Socks, socks and more socks

Having not done a lot of knitting in the past couple of months, I am now on a sock knitting jag. It started with the pair of Monkey socks I cast on at the end of the month. I chose to knit them because I was in need of a pattern I could knit easily and I had some stripy yarn in my stash that I thought would work well. I'm quite happy with the result as is my mother who has claimed them for herself.

I planned to follow the pattern as written but I forgot a couple of the plain knitting rows in the pattern. I didn't feel like ripping back so I knit both socks with a slightly compressed lace pattern. They are knit out of the Austermann Step sock yarn that contains Aloe and jojoba. It is nice soft yarn but it makes my nose run when I knit with it so I don't think I will be buying more of it.

I finished the Monkey socks on the fourth and immediately cast on for a pair of Angee socks from Cookie A's new book. I used the Louet Gems yarn that didn't work for the Intertwined Leaves socks and a 2.5 mm set of needles. I'm much happier with how the yarn worked with this pattern. I still found the fabric a bit loose and when I knit with this yarn in the future I will try to remember to go down to a 2.25 mm needle for the heel and sole of the sock.

I was far enough into the foot of the sock when I realized I wanted the fabric a bit tighter that I didn't want to rip back. Since the yarn is super wash I simply put the finished sock in the dryer for a little bit and that tightened everything up just enough.

I finished the Angee socks on the seventh and the next day I cast on for the Wanida socks from the same book. By tomorrow I should have the pair finished. I hope the next picture I take captures the colour of the yarn better. It is Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra in Pumpkin, though I find the colour much more coppery in person. It has a lovely shine that is really hard to photograph.

The Wanida pattern is a much quicker knit than the Angee but that might be in part because I have already knit a pair. In fact I knit the pair that appears in the book.

The sample knitting was fun and the fact that a pair of socks I knit appears in a book makes me happy. It doesn't hurt that I also get my name in the acknowledgments. I would jump at the chance to sample knit again.

Finally, while I am on the topic of socks, I should share a pair of socks that I knit just before my life got turned upside down. I knit these out of yarn I spun up back in October of 2007 (and blogged about in November 2007). Since I only had 200 yards, I knit them toe up and finished them with a picot edge. They fit much better than my first pair of handspun socks and I only wish I had had more yarn. Still, having ankle socks can be quite useful in the warmer months.