Wednesday 18 January 2012

Socks: Round 2

I have a love-hate affair with socks. At the beginning of 2011, I said to myself that I was going to learn to knit socks, and I did. By May, I had decided that I was going to make socks for my family for Christmas. By August, I knew that I was never going to make another pair again, because every pair I tried to make ended up not fitting in the heel.

That is, until I was contacted by a good friend of mine, who offered me a commission. My first commission. He wanted a pair of good warm socks, knee socks. This guy has been really nice to me, and I didn't want to say no, so I didn't. Instead, I started poking around, trying to find a heel that would fit better. In my research, I found out why the socks I had made in the past didn't fit me; I was making a heel flap instead of a short row heel. There's a difference? Apparently so. I also learned that for this friend, making the socks with the aformentioned heel flap would be better. I told him I would do it, and have set to work. The project is Ravelled here. I'm using a pattern called Thuja from Knitty, and heavily modified it to make it more suitable for knee high socks. The yarn is King Cole Merino Blends, a superwash merino that is really nice to work with. It's not quite as soft as the other merinos I've worked with, but I'm putting that down to the superwash. The colours are really nice, and have knitted up quite nicely. I originally bought three balls of the stuff, then panicked and bought another two more in case three wasn't enough. Looking at it now that I'm half done, I think three is actually going to be ok, but I'm tempted to keep the other two just because the yarn was a good price and is really nice stuff in colours I tend to enjoy knitting in. As for the commission, I don't expect to get much more than what will cover my expenses, what with buying 5 balls of yarn and sock blockers, but I'm not in this for the money (at least, not yet!)