My Striped Socks With Koigu Yarn
A self-made pattern project.
Day 1 – I created a sock design with the leftover Koigu yarn from my Kentia Wrap project. It’s 100% merino and would be lovely for bed socks. I get cold feet and hands in the colder months.
Having created a few socks now, I played around with the cuff being one knit, one purl rib, and ended up not liking the look, so I started again. I chose to do a twisted rib cuff with 2 knit stitches through the back loop and one purl repeated. That looked appealing.
I adore working patterns with my US1 (2.25mm) Chiaogoos, they are so smooth and the cable doesn’t kink.
DAY 2
When playing around with simple stitches for my sock’s leg, I chose to do a panel of seed stitches.
I knitted 12 stitches of seed stitch in the middle with 10 stitches on either side done in knit stitches, on the sock’s front and back. It created a panel I thought would look more interesting. It didn’t. I knew that more complicated stitch patterns like the fish scales in the Pomatomus design wouldn’t show up the stripes.
The colors of the Koigu yarn were getting lost in the seed stitch section. I wanted to see all the colors of their hand-painted beauty. Next time I knit, I’ll rip back to the cuff and the seed stitch panel and start again.
DAY 3
Had a few moments to rip back to the cuff. Bye-bye seed stitch panel.
DAY 4
As I wanted to use 10 different colors for the stripes and show off their colors, I opted for only knit stitches. Hardly a design!!
I started with the pale green yarn and knit a few rows. I’m enjoying seeing all the different colors of bright greens, blues, and white come through.
DAY 5
Having completed the striped section of pale green, I moved on to the darker multi-green yarn. This was one of my favorite colorways in my Kentia Wrap. The different greens of emerald, olive, pale green, and teal green are delightful.
DAY 6
Still working the knit rows with the multi-green yarn.
DAY 7
More rows of the multi-green yarn were completed and now changing to the dark forest green. The darker color makes a bold statement as it’s more solid than any other yarns I’ll use. I decided to have a small stripe of 5 rows in this colorway, so it didn’t dominate.
DAY 8
I played around with what color to choose for the next stripe. I eventually used the gold, browns, and slate grey yarn. I did 8 knitted rows of this color. I think the orange colorway will be the next stripe.
DAY 9
Eeek! I completed not one stitch today.
DAY 10
Plenty of stitches today. It’s my day off, and I’m happily knitting away and watching Bridgerton. The series has been entertaining so far.
The bright sunshiny yellow yarn followed the 7 rows of orange. I progressed to 12 rows of the white, brown, and pale grey-blue yarn.
DAY 11
The next yarn is the grey and brown yarn. It reminds me of a river pebble. 11 rows for this yarn, then I’m up to the heel flap.
DAY 12
I used a twisted rib stitch heel flap I learned from doing my Pomatomus socks. The fabric the twisted rib stitches creates is dense and comfortable. The heel flap’s right side has the twisted stitch, and the wrong side looks like knit one purl one ribbing. I chose the brown color, which I used for the cuff.
I am still not confident in adapting patterns. For the Pomatomus socks, there were 36 stitches for the heel flap. My socks had 32 stitches. I tried doing slipped stitches on the edges so they were easier to pick up when doing the gusset.
The slipped stitches weren’t correct. I should have swatched this section. I kept bumbling along having edges that weren’t as neat as I’d have liked.
DAY 13
Continued with the heel flap
DAY 14
Continued with the heel flap.
DAY 15
Finished the heel flap and began the heel turn. For turning the heel, I used the instructions from Hermione’s Everyday Socks but had to swap the knit rows to purl rows and purl rows to knit rows.
It was a bit of trial and error as I had to rip the heel turn back a couple of times.
DAY 16
Picking up the gusset stitches went well on one side, but the other doesn’t look neat. People say we notice our mistakes more than anyone else will.
I mean, who’s going to notice? The yarn I used for the gusset was the yellow and greens colorway. I used that yarn until the completion of the gusset.
DAY 17
The last of the 10 colors was the next stripe. It is white with flecks of turquoise and red. I think I’ll continue the color selection of the leg for the foot.
The toe will be the same brown color to match the heel and cuff. Knitting knit stitches are very soothing. I can see how people learn not to look at their needles when doing very basic knitting.
I’m yet to achieve this mastery. It takes practice and confidence.
DAY 18
Today was my day off, so I was able to do lots of knitting. I finished most of the foot, now all that’s left is the toe. I continued using the same order of colors I used for the leg.
DAY 19
A little bit of progress today. Not much to report.
DAY 20
I’ve finished my first sock! The colors look lovely, and they meld together nicely. Onto the second.
DAY 21
I casted on my second sock today, and started with the cuff. I had a bit trouble remembering what stitches to do, so I had to rip it back a few times. Luckily I figured it out, and I’m off to a good start.
DAY 22
Managed to sneak in a few rows.
DAY 23
This is where I’m up to, the dark green color section of the leg. It’s already turning out quite well. I’m excited to finish, but I still have a way to go. Stay tuned as I update this post with my latest progress.
As I knit the second sock I’ve noticed that the time it takes me is less. As the number of rows of different colors have already been determined by the first sock, this makes the second sock easier.
DAY 27
Now up to the twisted heel flap. I am trying something different for the second sock as the first heel flap wasn’t as neat as I would’ve liked. I looked up how to slip the stitches so you had a neat edge to pick up the stitches when you do a gusset.
DAY 30
The heel flap and turn now complete. The edges of the heel flap did not create a neat finish. I will have to practice this technique.
DAY 36
I got spent most of my day off knitting the foot section of the second sock. I am now up to the toe.
DAY 38
There is not much light brown yarn left to knit the toe. I am hopeful that there is enough. I have serious doubts that there will be.
As I predicted the yarn didn’t make it to the end of the toe. I’ve decided to use the darker yarn to finish off the toe. Depending on how it looks will determine whether I rip back the light brown yarn in the first sock to match the second sock.
I am thankful and happy that the darker yarn looks good. I am now off to rip back the first sock’s toe.
When I started the ripping back of the first sock’s toe I was didn’t like pulling out the neat kitchener stitch. It always takes me a bit of time and I still haven’t committed the steps to memory.
Day 39
The darker yarn has now finished the toe of the first sock and using the kitchener stitch the toe is closed. I do love the kitchener stitch. It is so clever how it gives a seamless finish.
I love how the colors shone with the stockinette stitch. It shows the hand-painted beauty of the yarns. The 100% merino is soft and warm on my feet. I’m happy to complete another pair of handmade socks.
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