Paton sock yarn has two major advantages: one of course is that it's locally available at the big-box craft stores, and isn't too expensive if purchased on sale, and the other, as my knitting teacher Posy noted is that ‘it wears like iron.’ This yarn, which is what I think of a ‘blended’ colorway (as opposed to self-striping, like the prior pair I documented, which is supposed to imitate multi-color work, but without all the work of changing yarns) is made by twisting differing fibers together.
It's obviously copied from more expensive yarns (such as trekking) and I really like it, even though this cheaper version varies considerably skein to skein—regardless of whether the dye lots match. (If the colors are blended differently, visual mixing will result in a completely different appearance, even if the initial fibers are all from the same batch.) However, my sock knitting skills are still crappy, so I don't care so much about that.
66-70 st , 1.5mm (000) 24" addi turbo circs
I'm guessing I started these sometime after xmas two years ago, because I think that was the year I got my first 3x0 needle; and I bought the other for myself. These are toe-up, using (I presume) Cat Bordhi's standard toe, which divides by 6 (so 66 st, which is roughly what I'm counting at that part of the sock) makes sense. The heel, which is reinforced with wooly nylon, is just a standard short row. I used the tiny needles because I wanted the socks to be extra thick and dense.
Problem is, they have much less give, and the so the negative ease typically built into socks had to be lessened, which, of course, I failed to do. So these very snug socks were too small for my feet. I was, however, unwilling to frog them back to the toes, so I gave them to someone else who had indicated a wish for hand-made socks. I knew this person actually liked fun socks, so ze got this pair. The cuffs are 1x1 ribbed, and appear to be 70st; so I'm guessing I might have increased slightly. These are the first pair that I completed ‘two at a time’.
As usual, I didn't do any christmassy posts before the season officially ended. I admit, I rather like this gift styled on our tree;) olympus e620, zuiko 50mm lens. I was shooting a client's work in the living room that day, and had my photoflood up, so perhaps a combo of that and natural light. In any event, according to my metatdata, 800ISO and 1/25th sec.
Concurrently I was making a pair for my spouse, in which I completely messed up the heel and had to frog; those are still pretty wonky, that is, useless except for sleeping. Add to that a couple of other failures that came in after my first more-or-less 3 successful efforts, and I was starting to get very discouraged.
However, this year, I finally got my second 1.75 addi turbo, and some lovely knitpicks single ply slow-variegated to go with. I've completed one sock past the ankle and it fits, so I'm thinking I'm finally, after 5 prs completed, I'm starting to get the idea.
And if not, I have three new sock books from which to pick up new tricks.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
