Sock Addict

Hello, my name is Jacquline and I’m addicted to making socks. I’ve crocheted my fair share of slippers, and at the beginning of December I whipped up a pair of spa socks to keep my feet warm on the way home from getting a pedicure. But lately, I’m all about knitting them instead. Last week, I mentioned I had put off weaving in the ends of my first knitted sweater in favor of learning fair isles and how to knit socks. Well, here they are!

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We did an interview with the lovely Cathy Carron last year when her book, Happy Feet, hit the shelves, and it was exciting to try my hand at one of her sock patterns. I chose Festive Feet, which is made top down with an afterthought heel, using Spud and Chloe Fine Yarn in Hippo and Calypso. I made a couple of minor changes to the pattern, like making the heel match the toe and not doing the alternate heart pattern for the second sock.

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I love how the socks turned out. The Fine Yarn is made from 80% superwash wool and 20% silk, and the fabric it makes is soft and squishy on my toes. Conquering the color work on the socks turned out to be not as bad as I’d anticipated. Managing my yarn was a lot different from crochet, but once I got the hang of it, fair isles was so zen for me. I even started a knitted sweater dress done in fair isles. Sadly, that’s on the back burner while I’m in sunny Puerto Rico for the week. Socks make better beach knitting.

Speaking of which, you might’ve caught sight of our new sock pattern on my instagram. Just like the Shersocks, Megan-Anne did the math and I did the color charts. This new pattern will release as a special Valentines day gift for you. So, keep an eye our for it in February!

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Another thing I enjoyed about making socks, which Megan-Anne thinks I’m a total weirdo for, is the Kitchener stitch. I could do that all day. The afterthought heel, on the other hand, was awful. I hated it. I knitted a bunch of tiny socks for my Christmas garland over the holidays and tried out other heels, every single one of them was more fun than the afterthought heel.

So tell me, what aspect of knitting socks do you enjoy the most? Is it the successful turn of a heel or maybe the thrill of pulling out the scrap yarn when doing a seamless toes?

~ Jac
That is the sound of my skin sizzling.