It feels like these socks flew off my needles, and with a ‘construction time’ of less than 2 weeks, for me this is indeed pretty fast.

Pattern: Dreamweaver socks by Ana Campos
Yarn: Stranded Dyeworks Oasis in the Balloon colourway

This pattern was so easy to remember, but requires some computational power, so I enjoyed knitting this a great deal. The heel is definitely different than anything I’ve done before, but to my surprise gives a great fit. However, once again I’ve knit a rather tight sock (the same issue I ran into with my mash potato socks). I think the issue lies partly in that these specific patterns aren’t particularly stretchy, and partly in that I am in the want of knitting my socks on a smaller needle size (I like the stitch definition and the fabric better) and am still finetuning what I need exactly to make this result in a nicely fitting sock. I’ve always knit my socks on 2.5mm and am now switching more and more to 2.25mm. On 2.5mm I can knit a great pair of socks blindly, on 2.25mm I’m still finding my way. Nonetheless, the socks do fit, even if they need a little bit of encouragement to fit over my heel.

Stranded Dyeworks might sound familiar, as it’s already my second time using it for socks this year. At the beginning of the year I knit the Home Grown socks out of the same yarn. I think there’s something about subtle variegated yarn that is really speaking to my soul at the moment. And I just happen to find all of the patterns that will match fantastically with it, so who am I to fight this urge.

Somehow this year I’m not being particularly productive when it comes to my knitting, but whenever I do finish things it comes in batches. Currently I seem to have the perfect balance between monogamous and non-monogamous (do we call that polygamous?) knitting; I have around three WIPs at the same time, but I do not start new projects until all three are actually finished. Last week I finished my Powdersnow shawl, and this week the sock front is strongly represented once again.

Pattern: Mash Potato socks by Verena Cohrs
Yarn: Spectrum Fibre sock yarn in the Club Tropicana colourway

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to make some changes to the pattern to get this sock to fit. According to the pattern you’re supposed to knit the twisted stitches all round the leg, but for me this meant a sock that I couldn’t get passed my heel. I considered several solutions (going up a needles size for the leg or going up a pattern size altogether), but in the end opted for making the back of the leg in stockinette. I still think this is the solution that works best for me, although I can understand if someone else might prefer to have the pattern worked all around the leg. In any case, these are fitting socks now, although there is still some tension on the instep (as you can see in the pictures the middle stitches get a bit stretched). Luckily it’s not to an extent that it affects the fit of the sock, so I can live with this.

This is already the second time this year I’ve made a pair of socks out of Spectrum Fibre yarn (you might remember my Flying North socks), which in itself is probably enough testimony of how much I like the yarn. The colours are SO vibrant and happy, I’ll certainly be ordering from this dyer again. Plus I have relatively small feet, so I actually have substantial leftovers from both of these pairs, I’m certain I’ll find something fun to do with those.

Pattern: Plain vanilla socks with a fish lips kiss heel
Yarn: Pineapple sockblank by Joyance fibrearts

This was my first ever time knitting from a sock blank, and it was loads of fun! I definitely understand the exciting part about not completely knowing what your socks will look like, and it is highly addictive to keep on knitting to watch the colours unfold. One thing though that I beforehand was already a bit hesitant about still irks me; the crinkly-ness of the yarn is not super nice. I knew this beforehand, and it did not bother me as much as I thought it would, but I still prefer my yarn nice and straight. I’ve seen some people online that go through the trouble of undoing their sockblank completely and first giving it a wash, then reskeining them. I would never go that far though, and despite this minor complaint I will be knitting from sockblanks again! Especially if they have pineapples on them of course!

This is a unique post indeed, as I’m showing off not 1, not 2, but 3 finished objects! I’ve come back from my holiday, and as expected I brought far too much projects with me and didn’t exactly get home with a bag full of sweaters and shawls and socks. But still, 3 finished pairs of socks (even though two were already in progress when I left) is a very good score indeed. So without further ado and in order of finishing, here they are!

Pattern: Show-off Stranded by Anne Campbell
Yarn: Cosmic Strings Sock in the Zest colourway

Show-off stranded if one of those easy to remember free patterns that will work well in whatever yarn you throw at it. The particular skein I used had me puzzled a bit as to how it would knit up, so I decided to play it safe. Even though the yarn knits up decidedly less wild than I thought it would, and thus could’ve handled a busier pattern as well, I do like the match a lot. The only mods I made to the pattern is that I only patterned half of the leg, and put in a fish lip kiss heel instead of a heel flap. I absolutely adore the colour of these, it’s even better than I expected actually. The combination of beige, pale yellow, pale neon yellow and full on neon flecked with black works SO well.

Pattern: Girl on Fire by Cookie A
Yarn: Uschitita the Twist in Purrrfect purple and contrasting mini skein in Corn

You might remember these from a previous post, there’s a chance I might’ve been rattling on about loving the contrast between the purple and the yellow. Rightfully so I might add, this is a brilliant pair together. I should add contrasting cuffs, heels and toes to all of my socks (I shouldn’t though, there’s a time and place for everything..). I’ve knit a couple of Cookie A lace patterns so far and they never really disappoint. I think the only thing I could’ve changed is go down a needle size. Even though the lace works out just fine as it is, it could pop a bit more.

Pattern: Simple vanilla socks
Yarn: Twisted Limone self striping sock yarn in Lavender Mint

So this ball of self striping yarn was delivered by the post man the day before I left on my trip. I’ve been trying to get my hands on one of Twisted Limone’s self striping yarn for a bit now, but it seemed like every shop update sold out within the hour and I was always too slow. This time I was sitting ready for the shop update though, and within the blink of an eye I popped a skein into my check out basket. The stripes are so much fun, not only the mint-lavender combination, but also the fact that the mint is speckled. I even made an effort to make them oppositely striped, and I usually don’t bother with these sort of things. These definitely brighten up my day.

Now as this is already a very long post indeed, I’ll leave the details of my trip for another post!