Men's Knitted Socks

A pair of men's socks I knitted this year in between many other project. I took these photos while we were at Pchelina lake in November, but put off publishing them, mostly for lack of time, until today.

For the socks I used again my usual sock recipe for toe up socks for men, with 64 sts, Judie's magic cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off. I used pre-striped sock yarn by Alize and my 2.5 loop needles. This is my first and one of only two knitted projects I finished this year, the other being a hat, I plan to post about soon - my knitting mojo is still away, mostly for lack of time - the year was super, super busy.

Pattern: Striped Socks (personal pattern)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 70 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: unknown, between projects

I like how these came off and it was fun to knit them, but next time I use striped yarn, I think I'll make the heel an afterthought heel and keep the stripes, or add a solid color for the heel and toes.

Christmas Yarn

A couple of sock yarn skeins I dyed for my mother. She is a fan of my sock yarn and regularly asks me for new skeins to knit. This time I chose two different methods of dyeing - striped yarn and low immersion. 

For the striped yarn, I wound the skein into a long loop and soaked it into warm water with citric acid. Then I brought the water in my dye pot to boil and added the yellow color. My plan was to divide the loop into 4 parts - one long blue, followed by a short yellow, then a long green and again a short yellow, the yellow dividers half as short as the blue and green stripes. However, once I had finished dyeing the yarn, had it washed and almost dry, I did not like it. The colors were rather primary and the end result somewhat reminded me of the Brazilian flag. Not that there is anything wrong with it and its colors, it was just not what I had had in mind.

So, after some inner struggle, I took out the dye pot again, prepared another dosage of yellow dye and dipped the blue and the green parts of the yarn in yellow. Naturally, they both turned into green, two different shades. Then I dipped the former blue part of the yarn into additional blue to darken it and make it more pine green. I was finally satisfied and now it is my favourite yarn, can't wait to see it knitted into socks!

For the second skein I chose low immersion. This skein is very much like the skein I made for my husbands Nalu socks, variations of different reds, orange, wine red, some brown and pink and even an instant soft drink powder for good measure. This is a combination of shades I never tire to dye and knit and I do hope my mother would appreciate it.

One of the risks of low immersion, especially in a crowded pot, is that some of the yarn might be left white, if the dye has failed to reach it. It did happen this time as well, so I had to redo the dyeing process with this skein too, applying scarlet red to the undyed white blotches.

I'm sure these will knit into another pair of beautiful socks too. Now, that I have sent my gift yarn away, my hands itch me for dyeing some sock yarn for myself as well :)

Fire Socks

My third pair of socks this year, dyed with the help of a sock blank. My husband is a sucker for warm colors, especially orange, and has been requesting some fiery socks forever. So, for my third sock blank I chose a warm dark to light to dark transition from dark red wine to dark chocolate, or at least that was the plan.

What I realized once I had finished the painting of the blank was, that this scheme placed the lightest color - the yellow, in the middle of the blank, which would probably work well for a scarf or a hat, but for socks it meant that the lightest color would be at the heel, and this is far from ideal. I debated with myself whether to cut some of the brown and move it to the heel, but firstly I didn't know how much to cut, and secondly - that would have inevitably broken the color transition. In the end I decided to go with the flow and knit the socks as I had dyed the yarn and, hopefully, learn a lesson about better planning next time.

Pattern: Fire Socks (personal pattern, 64 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 72 g, hand-dyed 

Needle: 2.5 Addi circular needles

Time to knit: one week

Despite the definitely awkward color placement, husband loves the new socks and declares them his favourite. Until the next newer pair of socks, I suspect :)

Yellow Blue Socks

My second pair of ombre socks, which I knitted again as a present for a friend. I enjoyed the process with my previous hand-made ombre yarn so much, that soon I wound a new double-threaded ball of yarn, made it into a sock blank and dyed it with bright blue and orange-yellow color variations and combinations. It did not turn exactly as I had hoped and the ombre effect was a bit spoiled due to some bad planning of the color gradiation;anyway, I still find the resulting socks pleasing.

I knitted the socks almost entirely during our short journey through the country. As usual, it took me less time to make the socks, than to photograph them, but I am happy to be finally able to show them on the magnificent and quite matching background of Cherni Vruh on Vitosha.

The sock blank, just painted and before the fixing of the colors in the microwave.

 The washed and dried sock blank, ready to be unraveled and knitted into a pair of socks.

Pattern: Yellow Blue Ombre Socks (personal pattern), 58 sts

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 54 g, hand-dyed hand-knitted sock blank

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to make: 4 days

Husband's Berry Socks

A few pictures of the pair of woolen socks I made for my husband. They are a perfect match to the pair of socks I knitted for myself earlier this year, based on the cable pattern of the Nalu Mitts. 

Unlike the yarn for my socks, which I dyed with instant drink powder, for my husband's socks I experimented with acid dyes and I think the color saturation and variation came out even better. Alas, the phone camera does not reflect completely the true colors of the socks - it makes them more pink and in real life they are much closer to wine red.

For our photosession we took advantage of the beautiful scenery we had at our feet during our hike on Lulin last Sunday. We actually had our picnic here, on Dobrinina skala peak, overlooking Vitosha across and the vast Sofia valley down and out.

For the socks I used again my usual sock recipe for toe up socks for husband, with 64 sts, Judie's magic cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off. The twisted stitch cables are mirror symmetrical, placed on the outer side of each sock and at the end flow into the twisted stitch rib of the socks.

Pattern: Nalu Socks (personal pattern, using Nalu Mitts cable)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 70 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: several weeks with breaks

Ombre Socks

Those couple of weeks I spent in my reclining chair, watching TV shows (I finally succumbed to Netflix produced Korean shows :) and nurturing my back, I found nothing better to do than study German and knit socks. More about German later, now the socks.

I finished two pairs of socks, one for my husband (still not photographed) and one women's size, probably a gift for a good friend of mine, who has been asking for a new pair of woolen socks.

In order to dye the yarn for the socks, I initially wound it in a double thread cake and knitted a sock blank. Then I dyed the blank in a sort of ombre effect, from bordeaux to dark purple, using my red, bordeaux, brown, purple and grey dyes.

I fixed the dye in the microwave, washed and dried it and then wound it into two identical cakes.

 

The socks are knitted toe up, using my simplest sock recipe, with magic double cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off.

Pattern: Ombre Socks (personal pattern, 58 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 52 g, hand-dyed 

Needle: 2.5 Addi circular needles

Time to knit: 5 days

I enjoyed the process so much, this mindless knitting in the round, while watching some mindless TV dramas (Crash Landing on You and the one I especially liked - Memories of Alhambra), that I am thinking of repeating the experience with another ombre dyed sock yarn, this time in some yellow, green and blue shades.

Nalu Socks

I have a new pair of socks - aren't they gorgeous, if I say so myself :)))

Back in December, I dyed a skein of Alize Superwash, trying to recreate my first hand-dyed yarn. I had planed to knit the socks during the Christmas and New Year holidays, but then other projects jumped the queue and the tasty berry yarn stayed put in its new project bag.

The plan was to make the socks a sort of a complimentary pair to the pair of fingerless mitts I knitted with the previous berry yarn. For this purpose I took the cable pattern of the Nalu Mitts, adapted it to my aesthetics, as previously with my fingerless mitts and incorporated it in my simple and trusted sock recipe - 60 sts, toe up, fish lips kiss heels, twisted rib, invisible cast off.

Pattern: Nalu Socks (personal pattern, using Nalu Mitts cable)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 52 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: two weeks

 

 

My husband loved the color of my socks so much, that now I have made him a promise to knit a pair of matching socks for him. Soon. Probably.

Autumn Socks

I finished a new pair of socks for my husband - nothing fancy, just simple mindless stockinette knitting in the round while watching movies.

The yarn is my tried and true Alize Superwash, hand dyed. For the body of the socks I experimented with a new method for dyeing spots, using a dropper. I think I overdid the yellow in the end and the yarn came out too busy, but on the other hand there is definitely no pooling, which is an effect in hand dyed yarns I try to avoid at all costs, if possible.

As I initially only had 50 g of yarn, I started the socks with provisional cast on and afterthought toes and heels. I later bought a couple of new white skeins of Alize Superwash and dyed a 25 g ball in brown for the toes, heels and ribbing, to compliment the dotted body of the socks. I think the afterthought toes and heels worked well, but I prefer Judy's magic cast on, it gives a smoother form of the toes.

Pattern: Autumn Socks (personal recipe, 64 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 75 g, hand dyed

Needle: 2.5 mm circular needle

Time to knit: three weeks

Starry Night Socks

My latest pair of socks and the closest I've ever gotten in my attempts to recreate Van Gogh's Starry Night palette. I was knitting these with an idea to gift them to a friend, as I have quite enough hand knitted socks, but I love them so much that I'm keeping them for myself - I'll dye and knit her another pair :)

The pattern of the socks couldn't be simpler - just my usual recipe for toe-up vanilla socks, what makes them precious for me is the color palette - the rich variations of blues, interrupted by starry yellow.

For the construction of the socks I used again fish lips kiss heel and simple 1x1 rib, cast off with Lory's stretchy cast off.

In order to dye the skein, I wound it into a very large loop and made random knots of the yarn. Then I dyed the skein with several grades of blue, using low immersion.

After the blues had been absorbed, I hand filled the white with a solution of lemon yellow, wrapped the yarn in stretch folio and microwaved it for a total of 3 min to fix the dye.

Pattern: Starry Night Socks (personal pattern)

Yarn: Alize Superwash 50 g, hand dyed

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: 2 weeks