I swore I was going to knit a sock this summer, right? Which to me means by Labor Day. After that Starter Socks post awhile back, I exchanged a few tweets with Clara Parkes and decided my first socks would be her Stepping Stones, seen in that post — a free pattern, in worsted-weight yarn, and Clara knows from socks. When Sarah Hurwitz recently announced her “sockalong,” I almost wavered and cast on Hermione’s Everyday Socks with her instead (the other contender from my Starter Socks post). But 1) fingering, not so compatible with my self-imposed deadline, and 2) I don’t even own any sock-appropriate fingering. What I did have in my stash, when the mood hit me last Saturday night, was this variegated Malabrigo Rios, which was sure to obscure the nice stitch pattern on the leg, but which happens to be superwash. Since warm feet are the objective, and a little rim of blue-green sticking out of my boot tops will suit me just fine, the decision was made.
What I hadn’t noticed is that even though it’s a worsted-weight pattern, it’s knit on US2 needles, 54 stitches per round. Hermione is 64 stitches on US1 needles, so not as big of a difference as I might have assumed. But I’m glad I stuck with Clara’s pattern, and I especially love the way the heel flap is done. It’s knit with alternating strands of the same yarn — stranded knitting! — and the tension and double-density of those floats make for what seems like a pretty bomb-proof heel. (I won’t even try to describe how slowly I knitted the wrong-side rows of that stranded section. Thank god it’s only a two-inch square!) End result: super dense sock, sure to keep my toes warm in the studio this winter and survive repeat washings. But if anyone has thoughts on sock-worthy, worsted-weight, wool yarns that don’t have that unfortunate squeakiness of superwash — the earthier the better — please voice them! Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my research. Because there are more sweater-weight socks in my future.
So I made a sock this summer. Now the question is, how long before it has a mate? Feel free to wager and/or tell me about what you’re working on! And have a lovely weekend, whether it’s a holiday for you or not.
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