August Sock Yarn Review

These are the finished socks from the Sock Yarn Review. The August yarn was The Painted Tiger's Classic Merino, knit on 2.25 mm needles on my standard toffee sock pattern. ( I can't use the term "vanilla sock", because I always think of the Yarn Harlot and her vanilla sock, so it occurred to me that "toffee sock" might just work. Toffee is like vanilla - nothing terribly fancy, but always worth having.)

Yarn content: 100% merino
Skein: 100 g, 440 yards
Needle size: 2.25 mm (US Size 1)
Gauge: 8.5 sts per inch

This is a nice firm sock. I'll let you know how it wears. The dye is nicely saturated and intense, although not a great deal of lustre. It was a joy to knit, as the yarn is soft.

The Painted Tiger has her own website - ThePaintedTiger.com - and also has yarn available on etsy. The Classic Merino is now called Tiger Classic.

Next up: September

Gertrude Skein finished

These are my basic socks with a mosaic leg. The Gertrude Skein colourway is in Blue Moon's STR mediumweight, which makes a dense sock that is very nice for boots or clogs. This yarn is aalways wonderful to knit with - as close as I've found to a gold standard for yarns. I know that in the previous club shipment, BMFA had problems with knots, but this one was knot free.

The pattern didn't work well for me - I tried, mind you, I really did. I got all the way through the second repeat of the Rogue Roses on the leg and then realized that although Iliked the panel, it was difficult to see the roses with all the colour on the sock. I think I'd like a more solid colour for that pattern, so I put it aside for later.

I wish I could convince my kid that colourful socks would be good for her. As far as socks go, she likes any colour as long as it's black.

Next up on the needles - BMFA STR

This was the May 2009 (I think - I'm working off memory here) club yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Wonderful yarn, but I've given up on the pattern. Rogue Roses is an interesting knit, but it and I weren't getting along, so I frogged and now it's going to be my simple, standard sock. It's nothing fancy, but it works.

It seems to me that STR mediumweight is almost a sport weight yarn, so these will probably be winter boot socks. People who live on the prairies need boot socks, so these socks won't get the exposure they might if I were wearing them with Berks, but they'll keep my toes toasty warm.

Not a great photo, but it turned out to be a very nice sock. The yarn was easy to knit, with no splitting, no knots and a good feel on the hands. I know that sounds sort of silly, how it feels on the hands, but if you knit a lot (and I do), how yarn feels makes a huge difference.

This yarn stripes nicely - I like the long yellow spirals - and is much brighter in the sock than it was in the skein. That's a bit unusual, since most of the time, I like the skeins better than the socks.

I'll take better pictures when its mate is also off the needles.

Over the heel

The gusset has been finished. The heel is done over 33 stitches, and as I always try to do, there are three stitch garter edges to the heel flap. (Thank you Charlene Scurch for that hint. After trying it the first time, it's now my standard for a heel of this kind.)

The bands of yellow disappear with the extra stitches, which is to be expected, forming a more mottled set of blue and yellow stripes.

Up the leg

The leg has been finished - although after I took this photo I decided to add another five rounds. I like the way I get nice spiral stripes out of this yarn. The yellow is quite solid, where the blue and white alternate rows between them.

The yarn is quite soft - difficult to know without wearing it how it will hold up, but it is very nice to knit.

On the needles

This months selection - a superwash yarn from Painted Tiger, is on the needles.

A few facts about the yarn: 100% superwash merino, 16 wpi. The twist is not very tight, but after five rounds, there have been no problems with splitting.

As you can tell, I'm a ball winder, mostly by choice. It lets me feel the yarn going through my fingers, and I like the exercise. It brings back memories of being a girl with my hands in front of me, winding yarn for both my mother and my Amma. Since I have no girl at home, I use the back of a chair.

I am using my standard sock for the test knits, with variations for expected gauge. for this sock, I have cast on 68 stitches and the cuff will be K3, P1. The needles are my trusty Pony Pearl 2.25 mm, with a Knitpicks Harmony for the fifth and marker needle.

Now, off to knit.

August Sock Yarn

I like knitting socks. That may be an understatement, but true nonetheless. I also like trying new yarns. Because I live in a small city without an LYS, I buy almost everything online. Most of the time, it's a good experience (sometimes very good), but occasionally I buy a yarn and it's nothing lie I expected. I've also noticed that every yarn seller says almost the same thing about his or her yarn. Yarn is always soft, springy, cushy, vibrant - you know what I mean.

There are also things that no-one ever tells you. How fingering is fingering? One of my favourite "fingering" yarns is more like a sport weight. Another is much closer to lace weight. Almost all vendors say to use needle sizes 1 - 3. I don't know about you, but that's a bit of a difference.

My goal is to test knit a yarn a month. All come out of my stash and I pick into the bin with my eyes closed.

This will be August. It's from the Painted Tiger.