my precious new socks

[cimorene]

So this is actually the 4th skein of expensive merino sock yarn I've bought (Tosh Sock, Malabrigo Sock, Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 which is 20% cashmere as well, and now Hedgehog Fibres Sock), but it's the first one I've used to make socks. I finished them yesterday.

And these socks have changed my life, so consider my previous discussion of how to make ideal replacements for chenille socks obsolete.


cimness' Vestigial

(The previous skeins were used to make hats for me & my dad, and most recently for these incredible gloves that waxjism made me:)


It might seem silly that that wasn't one of the first things I tried, but these yarns have a fair amount of twist, so while they're much silkier than a typical sock yarn (and we have plenty of socks made from those), they didn't seem, when not in sock form, like they would remotely replace the softness and plushness of chenille furry socks, because they're kind of firm and a bit dense in comparison to the typical soft low-twist single-ply yarns.

But they do! The individual stitches are each soft and silky and the texture of them on the feet is nubbly and caressing at the same time. I never want to take them off. They're amazing.

My new dilemma is that making this pair of socks took 9 days, and I want about 10 of them; plus a skein of this shit is > 20€ (that's a bit more than a pair, but less than 2 pairs).

Comments

[hebethen]

Three months of sockmaking seems like a cozy and fruitful endeavor, but the price tag is indeed a bit harder to swallow.

What do you do with the bit-more? Changing yarn in the middle of something as small and fine as a sock seems ordealish in comparison.

[cimorene]

If you do 2x2 stripes you don't have to weave any ends in, or you can save all the scraps up and assuming you use a lot of similar yarns eventually they can be used together. I mean, the gloves were made with the leftovers of my two hats, so that came out about perfectly.

I assume the solid merino base yarns before they were hand-dyed by the people at the above pricey brands are available somewhere, or at least something like them is albeit probably more expensive since it's not at wholesale prices. But anyway, there is probably at least hope that there's a more affordable version somewhere without the hand dyed bit, so I'm clinging to that.

But as for all the time spent sock-making, my problem is just that there are a bunch of other things I want to make, like a blanket I've already started and a sweater's worth of yarn to recycle into another sweater...

[hebethen]

Haha, too apropos the icon :P Not enough hours in the day...

[torachan]

Those gloves look so cool!