FO Friday- L socks

FO Friday today will not be featuring anything from the WIP Wednesday pile, because none of it is finished. This is not really a surprise, and some of it is well on the way so maybe one will be done by next week.

Instead we have the socks for the L part of the A-Z sock knitting challenge (in my colour of the moment of course).

Pattern: Leyburn socks by MintyFresh

Yarn: Artesano Hummingbird 4 ply

Needles: 2.25mm dpns 

Mods: Quite a few changes on these, the pattern has a lot of comments about poor fit so I worked them top down with a heel flap rather than toe up with a short row heel. The leg was done over 72sts and the foot over 66sts.

The stitch pattern has floats which reduce the stretchiness a bit, I did a higher stitch count than usual and made a concious effort to keep the floats loose. This is actually really good practise for colourwork as you are making the same kind of floats and as they are on the front they are easy to see and keep loose.

It is a super pattern, only a little slower to do than a plain vanilla sock but with a great finish. It also mixes handpainted yarns up well or looks equally good in a solid colour.

The yarn I used is fantastic. It is 100% alpaca and so soft and squishy. It is a little hairy, but not so much it obscures the stitch pattern, this could make the socks a little tickly but they seem ok so far. It is also a little thinner than typical sock yarn so I will have to see how it wears. Hopefully it will be ok and not felt or rub through into holes as I would love to use it again, it is that soft and delicious.

Yarn review- Opal 4 ply

I have run out of shops to review, but since I quite like doing these I thought I would move on to other things, this week it is yarn.

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I think this was the first non acrylicy yarn I bought when I started knitting.

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It is made from 75% wool and 25% polyamide, is machine washable and knits up on 2.5mm needles. 100g gives approximately 425m and there is a huge range of colours, although they all seem to be self patterning to some degree. There are also themed ranges like Harry Potter and Rainforest.

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I bought mine off ebay a couple of years ago, so I can't remember what I paid, but a quick google shows the price ranges from about £6.50 to £8.50 for a 100g ball. I think that makes it one of the cheaper sock yarns available. It is also pretty good value, I got two pairs of short ankle socks out of one ball with even enough scraps for some sock yarn blanket squares.

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It is not the softest and most smooshy of yarns, but it makes comfy socks with no itchiness or tickling. I think this is more than reasonable since a very soft yarn would not last more than a few minutes as socks.

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The socks have stood up well to wearing so far, there are slightly fuzzy felty bits at the points of high wear, but that seems reasonable and no holes so far (fingers crossed).

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Opal also do a 6 ply range and a 4 ply Schafpate range which uses wool from a rare breed sheep (German Schafpate).