Cortado Socks - Cosy, quick and DK weight

The Cortado DK weight socks - click here to purchase

If you are a fan of speckled yarn and cushy, cosy DK weight socks then look no further. The Cortado socks are knit cuff down with 1 skein of DK weight yarn and with a straightforward, 4 round repeat they knit up so much faster than you might expect.

If you are lucky enough to be at Unravel this weekend you'll be able to see these socks in person. Gem of The Little Grey Girl is launching her fabulous new DK yarn - Coveny - in some beautiful colourways and I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on an advance skein.

Having knit fingering weight socks for so long, it's such a treat to whip up a satisfyingly quick pair of cosy DK-weight socks - so much so that I'm eagerly planning to cast on another pair as soon as possible.

My husband - who never normally notices my knitting much - was particularly taken with these and casually enquired whether a 'speckled sock' might be in the offing for him too. As he is a larger-footed chap I normally approach socks for him with a degree of trepidation but at the speed I managed to knock these out I think he might have a fighting chance of a new pair by Easter.

If you are an email subscriber please check your inbox for an exclusive discount code. If not please use the code EARLYBIRD for a 15% discount - valid for 24hrs only. And if you’d like to join my email list to be notified of future offers please use this link.

Tips for perfectly matched stripy socks

#SocktoberTips #2
Top tips for perfectly matching stripy socks - without the hassle of knitting 2 at a time

1. Wind yarn into 2 X 45g balls before you start - with 10g left for heels/toes. Or use 10g of contrast yarn.

2. I prefer to work toe-up as I find it easier to get a good match.

3. Work a short row heel to avoid longer rows (and thinner colour bands) over the heel. The Fish Lips Kiss heel works well.

4. If you like your socks to match perfectly look for indie dyers who sell matched 50g skeins - @muststashyarn is a favourite. And here in the UK Needle and Fred also offers this type of yarn as does Ripplescrafts, although they always teens to sell out very quickly

Socktober Tips #1: It's all about the yarn

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Of all the countless articles and endless advice written about sock knitting I feel that the one thing which should be top of the list, rarely is.

What am I talking about? The yarn of course.

You can have the perfect stitch pattern, the perfect needles and create socks that are the perfect fit with amazingly matchy stripes. But none of that matters at all if the yarn isn’t up to the job.

A lot is written about so-called sock yarns - often taken to mean a 4ply or fingering weight yarn which usually (but not always) is a wool blend with up to 25% nylon. This often leads to the assumption that this is the only type of yarn suitable for sock knitting. But in reality it is perfectly possible, desirable even, to knit a sock in 100% natural fibres.

Nylon is added to give strength to a yarn, a job it does admirably. But the same effect can be achieved by adding another fibre such as alpaca or mohair to the blend.

If you want to read more about this and maybe experiment with some nylon free socks for yourself, this article by the Wovember team in conjunction with Sue of Blacker Yarns is a great place to start.

Another crucial factor which is often overlooked is the matter of gauge. People often complain that their socks wear through quickly, especially in high friction areas and may blame the yarn. If this is a problem for you it might be worth switching down a needle size or two. Friction is reduced considerably when the fabric has a tighter weave - the fibres literally have less room to rub against each other - and the resulting sock will be much longer lasting. Knitting socks on 2.5mm needles used to be my default but increasingly I have noticed much better results (and increased longevity of heels/toes) by switching down to 2.25mm needles.

Whilst no one wants a bullet proof sock*, aiming for a slightly denser fabric than you might usually go for could work wonders.

* This reminds me of when, as a sock newbie I decided to knit a DK weight sock on my regular 2.5mm needles. What could possibly go wrong I reasoned - surely you always used ‘sock needles’ to knit socks.

The end result was a pair of booties that quite literally stood up by themselves.

And that’s never a good look.

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What's in a name?

Toe Beans - toe-up shortie socks with a hint of lace

Sometimes a design starts with a name and grows from there. Sometimes you knit something because you like it and the name comes later. Sometimes you rack your brains for a name and end up asking your husband.

This time the name came in the form of ‘feline intervention’.

I knit these super-short trainer socks with a cute lace panel up the front of the foot. It was only after I was trying them on - and Ebony decided to help with the photo that I realised that they look a little like cat paw prints through snow. Toe Beans seemed the obvious name - although I couldn’t persuade Ebony to show his for the camera.

After trying a few different styles of shortie socks I have realised that I don’t like anything around my ankle, it’s a strange sensory thing. Socks need to either be a decent mid-calf length or to stop straight after the heel - I can’t be doing with cuffs flapping around my ankle.

So I knit these how I like them. Toe up, short row heel, tiny bit of lace for interest.

Of course, if you wanted to make them longer you could absolutely just carry on knitting and have a conventional pair of socks with the pattern just up the front of the leg. But as they stand, each sock takes a fraction under 20g yarn, so they are ideal for stashbusting opportunities.

As will be my new policy going forward, the Toe Beans pattern will be available on both my Payhip platform and on Ravelry, but the only links I will be embedding in my social media posts will be Payhip ones until I can be sure that the issues with Ravelry accessibility are resolved.

There is an early bird discount - TOEBEANSEB - which gets you 25% off the purchase price until 24th July 2020, and that will work on either sales platform.

Toe Beans

Stripy socks really do go faster

I’ve been plugging away on a plain vanilla sock - no pattern - for what seems like eons now but which is in actual fact just a few weeks. It’s lovely yarn, a hand dyed sock yarn blank. Dyed to create lovely speckles and splashes of colour as you knit, but if it weren’t for a few strategically placed stitch markers I would feel as though I were making no progress at all.

A recent pair of stripy socks though positively flew off the needles. So much so that I swear house elves have been coming in at night in a scenario reminiscent of the Elves and the Shoemaker fairytale. The magic promise of “just one more colour” combined with a few Netflix watching sessions - DH and I are currently addicted to The Last Kingdom - meant that a few times in the morning I picked up my knitting only to be genuinely surprised at how much I had done the previous night.

I don’t know about the laws of space and time but it seems to me that stripy socks occupy a time dimension all of their very own.

Socktober

October really seems to have crept up on me this year and I can't quite believe we are in to Socktober already. Particularly bad planning on my part as I have 2 shawl patterns on the needles and an alpaca cardigan to finish.

I can't leave the day unmarked though so I'll be raiding my stash and casting on a new pair before the day is out. Even if they don't get finished for a while at least they will be on the needles.

Over on the Everyday Knitter Facebook group our monthly challenge is of course related to socks. There are a few sock novices who will be taking the plunge with their very first pair, as well as more experienced sock knitters who are setting themselves all manner of fun challenges. A tiny bit of my brain (the bit that is wildly over enthusiastic and fuelled by coffee) thought about trying to knit as many pairs as I could this month. Then, thankfully the more rational bit of my brain pointed to the aftermentioned knitting pile in progress and suggested that this might not be one of my better ideas.

Anyway, whatever your level of sock expertise I do hope you'll pop over to the group to join in. Even if you just lurk I hope you will pick up lots of ideas for inspiration and share our love for the way of the handknit sock.