sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A Step Above Socks in progress

"A Step Above Socks"
from Knitter's Magazine, Summer 2004

Started: April 9, 2004
US 1 dpns (2.25mm), set of 5
Ellen's Half Pint Farm sock yarn-- 80% superwash wool, 20% nylon. 500 yd/4 oz, no colorway given.





I've loved and avoided these socks for forever out of entrelac = difficult noia and also fear of the puckiness that the resulting fabric creates. I shouldn't have waited so long, the socks are rad and the act of wearing them stretches out the fabric so they lose the pucky factor (though its not too pronounced, as you can see above.) It is a super fun knit, too-- fascinating and at times I look and wonder if I'm knitting a sock at all! It also incorporates the fun of picking up stitches, though it has an afterthought heel.

I also included a detail shot of the sock, just to show off the colors of the yarn. I had no idea how pretty it was til I balled it up this Sunday, white to grey to mauve to brown/purple, and also perfect for this pattern with short color repeats (that would probably pool badly with a CO of 60 sts, like the pattern's ribbing called for). I've been thinking a lot about pooling and sock yarns... it tough since everyone knits differently, but the difference btw 10 CO sts can be dramatic, turning a "pooling" yarn into a striping or blippy one. There's got to be some rhyme or reason... perhaps with my leftovers from socks I'll start a little library of gauge swatches in the round with varying CO #'s just to see if there is the difference I think there is.

I really dig this yarn. I picked it up @ Stitches West, and can't find any info about it on the vendor's website, but it was $18. Its about the gauge of Lorna's Sock but has more twist, but it is quite soft and again, great skein size and the nylon content is not noticeable (soft like Lorna's though they both have the same nylon content). I'm pretty sure I got 9 sts/inch in stst on the US 1's... the pattern called for 8 sts/inch, but with the stretch of the pattern, the fact my foot is less than the 9" circumference for the women's size I'm knitting, and that I just couldn't imagine knitting this yarn on US 2's I went with the US 1's.

The pics are a little dark, as the white in the yarn is true and was throwing off the rest of the colors... I'll try for a better shot later.

Definitely not car knitting, but sit up when everyone's asleep and play with blocks knitting :)

10 comments:

Dave said...

It looks wonderful. I'm almost tempted. Almost, but not quite. Kind of have another project on the go, if you know what I mean.

By the way, you have The Best Pictures of any knit blog I have visited. I say it again: The Best. Bar None. The Absolute Best.

How do you do it?

Knittypants said...

That looks like a fun sock pattern, and it really does show off the yarn nicely.

lexa said...

Great looking socks! I sorta wondered about entrelac for socks. They are going to be beautiful!

Zonda said...

Wow! Those are looking awesome! Can't wait to see the final sock!

Oh and on your pictures! Yes they are awesome...I can never get good close ups...let me tell you I took like 15 pictures of grapes for the ABC along...not a good one! UGH!

Alyssa said...

As always you give us the treat of a great sock, some fine pictures, and some gorgeous yarn:)

Rachel said...

Thanks for the lovely comment about my shawl. As you have figured out, entrelac is addicting! The socks look great!

Elspeth said...

Great job! I love Ellen's Half Pint Farm - her yarn was my favorite from Stitches West.

Anonymous said...

The striping in the yarn works really nicely with that pattern.

Bridget said...

I like them! And a sock yarn I haven't heard of too, cool!

sheep#100 said...

I'm doing a Lady Eleanor andI was worried about the pick up stitches thing (my least fave part of knitting) but it is really easy, don't have to cram extra sts in any place - coming out well. Maybe those socks could be on my horizon as well.

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