Towards the end of last week, I finally had the chance to take my brand new hand-knit socks for test drive. These are the socks that are a blend of superfine merino and yak. I wore them to the gym! Of course, I took them off for my downtime in the sauna (which lasts and hour). Upon showering and returning home, I did not take them off my feet.
Yes, they felt that good. It’s still much too early to tell how they’ll hold up in several months. However, additional research seem to confirm my initial conclusions of yak. It appears to be a sturdy fiber. These socks have already been hand washed (twice) and they still look great, no pilling. I truly hope they are durable, because if so, I’ll definitely be purchasing more of that yarn. This blend is from Juniper Moon Farm – Tenzing, it’s sports weight,60% superfine merino wool and 40% yak. I specifically chose this blend because of the yak.
I didn’t follow someones pattern for the above socks.
Row 1: k2, p2
Row 2: Knit (repeat rows until you’ve reached desired length)
If I am knitting a patterned sock I don’t use a design on the sole of the sock. I much prefer using a simple stockinette stitch and then I pick up the pattern after finishing the heel.
Do you remember this photo? I was knitting socks four at a time, but last week, I removed the socks on the right (daughter’s school socks) and put them on their own 40″ cable. I’ve decided to focus solely on her hand-knit socks and so they’ll be knit two at a time. How did I transfer them? I knit the new stitches onto the new interchangeable knitting needles with the 40″ cable. It worked perfectly. By the way, I used my needles from my new Hiya Hiya Sharps Sock interchangeable needles. I used my size 0 needles.
Unlike the socks in the first picture, I’m actually following a pattern for these socks. They’re called the Olympian socks and they were designed by Sheryl Giles. It’s free on Raverly! For this yarn, I chose Valley Yarns – Charlemont. It’s fingering weight and is a blend of 60% Fine Superwash Merino Wool/ 20% Silk/ 20% Polyamide. I tend to stay away from superwash and nylon, but since these were going to receive a lot of abuse, while she’s at school, I decided now was not the time to get picky. I do believe it will take at least one more week to complete these socks. They are going to be knee-highs and I’m on limited time.
The month is almost over and I’ve only knit one pair of hand-knit socks in February. Which brings the total number of socks that I’ve knit for 2017 to be six. My goal is make 20 hand-knit socks this year. I have 14 more pairs of hand-knit socks to complete. Barring anything out of the ordinary happening, I think that’s doable.