Friday, November 2, 2012

A stripey-toed sock gets its day

During a brief break in the rain yesterday, I took some photographs of my now-complete Red Hot Blues socks.


The yarn for these is a worsted weight Romney/Mohair blend hand-dyed by Silvia at Stoddart Family Farms: it makes the warmest. socks. ever.  Even the lighter weight I usually get for my Stoddart socks is amazingly warm, but this weight will stand up almost like a boot on its own.

Now, you may (or may not) recall the problem I had with these socks, which was that I made them as long in the leg as I felt I needed, having been through one winter with socks as long in the leg as I felt the yarn could hold out for.  As a result, I started to run out of yarn halfway through the foot.

The obvious solution to this sort of thing is to buy two skeins of yarn in the same essential colourway and alternate rows to be sure of mixing up the colours enough to blend, but I am lazy.  So instead, when I ran out, I panicked for a bit and then started striping with the least unbearable companion yarn in the stash.


It's not ideal, but it's not horrible either, and best of all it's the same weight of yarn all the way down.


And all the way up: my ankles get to stay warm.  They really are pretty long, aren't they.  It's heaven, and the red and blue in them will be great on those really cold days because I get a little obsessive about matching my socks to the rest of what I'm wearing, and I wear a lot more Denim Skirt with Blue and Red Dotted Pashmina than I have matchy socks for.

I won't need to worry about the purple then because...


with my boots on nobody knows I had to stripe at all.

Hey, while I think of it - when you look at a piece of knitting,


do you see columns of Vs, or columns of pitched rooftops?

I've been noticing lately that I usually see Vs, but whichever I start with, it's very hard to switch to the other.  Makes me think some of those left brain/right brain ads that turn up on big websites should employ knitting stitches instead of the usual twirling ballerina.

And with that digression, I will close this week at Hugs.  Weekends may not feature as much knitting as I would like, but I love them anyway because they usually support more than I get on a weekday.  Hope yours does too!  See you Monday with a hot mug of tea in hand.

p.s. ... now that I've secured my spot - I know, I'm terrible - I don't mind telling you that the latest Vesper Sock Club is now open for new members, and there are a few spots left.  If you like self-striping socks, you will love this club! and the yarn base is fantastic - I'm three and a half years into wearing my oldest Vespers and not a hint of a need for any darning.

3 comments:

Renik said...

Lovely socks! I wish I had a pair... And when it comes to the pattern, I see columns of pitched rooftops; however, when I'm turning it upside down I see columns of Vs. I hope it's not any psychological test. :)

Jaderenee said...

These are great! They look very toasty, I've been looking for a basic sock pattern knit in worsted weigt for some time. Any yarn recommendations for this pattern? I have another Montana winter to prepare for and I think these will work up quickly. Many thanks!

Mary Keenan said...

Jaderenee, this is a base pattern I customized for myself and have never written up, but you should definitely check out Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns for some excellent basic shapes. LOVE that book. For these socks I use a worsted weight mohair/romney blend from Stoddart Family Farms (check out the Yarns tab for a link) - they are the warmest yarns I've ever used!