Claudia Hand Painted

So here's my progress - first sock finished - not that I should be surprised, given that it's a very simple sock and this is a very nice yarn to knit. The tight twist keeps the stitches even and means the stitches don't split when knitting quickly.



The colour is nicely saturated and even throughout the skein. The repeats are short, so there is no striping and no noticeable pooling, even around the gusset - not that I mind pooling, but I know some do.

No knots. I like that.

July Sock Yarn Review

This month' sock yarn was decided some time ago, but given the workload of early July, (I hate summer sometimes), this is it.

Claudia's Handpainted - on a Louet Gems base. I know already I'll like this yarn, because I like Louet Gems. It's a tight twist and holds up well for socks, gives good stitch definition and stands up to the manipulation required for cables or any other intricate stitch.

I'll need to add the photos later, because I'm working on my husband's Mac and haven't the faintest idea how to re-open Firefox so I can get to my photos without getting away from this post.

I'm the person who loves the Mac commercials and can't stand the machines.

June Sock Yarn Review - and Happy Canada Day

Finished. Finally. Not that it is so difficult a sock to do, but June can really be the silly month. Thank goodness for sleeping in on Canada Day.

Here's a photo of the finished sock.



The colourway is Franklin's Panopticon, one of the Color Commentary series honouring knitwear designers. This colourway grew on me as I knit it - I confess to not having been thrilled about it in the skein.

The yarn lived up to Lorna's reputation - smooth and consistent. There were no knots. The yarn is a little finer than I like, but the sock feels dense enough to wear well. I could go down a needle size, but I don't think it would be necessary.

One thing I was amazed at was how good the yardage was. Now, I confess this sock is five rounds shorter than my usual plain sock, but check this out: this is the second sock and I had just started the toe decreases.



That's pretty good value.

Stats:

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock
Composition: 80% superwash merino, 20% nylon, put up in 50 g skeins
Needles: 2.25 mm
Pattern: Butterscotch Sock

Koigu. I love Koigu

Here are my Waterfall Cable Socks. This is a design I first worked out three summers ago when I was first knitting socks. I don't even remember where I got the stitch pattern (probably Vogue Knitting), but when I first knit it, it looked to me to be water tumbling over rocks - hence the name.

The yarn is the wonderful Koigu KPPPM, colour 703 - a pale purple with flecks of both purple and the occasional orange.



I like this yarn. I really like this yarn. It has a great hand, feels good on the feet, and so far (knock wood), wears really well. I like the way the yarn is dyed - almost too much colour for a cabled design, but not quite. If I have a complaint (and it's a small one), it's that the skeins are small and I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn for a cabled pattern, even for my short feet. (I did - crisis averted.)

My only other complaint - and it's really not a complaint, it's an observation - why is it so hard to find this yarn in Canada? It's Canadian yarn!! I have nothing against buying from Americans, but why should I?

June Sock Yarn Review (yes, again)

Still Lorna's, but a different colour. Franklin's Panopticon is the first in Lorna's Color Commentary Series. These aren't colours I'd necessarily choose myself (good thing we're all different), but so far I'm liking this one.

I've done a Toffee Sock in Lorna's earlier, so I chose another simple sock - a Butterscotch Sock to show off the yarn. The Butterscotch Sock has a 2x1 rib for the leg, then five rounds of plain before an Eye of Peacock heel flap. The 2x1 rib is good and stretchy, with a little less purling than a straight 2x2.



You can see from the finished sock that it's easy to see how the yarn will work up, even on the ribbed leg.

The best laid plans

I had planned to do Red Rover, but because I have already made a Toffee Sock in Lorna's, thought I'd do something different.

This is as far as I got before I decided it wasn't going to work.



It's a seed stitch rib - nice enough and I liked the leg, but thought it was getting a bit more complicated than I like for a review - I want the yarn to show itself off, not the design. And then, I made the mistake of forgetting I was working over 72 stitches, so by the time I did a heel flap over 40, I was too far gone to change my mind. Stubborn isn't my middle name for nothing. (My friends used to say that I should use the word "determined", not stubborn. I believe my kid's version was "pig-headed".

So this is what I did instead. I changed colours to Franklin's Panopticon. I like the colours - maybe not my favourites, but so far, the yarn hasn't let me down. Soft, no knots - perhaps a little finer than I would prefer, but it knits like a dream.



Hard to go wrong with Lorna's. The only thing I don't like is there are simply too many colours.


The Red Rover was too complicated, so this is a plain 2 x 1 rib sock - not quite vanilla - that's why it's butterscotch.

June Sock Yarn Review

I'm not finished reporting on May's socks (they're done - they're just not photographed), but here is June's yarn for review - one of my old favourites - Lorna's Laces. I know already this is a tried and true yarn - the colours are good, the yarn is very high quality, and I have never had a pair of socks turn out bad.



I almost put it back in the box when I pulled it, but then changed my mind. When I started doing this, the idea was that I would pull from my yarn box with my eyes closed - the only time I would put back a yarn would be if I had already reviewed it. I have knit with Lorna's before, but I haven't reviewed it, so this will be the month.

Lorna's, don't let me down.