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 :)

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

Peacock Socks

Yesterday I finished another pair of socks out of hand-dyed yarn. These are for my husband and they were such fun to knit.

The yarn is Alize Superwash, 75% wool, 25% nylon. I wound about 70 g, presoaked the yarn in warm water with citric acid, then squeezed most of the water out of the skein and hand painted the skein. A couple of pictures of the process of painting - first the lighter colors, then filling in with the darker colors.

For these socks I used a new blue food dye, which turned to be bright peacock blue. Frankly, I was a bit skeptical of the color combination, but it definitely grew on me in the knitting process.

Despite the fact that the skein was 4 m long and I tried to randomize the colors, I ended with them kind of pooling. It's not as drastic as with short skeins but still I would have preferred more dispersed color distribution, as in the wound skein above.
The pattern is my usual recipe, toe up, 64 sts, stockinette stitch with fish lips kiss heels.

Pattern: Peacock Socks (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand-dyed, 68 g
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: 9 days