FO Friday- W socks

Not the World's greatest photo, dark evenings are making it harder to get decent pictures, but enough to see the patterning made by the yarnovers.

Pattern: Wanida by Cookie a
Yarn: Regia 4 ply in burgundy
Needles: 3.5mm dpns

The pattern uses decreases and yarnovers to make a diamond pattern on the socks. The pattern is easy to follow but I did need to have the book open all the time, even by the end I couldn't be sure I had remembered it correctly so it was safer to look at the chart. The pattern is charted, there are no written instructions so if that is your not thing you would need to convert the instructions.

There is a mistake in the heel set up. Ravelry solved this for me, you need to work one less stitch on the final leg round to make the patterning line up after the heel, move the extra stitch to be stored while you work the heel. Not a huge mistake, but somewhat annoying in a purchased book.

I have used this yarn before to make my T socks so I will not go too deeply into the details again. It is nice and smooth and should be machine washable. It is also an affordable sock yarn option with a good range of colours available.

FO Friday- R socks

Friday seems to sneak around so quickly, fortunately some car knitting last weekend meant I had these done before the last minute this week.

Pattern: Rick by Cookie A from Sock Innovation

Yarn: Regia World Circus

Needles: 2.25

The pattern is interesting, rounds of decreases and yarnovers give a spiralling pattern around the leg and top of the foot.

I have to be honest, I don't love it as much as I thought I would. All the decreases take a lot of stretch out of the fabric, so it is a tight fit to get on, I think it would have been better worked on 2.25mm needles over 72 stitches. It would not be a good choice as a gift as you need the foot around to try it on as you go. It does go on, and fits ok when it is on so I did not bother ripping it out and restarting.

The pattern is fairly slow to work but the changes on the foot make it a little more interesting at the point where you would be getting bored. You need to keep an eye on the book for changes of direction as they sneak up on you! So don't take the project when you are returning a car rental and sitting around for an hour without the book then merrily knit away, missing the direction change and having to tink back, um, not that I did that.

I am also a little worried about how robust all the little yarnovers will be during wear.

There is, of course, good things about the pattern. It is well written and an interesting design concept, I like the spiralling nature, I just think I would find another way to do it. The pattern is quite easy to memorise once you have done a few rounds, although the change from left to right confused my brain a little and I kept working past the decrease poitn and having to go back (tiny brain issue rather than pattern fault).

I like the yarn a lot more than I like the pattern, I would use it again happily. It seems softer than standard Regia 4 ply, but in most other ways is the same (weight, smoothness). It is a little more expensive but I would not mind paying the extra as I am really happy with the self striping of this colourway. The stripes are not obtrusive, so you can use it to work a textured or lace pattern without losing the stitch work in the colours, but it is a little more interesting than a solid colourway. I suspect it would wash ok in the machine, however since mine is a "Destroyer of Socks" (like a "Destroyer of Worlds" but more socky) they will have to be handwashed, plus with the tight fit I can't risk shrinkage or they will never fit back on my feet.

Pattern close up:

Next up will be the S sock, I am excited about this as I have had the pattern and yarn since Christmas and have been saving them.

FO Friday- M socks

This is another pair that nearly didn't get done in time for its planned FO Friday post, although I cast them on the first weekend of the M fortnight I didn't actually get to working on the until the end of last week. Fortunately the pattern is really quick so they made it in time.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A (the free knitty version)
Yarn: Katia Ole
Needles: 2.5mm dpns
Mods: Normal rib rather than twisted, slip stitch heel flap, adjusted lengths of each section to fit.

This pattern has been in my favourites forever, and I finally got around to making it. I can see why it is so popular (many thousands of Ravelry projects!). The pattern is easy to remember and can be worked out from the previous row if you put the work down and pick it up later, or if you just forget where you are. It is also really quite simple so they don't take much longer than a pair of plain socks.

The free pattern is only in one size, a 64st round. Since I was feeling lazy I went up a needle size from my usual 2.25mm. It made the fabric a little looser but not overly. This might be an advantage as my washing machine has a tendency to felt even superwash a little. You can purchase different sizes of the pattern, or alter it by widening sections but as I said I was feeling lazy.

The yarn came out nicely in the end. I was a little unsure about it. I did like it in the shop, but there was an element of "I am in your lovely tiny yarn shop I must buy something to support you" (you know that feeling right?). Although it is not the softest there are a few things I like about it- it is superwash and nylon, so should wash and wear well.
The long colour changes are good, if a little varied, it would work well for a shawl type project.
The thing I like most is that is is a two ply yarn which looks handspun because the colours of each ply are different. This gave me an idea, I have pulled one of the scrap ends apart and am going to use it as a model for the thickness and twist needed to spin a sock yarn during the tour de fleece. A little more twist will be needed in the singles, as it will have lost some in the plying, but it is good to have something to work from.

There are a couple of other version of the monkeys on Ravelry, one with no purl stitches and one with no YO holes, both look good and I would be tempted to try them if I needed a quick sock project.

FO Friday- G socks

So far I am keeping up with the A-Z challenge, mostly due to my tendency to knit obsessively until what I am working on is done.

Pattern: Glynis by Cookie A from Sock innovation

Yarn: Colinette jitterbug in salty sea dog

Needles: 2.5mm dpns

Mods: Fewer repeats on the leg section (5)

This is a nice pattern, but for some reason I had trouble remembering it so needed the chart out all the time I was knitting. I think this is more a problem with my lousy memory than with the pattern!

Although it is a lace pattern, with lots of yarn overs the end result is really more textured than holey, I'm pleased with that as really lacy socks remind me of school uniform socks from when I was four.

The yarn has a lot of my favourite characteristics- the colour is just gorgeous (unfortunately I have not been able to get a true photo, but it makes you go ooooh and mmmmmm), it is also a thicker sock yarn so I could use 2.5mm needles.

It has a high twist, so you get much less in a skein which can be a bit worrying, I did think I was going to run out and weighed the first sock when it was done, there were 12g left at the end. It also does not feel super soft due to the amount of twist, which I thought might make the sock uncomfy but they are lovely and squooshy once on.

FO Friday- C socks

Another letter down in the A-Z sock knitting, I am loving this challenge! (sorry about the rubbish pictures, they were taken inside as it has been raining here)

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Pattern: Cauchy by Cookie A

Yarn: The Yarn Yard Croft in green

Needles: 2.5mm dpns
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Close up of the stitch work:

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These are a super easy knit, the patterning is all done with knit and purl stitches so they go quickly. It is probably the simplest knit in the book (Sock innovation by Cookie A), there are some seriously complicated patterns in there!

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The yarn is not the softest but still nice and I suspect will get softer with washing. It would perhaps have been better knit on 2.25mm needles, I like a denser sock but the pattern is only given in one size (probably the main flaw of this book is a shortage of sizes). Admittedly it could be up sized without too much difficulty, but I was in the mood for straight from the pattern knitting.

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I didn't really do or watch any one thing while making these, which makes subtitling them harder. Therefore they are going to be the very non excitingly named "Hunt for the perfect sock part 2".

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Although I have been making socks for a while I have yet to find the perfect fit, the heel flap often slides under my foot which can be annoying. It means I wear hand knits with shoes (holds the heel flap in place) and shop bought when I am wandering about in my socks. If I am making 26 pairs of socks I am going to wear them, and wear them a lot!
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Part one of trying to find a good fit was a deeper heel flap, the B socks were also larger around but ribbed (that was the pattern). Still not perfect so this time I have gone for longer feet figuring if the foot is too short it will pull the heel flap under. This means these socks have amusingly long feet- usually I get bored on the foot so this could well be the issue. It seemed to work yesterday, but I was wearing shoes so have yet to put them to the real test. I am going to try a short row heel at some point too.
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Apologies for the rather long sock fitting based post, more pictures and less rambling tomorrow I promise.