FO: Tsunami Socks

I just couldn’t bring myself to make any cutesy jokes about tsunamis, given the weather events of this year, so you get a boring title.

But the socks are done! These were a pretty quick knit.  There are 3 cable twists running down the leg of the sock, but the rest is a simple knit-purl diamond pattern and it chugs along.I’m glad I picked a solid yarn for this project – I think even a heathered yarn would have hidden the stitch pattern somewhat. I quite like the finished socks.  The yarn?  Not so much.

I pulled this yarn from DEEP stash – I bought it at a SSYC sale very early on (Allison is celebrating her 6th store anniversary now, so I would estimate this yarn is 5 years old).  It doesn’t pass my current standards for sock yarn.  This Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids yarn is 100% “luxury merino” (at least it’s not superwash) and – get this – it is TWO PLY.  Did you ever hear of a commercial 2-ply sock yarn before?  This is the first one I’ve encountered!  I didn’t realize it was 2-ply until I was well into the project.  There were a couple places in the first sock where one of the plies broke and so there is only one ply holding the socks together.  That cannot be good.  At first I thought I was snagging the yarn and only knitting one ply of it.  Upon closer investigation, I realized that only one ply was left.

If I had realized this before casting on, I probably wouldn’t have.  If I had realized this before knitting the first heel, I would have knit an afterthought heel or something that was easy to replace.  I reinforced the inside columns of slipped stitches on the heel, and we’ll hope for the best.

[Note: this may or may not be the base yarn CTH currently uses. Like I said, it’s from deep stash.]

On a more positive note, I’ve knit two other pairs of socks out of this yarn base and S1 reports that they are holding up fine.  They are summer shortie socks, though, and they don’t get as much wear.

So maybe I shouldn’t be such a Negative Nellie!

The sock in the book (Knitted Socks East and West – lovely) is knit from Regia Silk sock yarn, which I have knit with before.  I made these Dalarna socks for S2 out of it:

Regia Silk is wonderful, and I would happily knit another pair of Tsunami Socks out of it.  (And now that I see Dalarna again, I’m reminded that I wouldn’t mind having a pair of Dalarna for myself!)

Inverse Unpadded Footlets

Don’t these look familiar?  I made them once before:

Modifications:

• I added 6 rounds to the cuff to make this shorty sock a little bit longer (I did that last time, too)
• I used the same yarns but reversed them
• I skipped the padding on the heel (I skipped the padding on most of the sole last time; this time it was gone altogether)
• I replaced the stockinette panel in the heel flap with a slipped stitch pattern
• I made the cuff stripe and the toe stripe match, at 3 rounds each
• I used the star toe to finish

I think the lace panel on the heel flap is very attractive but am skeptical that it will hold up well.  Time will tell!

Life’s a Beach?

This seems to be a week for finishing – here is another pair of socks off the needles.  I’m calling these my Life’s a Beach (?) Socks because the colorway reminds me of Cherry Tree Hill’s old “Life’s a Beach” colorway (it’s really a Loopy Ewe Sock Club unnamed exclusive).

The stitch pattern is Stansfield 30, from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Knitted Socks.  I cast on 60 stitches and used my standard slip stitch heel and star toe. 

The combination of sproingy yarn and this stitch pattern results in a very squishy fabric.  The texture (and the greenness) remind me of moss – the kind you can’t help but touch when you see it by the side of the trail.

All in all, this was a great pattern – simple enough to be appropriate office knitting, and interesting enough to be, well, interesting for the knitter!  It works well with this handpainted yarn.  I got a little pooling in the ankle area, but not too much.  I can live with it.