Best Blues

Best blue yarn 1: I had a request for colourful bedsocks for Christmas so cracked open my sole skein of the legendary Wollmeise yarn. Knitting with something that has grabbed the attention of knitters worldwide is always an experience to be anticipated. In truth, however, I get even more excited about lesser known dyers and always wish them eventual global success, but only after I've managed to buy some skeins from them first. Much as I applaud universal popularity such as that achieved by Wollmeise and Sundara, I am left a little sad that the yarns often then rise beyond my price range, especially with the extortionate Customs charges we are forced to pay on parcels from outside the EU.

For a truly wonderful exposition of a Wollmeise experience, look here. I admit to great envy at being faced with such a difficult choice.


Simple Skyp Socks
by Adrienne Ku (ravelry link)

Yarn: Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash; 316.3 yards (289.2m), approximately 0.55 of the skein
Colourway: Am Kalten Polar
Needles: 3.00 mm


Best blue yarns 2 & 3: Two dyers whose blues have caught my eye and imagination are both talented, gaining in well-deserved popularity and, I'm sure, about to go global. Just let me acquire as much as I can from them first...

Skein Queen:



DK Desire in 'Indigo Dream', 100% wool.


Sparkleduck:



'Midnight Purple', a laceweight in ultrafine merino with silk

Swamp Thing Socks

I love these socks. Everything about them is happy. From easyknitter's yarn stall at IKnit 2007 with free gingerbread men giveaways to the great colourway name and the way in which the pattern provides lots of toe wiggling room, every aspect was straightforward, generous, and did what it said on the tin.

I have only very recently come to sock knitting. One of these socks was the first sock I ever made. I like being a swamp thing while wearing them. They are perfect for stubbed-toe recuperation.

Pattern: A Pair of Socks (ravelry link) by Ann Budd
Yarn: Easy Knits Blue-Faced Leicester; 1 skein, 100g, 330.0 yards (301.8m)
Colourway: Swamp Thing

Needles: 3.25 mm

Secret Garden Harris Tweed Socks

Pattern: Harris Tweed Socks by Put A Sock In It
Needles: 3 mm
Yarn: Skein Queen Plushness
Colourway: Secret Garden; 1 skein
Composition:80% lambswool, 10% angora, 10% cashmere
Weight: DK Light - sock weight; 100g, c 300 yards

I've mentioned this yarn and the heel of this sock before. Both socks are now ready for public viewing. I used the pattern as written, apart from the toe. Instead of the suggested wedge-shaped toe, I substituted the Star Toe of Three Points from Knitting Vintage Socks.

Moneypenny Socks

Socks on a Saturday.

Pattern: Charade
Yarn: Skein Queen, Moneypenny (custom dyed); 1 skein
The name, well, it's a long story. Skein Queen and I know how it came about. Daniel Craig, hold on to your hat...

Toe Techniquery

Thanks to the patient teaching skills of Purlescence and Erqsome, and the equally helpful advice from KatinkaKnits, I now have one kitchenered sock toe. I'm sure it shouldn't take three people to teach me something everyone else seems to know from birth, or at least much earlier on in their knitting careers, but I'm very pleased to have it at the end of my foot at last.



In case I'm being heelist, here's an alternative view.




Here's another heel, just to balance things out. This is the heel for a Harris Tweed sock in Skein Queen Plushness, mentioned earlier. Not quite tweed as we know it, but pink is de rigueur at the moment.

Maybe no one will notice...

So, this project was going well, with the cables proving easier than they first appeared and things flying along quite nicely. The wool was wonderful, buttery soft and thick, and there I was knitting away like a wild thing to produce two thick aran socks of wintry warmth. Hoorah!



Anyone guess what really happened? Um...



No, the heels were fine, I didn't mess those up, or wear them out in my sleep as before... It was something else...



Yes, I ran out of wool.

I quite like the oddness. I could start a trend.


Pattern: Log Cabin Socks from 'Handknit Holidays' by Anne Woodbury
Yarn: Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in Cedar (with a touch of Juniper*)
Needles: 4.0 mm

3 skeins = 285.0 yards (260.6m)

(*well, at least I kept it arboreal)