Friday 2 December 2011

FO Friday- X socks

These have been a challenge, but they are finally finished. Apologies for the lousy photos, there is an absence of daylight when I am home to take pictures at the minute.


Yarn: Four seasons Grundl Hot socks
Needles: 2.5mm

These socks were really hard work, in fact it was possibly the least I have enjoyed knitting a pair of socks ever!

I am going to sound like something of a moo face here, because the pattern is free so I should not complain about it, but I want to give you an honest opinion. There are good points as well as bits I would change. It is also probably the yarn's fault that I did not get on with it very well, more on that in a minute.

I do like the XO cable, I would probably give it a less cutesy name, but that is just me. And if you look at the FOs on Ravelry it does knit up nicely, especially if you use a yarn with good stitch definition (which I didn't, oops). The pattern is easy to follow and once you have done a couple of the cables is not too bad to memorise.

I would work about an inch of k1p1 rib at the top instead of the suggested ribbing, the sections are just too wide and it gets curly and floppy at the top. I found the plain rounds a little awkward as the stitch numbers change (k4,p2,k4,p4,k12 etc), it made it hard to get into a rhythm, so I would make all the purl sections the same width . I would also work an additional cable down the plain section at the back of the foot, or work the cable chart twice around the whole leg, this would require 64sts or you could add a little extra ribbing in the purl sections for a better fit as the cables reduce the stretch somewhat.

As you may have guessed I have more griping to do about the yarn. I bought this ages ago and have tried to make two scarves with it, both have ended up being frogged. It is a loosely spun single, so it is very splitty, you have to watch every stitch you make to avoid poking the needle through the yarn. There are also a lot of thick and thin bits, I suspect this will not wear well as a sock but it is a wool/nylon blend so it may be ok. Unsurprisingly as it is a single the stitch definition is not great.

It is not all bad, once you have got the pesky stuff knitted up it is nice and soft and it has long colour changes the blend gradually which I like in a sock. In spite of this I would not buy it again, the negatives just far outweigh the positives.

The X O cable pattern.


Ok, I apologise for all the negativity this week, I promise to be back to my cheery self next week :)

8 comments:

  1. The socks look great. Don't you hate when there is so much negative mojo in a project. Yarn should be a joy to work with so when it's frustrating...it just makes the knitting a chore. They do look great though.

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  2. It is interesting how important the yarn is.

    I do like the XO cable pattern and the socks look like they will be cuddly.

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  3. Sorry you had trouble with the yarn. The socks are still cute. And I'm so impressed that you are almost through your alphabet knitting project!

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  4. aw I'm sorry you weren't a big fan of these socks! at least they'll be comfy enough for house socks? and the colors are lovely too =)

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  5. I love the colors in the last picture ... very nice together. And the cable is great, I love cables!

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  6. the colours are fantastic, sorry you didn't enjoy making them.

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