Knitted Socks
I used to knit socks now and then. The ones I made before have long been worn. Recently, I’ve begun it again. How could I not, when everyone is knitting socks and having so much fun doing it?
This is a pair of white acrylic socks I finished recently. I started these many years ago, got one done, and the dreaded second sock syndrome took over, and I never finished them. These were made on #2 double pointed needles. They didn’t last awfully long. I was watching the toe thin out when the heel gave way. It really is true; don’t make socks of acrylic if you want them to last. Well, at least I got past the second sock syndrome with them.
This is some Regia Jacquard yarn that everyone was raving about. The fun part is supposed to be that this yarn makes its own jacquard pattern as you knit. The trick is to get the right number of stitches per inch and the right size needles. As you can see, I started these on double pointed needles, but somewhere along the way, I decided to try two 24″ circular needles, and I found that was much more fun and made for faster knitting. These were made for a man’s 8 1/2 E foot.
I decided after I got the heel of the first sock done that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish the whole pair out of the two skeins I purchased. So I had to order a contrasting yarn to use for the heels and toes. That order got lost, and they were delayed. Here, though, are the Regia jacquard socks finished. As you can see, I did get identical socks, and I only lost a little yarn doing so. It irked me that I couldn’t get a sock out of one skein, but I guess I did put longer tops on them than a lot of people do. One thing I learned is that I hate patterned yarn like this. While other people find it endlessly fascinating to see the pattern unfold, I found it boring. The fun part of this yarn just escaped me. I think I’d rather make single-colored socks and do cables or something than plain, patterned socks like this again. They fit, and my husband enjoys wearing them more than I expected.
This pair of toe up socks was made from Regia 4 Color on size 1 needles. Now and then, there are washes of one color or the other across the knitting; at times, this looks a bit like stripes. I used Denise Powell’s Cybersocks for the basic sock, the heel stitch, k2p2 ribbing, and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn cast off to bind it off. I used my own design for the tops of the socks, a pattern I call Bumpy Road. I knit these on two 24″ circulars at the same time. You may be able to see something of the pattern in the shots below. It yields a soft, cushy sock top.
The Bumpy Road pattern goes like this:
1. *P3, K3, repeat from *.
2. P2, *K3, P3, repeat from *, end P1.
3. P1, *K3, P3, repeat from *, end P2.
4. *K3, P3, repeat from *.
5. *K3, P3, repeat from *.
6. P1, *K3, P3, repeat from *, end P2.
7. P2, *K3, P3, repeat from *, end P1.
8. *P3, K3, repeat from *. I did 7 repeats for the sock top.
I saw this skein of Cherry Tree Hill’s Wild Cherry Supersock Merino in my local knit shop, and I just had to get it. Now, I’m not one to wear red socks, but I decided I could if I had the pleasure of knitting with this beautiful yarn.
Shade your eyes! These are bright. These socks are made of Cherry Tree Hill’s Wild Cherry Supersock Merino. I used Denise Powell’s Cybersocks pattern again. I liked it so much when I did the Bumpy Roads socks, that I decided to try it again. I wanted to use a toe up sock pattern as I wasn’t sure I was going to have enough yarn for a pair of adult socks, but they worked out fine. I actually had some yarn left over.
I used Denise’s little twist stitch for the pattern on the ribs. I did stop part of the way up and do just regular k2, p2 ribbing for a while and then went back to the little twist stitch. I have to say, I really enjoyed working with this yarn. It’s a beautiful thing to work with, and the patterning of the colors kept me interested the whole way through. There was a tiny spot of yarn that was much lighter than the rest where the yarn wasn’t dyed. I thought when I first wound the ball that I would find that spot a real distraction, but I found I was waiting as I knitted for that little spot. It was interesting to see where it came, and I wound up loving that little spot. The more these socks are washed, the softer they feel. These socks continue to be as much a delight to wear as they were to make.
These are some socks I made for John. They’re from a yarn called Hot Socks (wool and nylon). I wasn’t very happy with the pattern they make as part of the time it looks random, and part of the time there’s a definite dark multi-colored stripe in it. These are plain stockinette except for the heels, which are in the heel stitch, and the ribbing, which is k2, p2. I made the tops of these a little longer than his purple and gray Regia socks to see if he’d like them better. I had to use one ball from the inside and one from the outside of the ball in order to get the patterning to be the same. However, I think it was wasted effort. I couldn’t see much similarity in the socks no matter what I did. These socks are much softer after washing, and they are turning out to be quite nice.
This is a pair of slouch socks I made from Regia 4 Color. I wanted to make them toe up, so the Slouch Socks pattern in Socks, Socks, Socks wouldn’t work. I did like that pattern’s combination of knits and purls that made the fabric wrinkle, though. So I used Denise Powell’s toe up sock pattern and elaborated on it a little. After the toe was knitted, I began the slouch pattern over the foot. These actually have longer tops on them than my Wild Cherry socks do, but the design of the tops compresses them to make them slouch.
When I got to the heel, I did the Eye of Partridge stitch with some purl trim on the sides of the heel, and then I finished off with more of the slouch sock pattern. For the ribbing, I used k3, p3 because the slouch sock pattern was made up of that combination. I’m very pleased with the way these socks slouch around the ankle and yet spread out over the foot so that the foot is comfortable in shoes. These didn’t quite take two skeins of yarn. I used size 2 needles.
Many years ago, I made myself a sweater out of Phildar’s Discretion. I had a couple of skeins of yarn left over from that, so I recently made myself a pair of socks from it. Discretion is acrylic and wool, and I used wooly nylon (made for sergers in pink and white) to reinforce them. These are toe-up socks. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn cast off for the cuff which is 2X2 rib. I used a mélange of patterns for the sock itself. As with all my socks these days, I make two socks at the same time on two circular needles.
This is a closeup of the Eye of Partridge heel. As you can see, the Angel’s Rest pattern from Fiber Trends works well on a toe-up sock.
You can see the color of the yarn better here. The primary color is light cream with the various shades of contrasting yarn from palest pink to hot pink. The wooly nylon was a perfect color for these socks. I don’t think it hurt the socks at all to put that in the heels. I think these will be fun to wear.
These are some black and gray socks I made John. They are of Regia. I made them toe up on two circular size 2 needles. The heel is eye of partridge stitch in two colors. The bind off is the Icelandic Bind-Off.
I used a ribbing of k4, p2 on these socks. I thought it would be a change for John as most of his sock tops have been straight knitting. This shot shows the eye of partridge done in two colors a little better. I really enjoyed this yarn. I liked the gray and black without a jacquard a great deal, and I thought the ribbed top showed this patterning off well.
This is another pair of Regia jacquard socks I made John. I thought the yarn looked awfully dull by itself, so I added the bright blue Regia for the accents. The colors are muted in this photo. Actually, that blue is a nice flag blue. These were done toe up on size two needles, two circular ones. I find I much prefer making socks toe up.
This is a closeup of the heel. I used the heel stitch on these. On the heel flap, I practiced knitting to and fro. I found that was quite fun and helped break up a somewhat boring pair of socks to knit.
This is a closeup of the tops of the socks. I used the Icelandic bind-off on these. These were not too ruffly, and yet there is a lot of stretch in them.
This is the start of a new pair of socks I’m working on. I’m using Stahl’s Socka, a lovely blue/purple/teal yarn combined with a creamy white. This is the top of the sock; the sole is all stripes like the band around the toe. I’m doing it toe-up and on two circulars. I’m at the heel flap in this photo; I abandoned the two circulars for my double points for a while until I get the heel going. Usually, I knit two socks on two circulars at the same time, but since I was using two colors of yarn, I decided I’d do one. It’s easier to untangle two balls of yarn than four!
Here are the two color socks finished at last. I ripped out all the work I’d done in the previous photo–the socks were too long! So when I started over, I did two at a time on my circular needles. This photo shows the bottom and the top of the socks. These socks were part of an Advanced Socknitter’s Class conducted by the Socknitter’s list on Yahoo. Rebecca taught the class and posted her sock sample here. She made her socks from the top down, but I prefer to knit my socks toe up.
Therefore, I knitted mine toe up, and I also used the 2 Color Eye of Partridge heel and Queen Kahuna’s Aloha toe cast on. (I thought that toe was very easy to do, by the way.) I also used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Sewn Cast Off, which I find to be extremely stretchy and comfortable. These were the first two-color socks I’ve ever made, and I’m quite pleased with them. I found the class fun to do, and while I did a lot of ripping, I enjoy getting it right. I think I learned a lot, and I’ll not be afraid to do another pair. Best of all, they fit!
My husband is fond of cycling, and when I saw Lucy Neatby’s biking socks, I wanted to make them for him. When I started working on them, though, I decided I’d rather make them toe-up, and I wanted to do them on two circular needles at the same time. So that’s what I did. I changed her pattern slightly in that I made the heels, toes and ribbing at the top out of a solid color. I thought it worked better with these socks. I chose to put the little eagle on the top of the foot. I probably got it a little too far down, but it looks nice when his shoes are off. Here’s you can see one from the front of the foot and the other is from the heel side.
You’ll notice that I didn’t continue the chain links up the sides of the top of the sock between the two cyclist charts. I found that this worked better for me. I used the eye of partridge stitch on the heel. John likes these socks very much. They are thicker and warmer than his other socks. They are made of 100% wool, and I used #2 needles on them. This was a fun pattern.