s probably because I have to check the instructions all the time, while I’ve knit so many cuff-down socks that I just knit away. At any rate, they’re finally done and that’s a good thing because I got my needles back.

I cast on a new pair of cuff-down socks in Fleece Artist Trail Socks, a yummy yummy yarn, in a delicious colourway—Nightshade. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The colour hovers between brown and purple, with a few flashes of other colours that end up making a stripe.

Fleece Artist Trail Socks in Nightshade knit into socks by Deborah Cooke I’m just doing my usual sock thing, casting on 72 stitches, working 72 rows, turning the heel etc. This time I did 6×2 ribbing and added a cable twist every 12th row. It makes the counting easier to the heel, although I hadn’t planned it that way. I just wanted to mix it up a bit.

I also worked on the sleeves for my Juicy Gloss cardigan, but discovered once I’d knit one to the elbow that the sleeves would be too wide. I frogged it back and recalculated, taking an addition 8 stitches out of the sleeve at the underarm, then decreasing more rapidly than the pattern specifies. I’m reaching the elbow now and am much happier with the fit. I’ll show it to you once the first sleeve is completed.

Snowshoe Socks

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Deborah Cooke

After mending socks, reclaiming a lot of my Kidsilk Haze last week and updating my stash on Ravelry, I had a look at my bits and ends of sock yarn. Knitting a pair of socks never takes all of the yarn in the skein, even when I knit a pair for the mister. There’s always some left over. I have two afghans in progress with these bits – the older one is with sock yarn hexagons:

Sock Yarn Hexagons knit by Deborah Cooke

You can find the pattern for knitting these hexagons right here on my blog.

The second is with mitred squares, like this:

Mitred squares knit of leftover sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

Sometimes I have a lot leftover – for example, knitting socks for the mister often takes part of a third 50g ball, leaving most of it when they’re done. I have some sock yarns that I loved in the skein but find less thrilling knit up. And there’s the issue of the mister walking through his heavier socks, which he wears in the house in the winter instead of slippers.

The Snowshoe socks look like a good answer. Here’s a link to the pattern on Ravelry. These socks are knit with two strands of sock yarn held together. Even better, part of the fun of the pattern is mixing more than two yarns together. If you haven’t looked at this book, btw, you really should – Knits About Winter is truly lovely, with many great patterns. (That’s a Ravelry link, where you can see all the patterns in the book.)

I added one more twist to this combination – I once knit a pair of bedsocks out of Kidsilk Haze with two strands of that yarn held together. They are the lightest, softest and warmest socks ever. I decided to add a strand of KSH to the two strands of sock yarn in these socks for the mister.

Here’s my first yarn combination:

yarn for Deborah Cooke's first pair of Snowshoe Socks

Left to right, 78g of Viola Sock in Blot, 45g of Regia 4-ply sock yarn, 31g of Regia 4-ply sock yarn in a different colourway, 16g of Crazy Zauberball, 55g of Lichen and Lace Sock in Huckleberry, and 50g of Sugarbush Drizzle (which is like KSH).

In the end, I used all of the Viola Sock, 43 g of the purple Regia, 43 g of the Lichen & Lace and 40 g of the Drizzle. Here are his finished socks:

Snowshoe Socks by Emily Fogen knit by Deborah Cooke They’re wonderfully thick, soft and squishy. Now I need to make myself a pair!

Grey B&L Socks

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Deborah Cooke

It’s Friday again, and time to show off some knitting.

Here’s a new pair of socks I just finished for Mr. Math. The yarn is Briggs & Little Tuffy – I bought the grey, which is called Smoke, and used up the blue (Blue Jeans) from the ends in my stash. You can see that I miscalculated a little and didn’t quite have the same amount of blue for the left sock. That’s why it has a bit more grey on the toe. There wasn’t a pattern for these – I just cast on and knit. The yarn does want to felt a little over time (because I don’t hand wash socks) so the ribbing ensures that the socks maintain some stretchiness.

Briggs & Little is an old Canadian mill, located in the Maritimes. I like their sock wool a lot. It’s tough and wears well, plus it has character. Mr. Math was pretty glad to see these come off the needles, given how cold it is here right now. They went straight onto his feet!

I’m determined to use up the bits and ends of Tuffy in my stash, so there’s another thick sock on my needles now. What do you think?

SuperSocke Wellness Socks

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

I finished these socks.They’re knit of a self-striping yarn called Online SuperSocke Wellness II. The “wellness” bit is presumably because the yarn has jojoba and aloe vera added to it. (?) I’m not really sure how that doesn’t wash out, but it does make the yarn nice to knit with. It’s a pretty thick sock yarn, so these are warm socks. I just used my usual system for making socks, which is more of a method than a pattern.

One thing that surprised me was the way it striped. I’d thought from looking at the ball that the colour changes would be more gradual. But they look good and I had enough to make them match. There’s a good bit left, so I could have even made a pair for Mr. C. and had them match. This is good, as I have two more balls of this stuff in different colourways.

What do you think? Have you finished any projects lately?

Thick Winter Socks

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

These are the socks I finished most recently. My husband put them on as soon as they came off the needles!

The yarn is my favourite for hard-wearing warm socks. It’s called Tuffy and is from Briggs & Little, a mill in the Maritimes. This marl – one ply off-white and one ply grey – is called Granite. I had some Tuffy in Red Mix left from another pair of socks, so put it on the cuffs and toes. Although there are a few yarn stores local to me that carry B&L yarn, they don’t tend to have all of the colours – or the colours I want. What is nice is that you can order B&L yarns directly from the mill, even if you aren’t a wholesale customer. They just charge you the postage and pop it into the mail.

The pattern is from an old Patons book, although it’s been included in many other Patons books since. It’s called Ribbed Sports Socks. I followed the pattern, except I changed to 3×1 ribbing after my striped cuff. The pattern has most of the sock knit in 1×1 ribbing.

I like them. He loved them! What do you think?

Socks and Tension

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Deborah Cooke

This is just weird.

I knit half of a sock on my trip to RWA National, working on it in airports and on airplanes. I used my short Brittany birch needles, because airport security people don’t take those away. When I got home, I switched back to my longer metal DPN’s which are exactly the same size (2.5mm) and finished the sock. So far, so good.

When I cast on the other sock at home, I thought I’d just use the metal ones. They are my faves. I zipped through the ribbing, only to discover that it was half an inch shorter, even though it had the same number of rows. Evidently, I knit more loosely on wood needles. Who knew?

So, I frogged it back, cast on again on the wooden needles, and reknit the cuff. I figured I’d knit to the heel flap with the wooden needles, then switch to the metal, just as I had done for the first sock. That way, they’d match, right?

No. Evidently I also knit more loosely in airports. How bizarre is that?! See? The right – in process – sock is narrower, especially in the ribbing.

It makes no sense because I’m always somewhat disheveled about traveling – which I’d think would make me knit more tightly – plus it’s colder in airports than in my house in the summer. Again, I’d think that would tighten the work. But no. I had to knit three extra rows for the leg to be the same length as that of the finished sock. It’s not a huge difference, but I’m amazed that there’s any difference at all.

I am, in fact, mystified.

The yarn, for those of you who care about such things, is Patons Kroy FX in the colourway Clover Colors. I quite like this yarn. It has one more ply than regular Kroy which makes it thick. It feels wooly and warm. I’m even resigned to the fact that you can’t match the stripes at all – because all four plies have a gradual colour change, I don’t think there even are repeats in the colourway. What doesn’t thrill me is that the two balls look as if they are from different dye lots, even though they’re not – the right one has a lot more orange in it. And I’m not thrilled by the yardage – there are 152m in a ball, and yes, I had to join another ball to make the toe on the first sock. I think a 50g ball of yarn should make one woman’s sock – if not, make it a 55g ball – but that’s just me. Next time, I’ll knit the legs an inch shorter than my usual 8″ and it should work out okay.

But still, I’ve only ever had gauge issues over long periods of time – as in, picking up a UFO after years and not having my gauge match because my knitting has changed over that time. Over a week or two is something entirely new to me. Have you ever had this kind of gauge issue with your knitting?

Crazy Zauberball Socks

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

I finished these a few weeks ago, but forgot to show you. These are knit from a Crazy Zauberball – “crazy” means that it’s the marled sock yarn. Both Crazy Zauberball and Zauberball have long slow gradations of colour.

Here’s what mine looked like when I bought it:

And here are my finished socks:

The LYSO warned me that I wouldn’t be able to match the socks – she knows how matchy matchy I am! – and they don’t match. In fact, I think the first repeat is still to come in the partial ball leftover from my socks, so it wasn’t even possible to make them match. All the same, they do look like they belong together. I like that the light bands on the feet are in roughly the same place and that they both have dark toes.

The colours in this yarn are pretty and it was nice to knit. It’s thinner than I’d realized though – I wish I’d knit my socks on 2.25mm or even 2.0mm needles (instead of 2.5mm) as they seem rather well-ventilated. I washed them before taking this shot and the yarn fuzzed up a bit but didn’t full or shrink. It’s very soft, soft enough to use for baby garments, and it’ll be interesting to see how it wears.

Have you knit any interesting socks yet? Have you tried the Zauberball? What do you think of it?

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

Tag Archives: Socks