Thursday, July 5, 2018

Once Upon A Sock - July 2018


This morning I'm linking up again "Once Upon A Sock" group...

Once Upon A Sock consists of sock knitters who post the first Thursday of every month about sock work in progress. Check out the link party throughout the day today to see the group members who have posted and linked-up. Feel free to join the fun!

I've got two sock projects on the go at the moment, but the one that's getting the most attention is this one.


The yarn is Viking of Norway Nordly's sock yarn. It's not the nicest yarn to knit. It's single ply which makes it fuzzy, sticky, splitty, prone to pilling, easily torn and entirely unfroggable. I've encountered yarn that feels similar - Katia Darling. I knit a pair of socks from that in 2011 with the same problems, but the resulting socks were amongst my favourites. They turned out super comfy and surprisingly hard wearing. They were my first choice from the sock drawer each week and lasted 5-6 years. On that basis, the pain of knitting them might be worth it.

The pattern is Vanilla is the New Black, although I've been terrible about actually following the pattern. I've substituted the stockinette with a K6 P2 K2 P2 rib throughout. And I just noticed that the pattern instructs for increases on either side of the centre of the heel whereas I've done the increases on the outside edges of the heel section. And I'm carrying more stitches than instructed over the instep to keep the ribbing symmetrical and why not, it's ribbing! So yeah, I pretty much didn't follow the pattern at all.

I'm knitting cuff down as that's how the pattern is written, but I think I might invest in the Vanilla Reversed pattern for future use. Knitting toe-up means I can make best use of the yarn to maximize the leg length. With this sock I lucked out though - sock one is 48 grams and I have 51 grams left for sock two so I should make it with very little to spare. Hurray! This isn't a yarn that I want to have leftovers in stash!


4 comments:

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Despite being a pain to knit - they are very pretty!

Anonymous said...

That color is beautiful.

Zauberball can knit the same way . . . sticky, splitty, thick and thin in places, but surprisingly, it wears VERY well.

Paula @ SpinAYarn said...

Wow! That colorway is stunning! I love the changes you've made to the pattern and can't wait to see the finished pair :)

Stefanie said...

That is some awesome sock yarn. I have that pattern in my queue. The heel is really interesting.