More socks

Gosh darn it I am having fun.  Every time I dig in the big bag of bits, I find more combinations that will make nice pairs.  I am also finding that I need less yarn than I think to make a pair, so I can peel out particular lovely colour choices that just make me happy.

That is what happened with this sock.

I started looking seriously at the bin of mostly cotton sock yarns the other day.  Most of the colours remind me of jeans and denim, one range has orange and red with blues or greens and denim stripes and the other, a mottled all over print.  I also had this huge ball of a wool and bamboo Trekking sock yarn that I really wanted to use up.  There was a lot of yarn, far too much for a single pair of socks.

I had started by knitting the toe patch (garter square toe), with a yarn that had deep denim colours, meaning to just mix it up.  Nest up, I popped in a stripe of the pretty light blue colour.  There was a lot of this light blue.  I realized just how much as I was working.  Along with the sandy yarn in the same mottled print and the big ball of white sock yarn with bamboo and wool, there would be more than enough for a pair of socks. Plenty. I put the striped denim bits away and went with what worked.  

I have to say, I love these.  There is something about the crisp white beside that pastel blue that just makes me happy.  It just makes the most pleasing end.  Now that sock one is done, 

I realize that it would have been even better, if I had popped the taupe in a little differently, either as a couple of rows in between the white bands, or something, but oh well.  Too late now.  But I do love these.  They are our winters snow.  Crisp with a sad and sorry bit of brown from all the warm weather we had this winter, with a fresh topper of snow that means it all looks right again.  It is the story of this winter in one sock. Me like.

I was thinking I ought to post a few more technical details about what I am doing as I make these socks.  So here are some details! 

I am using a doubled join to make the yarn changes crisp and clean and to cut down on the amount of end weaving that needs to be done later.  The link should take you to a post about a doubled join technique which, as you can see, means the only finishing needed is to snip of the ends for a quick clean finish.  And unless your feet are really, really sensitive, (most aren't) you will not feel that little bit of doubled, particularly if you place the join part on the side of your foot.     

The yarns used for this pair are two colours of Meilenweit Cotton Fun, a blend of wool, cotton, and nylon and crisp white of Trekking XL, a bamboo, wool and nylon blend.  

Still having fun.  Still loving knitting on socks.  Making fantastic headways on getting the big bag of bits to be a not so big bag of bits!