Osborn Fiber Studio

With a little extra effort and about eight inches of welted ribbing, June’s socks are done, only three days late.

Pattern Review: This pattern, “Country Socks,” from Folk Socks, has some secret charm to it. On the needles and off the foot, they appear composed of a plain, wide rib. But put them on a foot:

And you see the wee welts, which add some interest to the purled bit of the ribbing. I find this perfectly charming, in a subtle way. These socks are perfect to show off a variegated yarn, probably even a more wildly colorful yarn than the one I used.

I had my issues, though. It is possible that I have an unholy death grip on the needles every time I knit socks, but Nancy Bush’s sock patterns tend to give me gauge trouble. I cast on with perfectly normal fingering weight yarn and US 1s, with the 72 stitches required to make a calf-length socks. The idea with calf-length socks is that you cast on more stitches than normal, then after 6 inches or so, you decrease down to a normal number (like 64) for the remainder. Here’s the thing: with 72 stitches, after a few inches of sock I realized I could barely get my foot into the sock. This had a plus: I would save myself time by just not making the socks calf-length. The minus: I had to do the entirety of both socks with a 72 stitch circumference. This might have had something to do with my slowness. Another small quirk: On the cute little contrasting heel, I think she should have had you switch a row sooner. As it is, one side of the heel turn doesn’t look so good, with half the main color showing from behind the decreases.

Was this enough to bother me intensely? No. But as a person newly writing patterns myself, and knowing how fussy we knitters can be…. well. If Nancy rings me up before she releases the next edition of her book, I’ll have some notes for her. (Excuse me while I scoff inwardly at the thought.)

Yarn Review: This little gem is a skein hand-dyed by Jolene of Cloverhill Yarn Shop. She uses the same base that I used to use, Plymouth’s “Happy Feet,” which offers a nice hand and generous yardage. I didn’t know quite how this would blend, since it was originally dyed more or less as green on one end and purple on the other, but the result blew my mind. It’s like amethyst nestled in beds of emeralds. This is a study in one way to get a muted multi-colored blend – even though she used two very different colors, they are mostly the same value (depth of color). Lurve. These socks are mine all mine.

I cast off just in time to start some sorta-patriotic socks – sorta because they have the colors designated “American,” even though the pattern they will use is Ukrainian. Maybe they are immigrants.

I think these will satiate my desire for something more complicated.