Sunday, January 29, 2017

Pretty, Patterned, Cotton Socks

Hey everyone, hope you are all getting in lots of creative time. We have been pretty busy here but I have managed to do some crafting here and there. Since I knit my first pair of socks, see here for that post, I have been a bit sock mad. There are just so many amazing patterns out there, many with really beautiful designs. I was itching to try a decorative pair but wasn't too confident in my sock knitting skills.

I did finally pluck up my courage and settled on a free pattern that looked relatively straight forward, link here. The pattern called for 100% cotton yarn, luckily I had a bought a couple of balls of pastel variegated cotton yarn fairly cheap, so I decided to make a start. I went with the medium sized pattern, as I have long but narrow feet. They turned out fairly well, even if I did make a huge number of mistakes along the way, so here they are!

Hand knit cotton socks, finished knit socks
Finished 100% Cotton Hand-Knit Socks, Blocking

At first I tried the k3p3 ribbing for the cuff, but didn't like how it turned out so I changed to the optional ribbing pattern instead. This worked out much better for me and I was happier with how it looked. The next step was the 4 row repeat for the design, here is where things got tricky. I'm not sure how many times I had to rip back and re-do sections because I made a mistake, but it was a lot.

Hand-Knit Socks - 4 row repeating pattern

It was really nice when I got past the heel turn and was only doing the pattern repeats on the instep rather than the whole sock. I kept track of my rows, using a great app called Knit Tink. This meant I knew exactly how many I needed to do for the second sock. Unfortunately I did made a big error when I was closing the second sock. I use kitchener stitch to finish off the toes and I did it in the wrong direction on the second one. You can see the difference in the photos below, the first was done correctly, the second incorrectly.

Correct Kitchener Stitch Close

Awful Kitchener Stitch Close

They both should have a rounded toe, opps. I didn't want to start trying to rip back the closing stitches, so I left it alone. These were fairly challenging to knit, I needed to constantly pay attention to what I was doing, otherwise I ended up making errors in the pattern repeats. However all the stitches are knit or purl, just the order changes to create the design. I'm pretty happy with the result and the mistake in the kitchener stitch doesn't seem to affect how comfortable they are.

I have continued to add so many more amazing sock patterns to my Pinterest boards so I'm sure you will be seeing more on my blog in the future. If you want to keep up with some of the patterns I'm adding to my to-do list, follow along with me on Pinterest. That's all for now guys!

27 comments:

  1. Oh, these turned out so well--love the pretty yarn you used! Have fun with your latest addiction :)

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I hoping that my love for knitting socks will use up some of my yarn stash :D

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  2. Congrats on the sock finishes. They look great.

    Linda

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    1. Thanks so much Linda. They were fun to knit, if somewhat frustrating at times.

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  3. Very nice finish. If you hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have seen the toe difference. Love the yarn you picked and the pattern. Socks are on my learn-to-do list.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. With all the great videos out there I don't think you will have any difficulty in learning this. They are great fun to knit.

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  4. Love the color, so pretty. Despite the ripping out, they look great. Lucky you to have this skill of making socks!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. Socks always seemed impossible to me but having seen some tutorials and giving them a go they are actually fairly straight forward.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I'm pretty happy with the result, just the kitchener mistake annoys me :D

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  6. They look great! I just love how the stripes come out when you knit them up.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. It was a fun yarn to use and I got another couple of balls in earth tones so I'm looking forward to working with that in the future.

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  7. Even with the little oops with closing the toe, these are fabulous! What a great finish.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I was so annoyed with myself when I saw the mistake and I couldn't decided whether to rip it back or not but I was afraid if I did I would make a complete mess of them so I left it alone.

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  8. Congrats on finishing another pair of socks, that's wonderful! They're a beautiful colour and sound like a good learning experience as well.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. They definitely were a great learning experience. I'm actually learning a lot about knitting techniques from socks, which I didn't know before.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Sally. I really like the pastel colours of the yarn.

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  10. Ooohh, they look amazing! I love the colors. They must be super comfortable!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. They are very comfortable, as they are 100% cotton they are actually fairly heavy but I do love them.

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  11. Your socks are amazing, the pattern fits the yarn really well =) That reminds me, that I should knit again (at least I found that pair I started a while ago when I cleaned my living room). If I knit sock the usual way from top to toe, I usually mess up the heal and the toe, so I am knitting the socks toe-up most of the time :D
    I certyinly won't complain if you show more sock pictures =)

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. Yay, so happy to hear you found your WIP socks. I hope we will be seeing them on your blog at some point. I haven't tried toe up socks yet only top down.

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  12. Great socks, nice yarn, well done.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I have already moved on to knitting another pair :o

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  13. They look amazing! I love your colour choice too :)

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  14. Lovely color. They're so pretty.

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  15. They turned out great! I love the color :)

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Would love to read any comments you would like to leave. Thanks for brightening my day :)