So it turns out I’ve done a pair of socks a month so far this year. You could use me as a calendar.
Pattern: Thuja socks by Bobby Ziegler
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Flower Power, a destash from a friend
Needles: US1/2.25mm
Notes: So these socks go back over a year when one of the ladies from my Knit Night came in and sat down and started handing out yarn she was destashing. One of them was this skein of Socks that Rock in a Rockin’ Sock Club colorway. I was still fairly new to STR and jumped at the chance to try the yarn, and I didn’t stop to think that the colors didn’t appeal very much to me. And so the yarn sat in my stash for a year, and I would look at it every so often and put it back. I finally wound it last month and suddenly the colors looked entirely different — where they had been in color blocks in the skein, and didn’t appear to flow, now the interplay of purple and blue and the highlighting tans came out.
Lesson learned. Always wind the skein — or at least re-skein it — before you write off the colorway.
Thuja and STR go really well together. It makes a nice thick warm sock — and while thick warm socks aren’t much use in August, they’re very useful in January, and when I wear these I can think of summer and how I’m eagerly awaiting colder temperatures and laugh because by January I’m usually over the cold already.
I had to show off my lovely Kitchnering job there. I used to cheat and turn my socks inside out and finish them with a three-needle bind-off. But Sandi Wiseheart posted this terrific tutorial on grafting on the needles a few years back and I have been using this trick ever since. It’s a lot easier than having to drag out a tapestry needle and it’s definitely a lot easier than turning the sock inside out to bind off. I keep encountering people who haven’t heard of this technique so I thought I would give it a little shout-out. If regular kitchnering isn’t your speed, give this a try.
My thoughts are turning to Rhinebeck. Who’s going, and what are you knitting for it? The High Holiday of Knitting is nearly upon us! I can’t wait.