Pink Socks for M

A couple of weeks ago M requested some socks. Yipppeee! I am always on the lookout for deserving feet to make socks for and M certainly qualifies.



I asked her what sort of sock she wanted and asked her to pick some yarn she liked from the stash. She did a bit of thinking and then sent me a text to say "can I have a pinky colour, light and dark, and can I have them lacey". I was pretty sure that is was the Duet Sock Yarn that had caught her eye - from her description of the yarn and the fact that the yarn was sitting on top of the stash when I got home!

The lacey request was a bit of a problem for two reasons, one the yarn is DK weight, and two it's variegated and would overpower most lace patterns. Not deterred I decided to make a pair using a Cable Twist Pattern from Hello Yarn (which I found around that time being praised on Dave's Blog). It's an easy pattern and the stretchy ribbing means the socks should fit reasonably well around the leg. When I make these again I'll use a bigger needle size (I knit these on 2.5mm - should have used 3 or 3.25 I think for the DK yarn.)


I was feeling a bit bad about not making lacey socks though so I found some more 'pinky yarn' in the stash (Bubblegum from Cazza) and decided to make modified Monkeys. Not lacey per se - but they do feature YO's! As suggested on a knitting forum I replaced the purl stitches in the pattern with knits. This sped up the knitting time and gives a pleasing effect I think.

The yarn surprised me by knitting up in these funky spirally stripes. (I had thought it would knit up more like it did on the heels.) When i recovered from the surprise I realised that a heel flap heel would destroy the stripes.


Egads!

It was obviously time that I bit the bullet and took on short row heels to preserve the spirals. Armed wth More Sensational Socks I tackled the short rows and although there is LOTS of room for improvement I'm ok with the result. I don't think this will end up my preferred short row treatment - but it'll do for a first try.

I'll leave the socks out for M to pick up tomorrow. Hope they fit!


Unrelated to pink socks for M today I received some Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn from Woolly Workshop which I'll be casting on at the first opportunity. This obligatory photo doesn't really give the true colour of the yarns (they are in fact two different colourways) - but I felt compelled to post it anyway!! I've got another colourway on order.

PS - Still no sign of Lyra yarn. Sigh.