Thursday, April 24, 2008

A Sock and a Request (Adriana)

I finally FINALLY finished my second Naive sock! Long-time readers will recall that I knit the first one last summer. Then it sat by itself all winter long until I decided to make it part of Mission Possible.

It is now done and here are the pictures to prove it!

naive1
View from the top (it's hard to take pictures of your own feet)

naive2
The cables go on and on and on...

naive3
The sexy gusset

naive4
Cleo gives her approval of the new socks

The pattern is, of course, Spillyjane's Naive Socks (This Must Be The Socks) (pattern free here)
I dyed the yarn myself a few years ago.

Comments: this is a really awesome pattern (and I'm not just saying that). Once you get going it goes really quickly. After a few repeats you start to be able to see where the cables are supposed to twist which makes it good bus knitting. Unfortunately I did something a little wonky with the first sock so I had to repeat it with the second one in order for them to match (I don't care).

In other news, I FINALLY learned how to cable without a cable needle! I figured out the left twist by myself on the bus one day and Grumperina's great instructions helped with the right twist. Now I actually enjoy doing cables, which is seriously awesome. I just wish I'd learned before knitting Trellis.

I have a request for you all. I'm going to be away from home for a month this summer (I'm stage managing Pete's Fringe shows this summer and we're hitting the road!) so I've decided to only knit socks while I'm away. This should help me make a dent in my sock yarn drawer. In preparation for this trip I want to buy a new skein of sock yarn, but I'd like to support an Indie dyer. I looked at a bunch of different yarns but I'm totally overwhelmed and need recommendations.

Here are the ones I've looked at:
Artsygal
Mama Blue
MadelineTosh
Sunshine Yarn
Fearless Fibers

With so many gorgeous sock yarns out there you can see why I'm having trouble picking one. If you have any recommendations please let me know.

7 comments:

Bertha said...

Wow, those came out great. I wanted to knit these before, but I really want to knit them now!

It's hard for me to recommend only 1 of those dyers as I'm familiar and in love with all of them except artsygal (which I haven't tried yet). I have a deep, deep love of Mama Blue & MadelineTosh, so I'd probably pick one of those...If you're in a semi-solid mood I'd go with the Mama Blue and if you're in a variegated mood I'd go with MadTosh, she has a ton of pretty variegated colorways! But I'm sure you can't go wrong with any of them!

Kendyl Young said...

IF I were to knit socks - and I don't, yet, I am in lust with Sundara Yarn http://sundarayarn.typepad.com/sundara_yarn/2006/04/somewhat_solid_.html Lust, I tell you. It's almost enough to make me knit socks. Almost.

Heather G. said...

If I were to pick, based on just pure reaction, I would pick MadTosh. Yum!

Anonymous said...

Psst... I caught you sending a few visitors my way with this post. That means you're entered in my giveaway for free yarn! Good luck! ;)

Lovely socks by the way... I've been loving the pinks lately..

Anonymous said...

Love the color of those socks! It's so gray and gloomy here today. That pink brightened things up a bit!
I haven't worked with any of those yarns. You'll have to let us know what you chose and how you like it!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad you finished the socks! They look great!

I've never worked with anything from independent dyers before (aside from Deegu, of course,) but maybe chekck out www.threeirishgirls.com. They're the ones witht he sock club that I'm designing a pattern for.

Anonymous said...

Hi Heather,
We can't get on our email. but we are in Aigues-Mortes and have tied up in front of the medieval town and tower. Great fun. It is May Day today. say hi to everyone.