Summer Knitting - Part 3

Unfortunately, my last newsletter didn't look good at all. My apologies. Apparently, follow.it saved my settings for future subscribers only and reverted back to its basic headlines email for my existing subscribers. It is fixed now, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that this next newsletter will look the way I set it up. Thank you for your patience for letting me figure this out.

This is my last summer knitting post and I am including the socks I made during the warmest days of the summer. When it is hot outside, I usually don't feel like working on a big and heavy project. On the other hand, I always find knitting socks fun and relaxing. They not only take up little space and can be carried in my small purse everywhere, but are also fast and easy projects, which require minimal attention to complete.

I have been enjoying my top-down socks so much that I refused to try knitting socks any other way. Well, this past summer I decided to change that. I gave toe-up socks a try and used Tanis Lavellee's well-written Trusty Toe Up Socks pattern as my guide. For the first pair I used Mani-Pedi sock yarn (75% superwash wool and 25% polyamide) by Lion Brand in the color Crew. I love the bright colors of this yarn and feel sad that it is now discontinued. I would have loved to try the other Mani-Pedi colors as well. Although the yarn may be a little bit on the thinner side, it is very soft and easy to work with. What I like most about these toe-up socks is that the stripes continue perfectly, without interruption, throughout the entire length of the socks. It is due to the fact that I essentially knitted a tube, while placing a piece of scrap yarn where the heel was supposed to be, and then knitting on the heel later. What I dislike about these socks is that the toe area cannot be made as rounded as with top-down socks. In addition, I was not able to get the length of the foot as precise as with the other method, but that may just be due to my inexperience with knitting toe-up socks.

The second pair of toe-up socks I made for my husband. I used leftover DROPS Fabel in Silverfox and Black and made the socks essentially the same way as the first pair, except for the stripes, which I came up with as I was knitting. I asked my husband if he found the fit of these socks more or less comfortable than the top-down socks I have knitted for him. He said that he really couldn't tell the difference. He loves them all. 😊

I made another pair of socks from leftover DROPS Fabel (this time the Salt and Pepper print). It is amazing that I can consistently get 2 socks out of each skein of DROPS Fabel. I knitted one of my all-time favorite styles, the picot edge socks. These were made top-down.

Lastly, after using Patons Kroy Socks yarn for a shawl and liking it, I decided to buy more of this yarn and try it for socks. (Actually, it was on sale and I ended up buying a few skeins of each color the store carried. So expect more projects with this yarn.) The pattern is my top-down "vanilla" socks and the color is Slate Jacquard. The yardage of Patons Kroy Socks is quite a bit smaller than other sock yarns I have used; however, it is also a lot thicker. I used 2.5mm knitting needles, because I like tight stitches on my socks, and didn't have much yarn left over. I am not even sure if one skein would be enough for a men's size sock. Although the yarn felt a little rough as I was working with it, it softened up a lot after washing the socks in the washing machine. I wore the socks a few times already and they feel very comfortable. I especially love their thickness now that the weather is colder.