Category Archives: Knitting

Wait, it’s now September.  It’s not August any more…. dammmmmm!!!!  I’m a day late!

In my own defence I did actually finish these yesterday, which was still August; but it was like nigh on midnight and the lighting at midnight is kinda not conducive to Un Fashion Shoot of Le Feet.  And I was tired.  I had to wait until morning.  But I got there eventually!

I chose this warm, colourful and cheerful colourway specifically because August has always legit been my least favourite month; the last month of winter, my least favourite season, and it’s so cold and miserable and depressing and always seems to drag on fooooreeeeveeeeer.  So I wanted, nay needed! a project that I thought would cheer me up.  Even so; I don’t want to even go into the details of now these socks were started and unravelled and restarted and re-unravelled over and over.  I think they had four, if not five; false starts.  I had grand fair isle plans, shall we say, that came to naught and got abandoned…  it’s a bit depressing to think about though, so that’s all I’m going to say on the subject.  Instead; look how upliftingly joyful and lovely!  They’re like a warm, comforting, crackling fire for the feet!

I bought the yarn in Japan; it’s the Opal Regenwald 14 or “rainforest” range of sock yarn, in col. 9627 “Sascha – der Sommelier”, and added some blue in the heels and toes; this is a yarn I bought in Haynes, Alaska during our holiday from two years ago; Online Supersocke 100, Vintage Colour; col. 1412.  The heels are alternate stitches of the two colours, with the two yarns carried and crossed over each and every stitch at the back; making them double thickness for a bit of extra strength in an area which always wears through the fastest.  I’m not sure now why I selected this particular blue which doesn’t even match for the purpose but it’s neither here nor there any more since there it is.  The toes are in the straight blue.  I was quite doubtful about the blue after the first heel was finished, but at that point was NOT going to unravel yet again and redo; and actually I like the contrast with all that orangey/crimson-y/turquoise in the end.  Yay!!

I went to great lengths to make the stripes identical.  This is not as straightforward as it sounds; some of the orange sections had four orange stripes, some had five.  There are more than a few joins in there; all neatly woven in on the inside.  Final verdict?  I really love them, the colour is so happy and heart-warming; but phew boy! I am SO GLAD to have finished them!

the box of socks… looking quaite naice I reckon!

and PS; thanks so much every one for your kind and thoughtful responses to my previous post.  I wasn’t trying to complain! honestly! but I really REALLY appreciate all those lovely thoughts.  🙂 xxx

so I have to be honest and admit straight up that Craig and I have been semi-fighting over this particular sock yarn! we both really really love it and wanted it for ourselves so in the end we went online and hunted down another ball of this wool… #secrettoasuccessfulmarriage

Of course there is a story… I saw this yarn in Japan -of course! Japan has the coolest stuff, I’m telling you… Craig was in the store with me and picking up and admiring various sock yarns too; and because he was being so patient while I browsed sock yarn endlessly I promised that I would knit a pair of socks for him if he just picked some yarn.  I mean, that seems fair, right? a pair of socks in exchange for a trip to Japan?!  yeah I thought so too… hehe… anyway!  I had chosen all the yarn I wanted and I went up and bought it.  A little later, and I’ve started knitting it up, and Craig goes, those are my socks, aren’t they?  and I go, um, nooooooo? and he goes, but that’s the yarn I wanted for my socks! and I go, well I wanted it too, and I tooooold you to put some yarn to the basket if you wanted any!  and he goes well I thought THAT one was for me, and I go, no it’s for me! and then he looked quite crestfallen and so did I because I DID really want to knit a pair of socks for him, that he loved.  And so then in an exceptionally generous gesture I thought, because I too really really love this yarn I said oh, ok you can have them, then he said, no it’s ok, you can have them, and I’m like, no I want you to have them, and he’s like, no, it’s ok… well you get the picture.  So in the end, yeah; we went online and found some more, so very soon we’re going to have matching feet … you know when you’re young and newly in love, and there’s a stage where you dress like each other?? well it’s been a while, and actually I’m not even sure we ever ever went through that stage! but looks like we are going to go through it after all…

So this yarn is the legendary Opal yarn, that it seems you can buy everywhere in the world except Australia, grrr… the label reads KFS Kesennuma, colour Forest, or KFS108. and is a really beautiful, verdant array of deep teal, bottle free, olive green, bluey-grey green, and through to a springy leaf green and pure ivory…  I love the way it knits up to mimic a fair isle design, the repeat is just like the yoke of a Scottish or Scandinavian jumper.  It’s my favourite colourway out of all the self-striping sock yarns I bought, because of that clean “evergreen trees in a snowy wintery wonderland” vibe.  I can almost smell the pine needles!

I used my old Patons tried and true basic sock pattern, and carefully arranged the colours to have the heel in all the darks, and cut and spliced so as to have a mostly pure white toe, though just a tiny spray of green at the very end snuck in there too… so pretty!!

the updated box of socks… and I reckon I should have started with a bigger basket!