Thursday, June 26, 2008

Socks, Socks, and More Socks

Yep, I'm starting to convince myself that the only thing I knit anymore is socks. I need a change. I'll keep working on the socks while at work, but I need to make myself either work on Donegal or pick up one of the other projects I brought with me (broad street mittens out of handspun, Clessidra...oh yeah, that's another sock, just bigger!)

Anyways, here's the finished Monkeys:
A more glamorous shot here:

If I remember, I'll try to take better pictures of the finished product. It was morning and I was about half asleep when I took these.

I also started a new sock yesterday and here it is in all its WIP glory:


First, the yarn is Knit Picks Parade. While I normally sing praises of everything Knit Picks relatd, and I will continue to sing praises, I hate this yarn. The yarn has been discontinued I think anyways, and I see why. I'm not a fan of the striping colorway. I don't really like the feel of it as it's knitting up. But seeing that this is the cheapest yarn in my stash and that the socks are not for me, but rather for my coteacher, I'll suffer through them with the glimmer of hope of another pair of Lorna's Laces socks coming up soon.

After reading Wendy Knits post about how she hates striping yarn, I started to think about my own preferences in sock yarns. I'm not too particular about what type of yarn I use, although I will kill people if it helps me get to Lorna's Laces faster (er, not really, but trampling might be involved). Aside from Lorna's, I can take or leave just about any sock yarn. Some people like Socks that Rock, and some people like Opal, but as for me, just give me skeins of Lorna's and I'm happy.

Color-wise, I have noticed a lot of purple in my stash. I never considered purple a favorite color of mine, but there sure is a lot of it there. I'm a huge blue fan anyways and will never turn down a pretty skein that has some sort of shade of blue. Hell, I'll never turn down a free skein of yarn anyways.

I have been most surprised by the nice feel of the Knit Picks Essential sock yarn. I picked up a clearance color to make the Clessidra pattern out of and couldn't get over how good the yarn felt and how well it works up. See, told you I would sing Knit Picks praises again! :oP

As far as striping goes, I can take it or leave it. I like pooling sometimes, and there are certain kinds of stripes I like. This Parade is not one of them. I do like my Opal socks, and even some of the OnLine sock patterns. Although now I can't see a striping yarn without thinking about making them into Jaywalkers....

And now you know far too much about my preferences in sock yarns :oP

Knit on...

2 comments:

Noneofyourbusiness. said...

See, I'm a big fan of handdyes and striping yarns... anything with dramatic color changes keeps my attention better, as I rarely do any socks with a pattern anymore- just my basic stockinette sock. I of course have more blues and greens in my stash than any other... ;) I'd bet you'd never figure that out, huh?

Plain Jane said...

Your Monkey socks are great. I may have to try that pattern. The yarn I'm using for my latest pair is On-line - I picked up two skeins of it a couple months ago for 75% off. Finding a pattern that will work with the self striping jacquard yarns is difficult because the yarn is so busy on it's own that patterns tend to get lost. I'm on the leg & cuff of the first sock and am trying a K3,P2 rib that shifts one stitch to the right every 4th row. I'm hoping that it will add a little interest to the leg.