Husband's Berry Socks

A few pictures of the pair of woolen socks I made for my husband. They are a perfect match to the pair of socks I knitted for myself earlier this year, based on the cable pattern of the Nalu Mitts. 

Unlike the yarn for my socks, which I dyed with instant drink powder, for my husband's socks I experimented with acid dyes and I think the color saturation and variation came out even better. Alas, the phone camera does not reflect completely the true colors of the socks - it makes them more pink and in real life they are much closer to wine red.

For our photosession we took advantage of the beautiful scenery we had at our feet during our hike on Lulin last Sunday. We actually had our picnic here, on Dobrinina skala peak, overlooking Vitosha across and the vast Sofia valley down and out.

For the socks I used again my usual sock recipe for toe up socks for husband, with 64 sts, Judie's magic cast on, fish lips kiss heels and stretchy cast off. The twisted stitch cables are mirror symmetrical, placed on the outer side of each sock and at the end flow into the twisted stitch rib of the socks.

Pattern: Nalu Socks (personal pattern, using Nalu Mitts cable)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 70 g

Needle: 2.5 mm

Time to knit: several weeks with breaks

Autumn Socks

I finished a new pair of socks for my husband - nothing fancy, just simple mindless stockinette knitting in the round while watching movies.

The yarn is my tried and true Alize Superwash, hand dyed. For the body of the socks I experimented with a new method for dyeing spots, using a dropper. I think I overdid the yellow in the end and the yarn came out too busy, but on the other hand there is definitely no pooling, which is an effect in hand dyed yarns I try to avoid at all costs, if possible.

As I initially only had 50 g of yarn, I started the socks with provisional cast on and afterthought toes and heels. I later bought a couple of new white skeins of Alize Superwash and dyed a 25 g ball in brown for the toes, heels and ribbing, to compliment the dotted body of the socks. I think the afterthought toes and heels worked well, but I prefer Judy's magic cast on, it gives a smoother form of the toes.

Pattern: Autumn Socks (personal recipe, 64 sts)

Yarn: Alize Superwash, 75 g, hand dyed

Needle: 2.5 mm circular needle

Time to knit: three weeks

Golden Lichen Socks

I just finished a new pair of socks and these are my new most favourite! Still enthused by the dye job I did for my mother's socks, I decided to mix the greens, oranges, yellows and browns into a new pair of socks for myself.

My inspiration were the golden lichen on the oak trees we noticed during our hike to Pchelina lake at the beginning of the month.

For these socks I used the direct painting method - it is the most slow of all, but provides the best control over the painting process. I spread the skein of yarn, soaked in water with citric acid, on a sheet of stretch foil and gradually painted it all in various hues of earth colors.

Then I wrapped the foil and fixed the dye in the microwave oven.

I'm absolutely loving the result - so warm and balanced, these are definitely my colors!

I divided the skein in two and knitted the socks, following my usual recipe - toe up, Judy's magic cast on, 58 sts, stockinette stitch, fish lips kiss heel, 1x1 rib, Lori's twisty bind off.

Pattern: Golden Lichen (personal pattern), 58 stitches
Yarn: Alize Superwash 52 g, hand dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: 10 days

Although these are almost the same colors as in these socks, the different method of distribution of the colors results in a distinctly more balanced and pleasing texture, without color pooling.

Birch Tree Socks

Last summer I transformed a cowl I had knitted out of self-dyed sock yarn, into a double hat.  I tried to wear this hat during the past winter, but it turned out to be very impractical - too heavy, big and uncomfortable on my head. So I decided to salvage the sock yarn and make proper socks out of it. I didn't use any pattern - just my regular toe up socks with fish lips kiss heels, 64 sts on 2.5 mm circular needles, half ribbing for the feet and full 2x2 ribbing for the legs.

The socks turned a bit too colorful even for husband, who loves orange socks, but he claims they are super comfortable and they fit him perfectly, so he doesn't mind the loud coloring. And anyway, it's just socks.

I named these Birch Tree Socks, as the yarn reminds me of birch trees in the autumn, when their leaves turn yellow and orange on a background of white, grey and black birch bark.

Pattern: Birch Tree socks (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 70 g
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: 3 weeks

Ayliak Socks

Ayliak is a Bulgarian word of Turkish origin, which designates a very relaxed state of mind, an ability to enjoy life while being unperceptive to external pressure, a state of comfort and relaxation.

I cast on my Ayliak socks as a mindless project to work on during the New Year tv time and then in between sweater projects. Recently I find that my best knitting organization is a single big project and one small mindless project (socks) to relax and gather my thoughts and mojo before starting the next big project.

Pattern: Toe-up socks with FLKH and a small 4-sts cable, 60 sts
Yarn: Alize Superwash, 52 g, hand dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm

The yarn I used for these socks is one of the skeins I dyed, trying to break egg-dyes, probably my most favorite of the batch. I like the variation of the colors, the distribution of the nuances is acceptable.

I didn't use any specific pattern, just my usual toe-up socks with fish lips kiss heel.

True to the spirit of the socks, I didn't care much about the fact that my gauge on the second sock was way off, compared to the first one, and the sock was coming smaller - I just knitted one more repeat of the cable pattern. Thus the socks are not quite identical, but so what :) They look nice and comfy and I'm ayliak :)

Christmas Socks

This year I decided to knit socks for my family and closest friends as Christmas presents.
I started early - Ravelry tells me that I cast on my first pair in March and finished it in April. There were periods when I felt like knitting socks and long months when my socks in progress were left untouched. The intended recipients of the finished socks also changed - as Christmas approached I realized that I neither had the time nor the inclination to knit all the socks I had planned, so my immediate family members - husband and children, were crossed off the list, as they receive socks knitted by me regularly during the year. And I'll definitely knit them more socks in 2019.

I love this picture, sent by a friend who truly appreciated her socks:

All of the socks I knitted this year were made out of sock yarn, hand dyed by me:

I've blogged about most of the socks in my Christmas pile, but the last two pairs. The latest is this gradient cherry color pair out of my recent sock yarn dyeing session.

Pattern: Flying North by Maria Montzka, 58 sts
Yarn: Alize Superwash, hand dyed, 60 g
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: 5 days

I like how these turned out and I believe the unobtrusive design compliments the gradient color transitions.

And a pair of men's socks, 64 stitches, my own design, afterthought heel. I dyed the yarn in a long skein, dipping it in denim blue (dark blue + black). To spice the stripes I added some light ribbing texture:

Pattern: Denim Socks (personal pattern)
Yarn: Alize Superwash, 75 g, hand dyed
Needle: 2.5 mm
Time to knit: unknown

For striping socks I prefer the afterthought heel, as it best preserves the nature of the stripes and mirrors the toes of the socks.

50 Shades of Pink

Last week I finally finished a sweater out of hand-dyed yarn I started back in April and I just had to fill with stitches those needles again. I had a bobbin of 300 g of white Pecci Filati Pacchero with a very interesting content - 16% alpaca superfine, 26% merino, 13% viscose, 30% acrylic, 15% nylon. I knew some of the fibers would dye perfectly with acid dyes, some not at all (like the 30% acrylic), but I still wanted to dye it and see what would happen. I wound the yarn into three 100 g skeins and went downtown in search of red dyes.

I applied a two step method for dyeing this yarn - first low immersion dyeing with the four shades of red acid dyes, sold domestically:

• red, 
• scarlet - a bit orangy red, 
• pink - kind of diluted red, I'm not sure the chemical composition is different from the red dye
• bordeaux - which seems to be red and blue and makes for purple nuances.

This is  one of the skeins, dripping wet, after the first stage of dyeing.

After all of the three skeins had been dyed in red, I made some resist knots on the skeins and dipped them in very diluted solutions of grey dye to get a richer palette of shades. The final yarn, dry and ready to knit, is a bit pale, as only about 50% of it took any dye, but I think it's lovely and will make a nice light sweater.

I've made a raw design already and last night I started sampling to get the gauge. The yarn is quite thin - 500 m / 100 g, so I think 3 mm needles for the rib and 3.25 mm for the body make a good texture. I might sample it further with 3.5 for the body, just in case :)

It's been rainy and cold lately

and I have TWO finished projects to photograph and show you. Let's hope it will be sunnier during the weekend.