The Slipstream Socks

Slipstream Socks - link to purchase

These toe-up socks were originally published as the Socially Distant Socks two years ago, at the height of the Covid epidemic when no social gathering was complete without the words ‘socially distanced of course’.

Times have moved on and although I loved the socks, I didn’t like the name and the reminder of some very difficult times. I was also unhappy with a little aspect of the stitch design so I took the opportunity to re-work them and also rename them at the same time.

They are now the Slipstream Socks - because with these regular stitches they really do slip quickly off the needles, and the regular smooth ridges really reminded me of the patterns that water makes as it smoothly slides around obstacles in it’s way.

The yarn is the beautiful Eden Cottage Yarns Brimham 4ply in the Pumpkin Seeds colourway

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

Plain feet and party legs

The phrase ‘plain feet and party legs’ has been going around in my head for weeks now, for some reason. And as I cast on for a nice soothing pair of self stripe socks I found myself thinking about jazzing them up a little. Not too much mind - we don’t want to go wild- but just a little something to make them a little more party-like.

And so I came up with the Introverts Party Socks - a nice plain foot to cruise along and then a slightly jazzier cuff with a single chevron front and back to help show off those colourful stripes. Slightly bolder introverts could always run the chevron along the length of the foot as well if feeling sufficiently brave.

Like all the best ideas this was spontaneous and totally unplanned. So many folk have asked about a pattern though that I thought I could run this as an informal (and free KAL) over on my Instagram and of course, here. Please bear in mind though that this has not yet been through my usual testing/editing process so a few errors may linger here and there.

I will be making this available as a paid for pattern on Ravelry in due course, but for now if you’d like to join in our quietly festive, Introverts Party Socks KAL then please watch this space for updates or follow me over on Instagram.

Revisiting old patterns - old friends

Do you ever knit a pattern more than once? Do you have an old favourite that you like to knit over and again or are you of the ‘so many patterns, so little time’ school of thought.

I usually waver in the direction of the latter. Between designs and knitting for myself and family I rarely have the time or the inclination to revisit old patterns. But just recently i found myself doing just that.

I had a lovely skein of self stripe - this is Witchy from London House Yarns - and i wanted to knit something just a little bit more complex than a plain vanilla sock. But not too complex that I’d take the emphasis away from the lovely seasonal colours. Then I remembered an old design of mine and thought it would be fun to re-knit it.

The Expresso sock was named, partly because the original colourway was Cafe au Lait (from the now no-longer-dyeing Berry Colorful Yarnings). That made me think of coffee and the habit my lovely Nana had of referring to an Espresso as an Expresso. In her mind it was an Expresso and nothing would dissuade her. That seemed apt, as this combination of infrequent cables really made the sock zip along - adding to the self stripe fun.

Do stripy socks really go faster? I’m not sure but all I can say is that I cast this on just to do the toe yesterday - and despite my best intentions to finish a sweater WIP I’m already at the heel.

And just for fun - this pattern will be free until midnight Wednesday Oct 23rd (GMT).

Just use code EXPRESSO

Socks - do you block yours?

It’s always a bit of a tricky one and something that people can have strong opinions, on but I love the process of blocking in general and blocking socks in particular. There’s something very pleasing about seeing two weirdly shaped tubes suddenly and magically become sock-shaped on the blockers. And yes, I know that you can just block them on your feet (and I certainly do this with my kids socks) but it is much easier to take a photograph of your finished sock masterpieces when they are on blockers as opposed to when they are on your feet - ask me how I know?

For me, its part of the whole closure that comes at the end of a project. In the same way as you come to the end of a good book and you are reluctant to move on to the next one whilst the characters are still alive and kicking in your mind. Coming to the end of a much loved sock project is much the same. These socks in the photo - knit with yarn from London House Yarns - accompanies me on most of my summer journeys and our happy family memories (and a bit of sand) are knit into each stitch of these socks.

I like to take my time, tidying up the loose ends and emptying out the project bag of assorted bits and pieces. In an ideal world I’ll also put my needles neatly away but I know in practice they often end up randomly in a drawer waiting for me to rifle through them in a desperate search for elusive 2.5mm needles.

Do you have any “end of project” rituals or things that you like to do at the end of a project - or is it just me?

How to knit from a sock blank

What on earth is a sock blank I hear you ask? Simply put, it is a machine knitted flat piece of fabric which you then unravel and knit with. It really is that straightforward. Rather than knitting from a ball or skein or yarn you unravel the yarn as you go and knit with it.

This always baffles my husband. "So you are taking a piece of knitting, and turning it back into knitting?" was his puzzled query when I showed him what I was doing. "Why on earth would you do that?". But he has been around knitters long enough to know not to argue and to accept that we are ingenious souls who come up with all manner of intriguing solutions.

By applying the dye to a flat piece of knitted fabric rather than the actual strands of yarn themselves, dyers can produce a fabulous range of colours and effects that would be very hard to achieve otherwise. A gradient-dyed yarn is much more straightforward to produce from dyeing a sock blank than it is to apply a gradient to a continuous 400m length of yarn, for example. Hand dyers can really go to town and have fun with the dye pots and then, as knitters, we get the inestimable joy of knitting with it, straight from the fabric. There is no winding or caking needed. 

The first thing to is to unroll the fat sausage-like sock blank and check if it is a double layer of fabric or a single layer. If it is a double layer it means that you can knit two socks at the same time (should you want to - don't worry - it isn't compulsory). If it is a single layer you will need to knit one sock at a time. Please don't try to unravel from both ends of a single layer - that way madness lies. The sock blank has a right end to pull the yarn from and a wrong end - it will quickly become apparent when you give an experimental tug and unravel a metre or two.

If you do have a double stranded sock blank and you want to knit with just one strand at once you will need to come up with a solution for dealing with the other strand as you work. Either wind each strand off separately into 2 balls before you start or wind the other yarn around a bobbin (or similar) as you work. If you aren't sure, check with the dyer before buying to make sure you get a sock blank that will work for the project you have in mind.

And that's really all there is to it. Unravel the yarn for a metre or so and cast on. The yarn will have the characteristic "kinky" appearance that you get from unravelled yarn and to be honest it can take a bit of getting used to, but the fun you will have from watching the colours play before your eyes will more than make up for it.

Do I need to reskein and soak the yarn to remove the kinks?

This is a matter of personal preference. For me, I'm quite happy to knit as it is but if you know that this would drive you mad then by all means then you can wind the yarn into a skein, soak, dry and then rewind. The only time that I have done this with a sock blank is when I was knitting from a beautiful single layer of rainbow gradient yarn for my Fuss Free Festival Shawl. Because I was knitting at quite a loose gauge (on 4mm needles) the kinkiness gave an unevenness to the garter stitch fabric that I didn't really care for and it didn't fully go away after blocking. Normally when you are knitting socks, the much tighter gauge used tends to eliminate this problem and any slight unevenness in the fabric is normally undetectable after the socks have been washed and worn.

Have I tempted you? If you do decide to go ahead and try a sock blank do let me know.

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