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May 28, 2021
For this month I wanted to do something relatively straight forward and familiar but with a new fiber. I have only done flat pieces with cotton/cotton blends and thought it might be a fun experiment for a sock as warm weather starts to settle in. I got a late start because I was trying to knit some Mother’s Day socks and the first pair of socks hit a bit of a snag (I was doing a new construction method) with the heel flap and gusset and couldn’t quite wrap my head around how it was written and how it was supposed to look like (still having issues with it) so I put those aside to knit a new pair of Mother’s Day socks which took a bit longer than I wanted and have become a bit belated.
But the socks I set out to make are Dawn Henderson’s Autumn Dawn socks. I decided to use some KnitPicks Comfy Fingering in Hollyberry. I had knit Dawn Henderson’s socks before (the first being her Apart Together socks) and really enjoyed the patterns and the outcomes. Looking at the pattern and knowing that cables tend to not provide much ease and knowing that cotton doesn’t have as much stretch as wool, I figured I would knit the smaller size but on larger needles. While the smaller size was a hair smaller than I would normally knit for myself, the larger size was larger than I go for. I should have taken the time to swatch and measure things outs.
They don’t fit. I can’t get them over my heel, and so I’m not going to be able to finish these socks as planned this month. I do want to make them and finish them but it won’t be happening in May (I’m not spending the few remaining days spending most of my time knitting). Before I frog and start over, I will take measurements and compare the amount of stretch I have and how much I need to fit on my foot.
But I did make socks this month. These are Dawn Henderson’s Asali Socks in Neighborhood Fiber Co’s Rustic Fingering Yarn in Cochineal (which may be discontinued?). The yarn is single ply, and while I’m still a little wary of the strength these will have being worn as socks, I’m also not too worried. The twist looks a bit tighter and the yarn feels denser than the other singly ply yarn I used (Malabrigo Worsted). My mom is also an occasional sock wearer and so they’d probably wear better with her than with me.
The main thing that interested me about this sock was how the back on the leg was ribbed. My mom has slim ankles and I thought this feature would help them fit a little easier. I also liked the honeycomb pattern going down the front, something relatively simple but providing visual and textural interest.
These socks came together pretty easily. I followed the pattern as written, no real deviations. I did mess up some of the honeycomb pattern on each foot but the honeycomb is busy enough that it isn’t too noticeable at a glance. Overall, I’m happy with how they came out.
This month’s knitting didn’t pan out as expected but I learned something. I learned the importance of swatching and checking gauge, especially fit is important and when the stitch pattern and yarn fiber both have properties that can effect the fit or something and when I’m unfamiliar with one or both properties. I’m not much of a swatcher but it is something that I should do more frequently. With socks it feels easy to fudge since yarn weight and gauge don’t feel like they vary significantly, but they might and going off feeling and intuition not necessarily the best in those cases. Hopefully next month is more fruitful in the knits. I have another pattern planned, but I will revisit these (pattern or yarn or both) and figure it out.
Update (01/22): The red cotton socks will not be made. I had taken measurements and figured out what size to knit to, but I realized I don’t want to make socks out of this yarn, and even if I did, I don’t think they’d be very nice socks. I decided to not waste my time, energy, or yarn when there are others things I’d rather make.