the Soxophone Player

These are from the latest bag I cracked open: Koigu KPPPM in colourway P508.  100% Merino; 160m/50g.

And here are some samples of how it knit up:

This pair is size Small, knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400. The colours patterned in a predictable, non pooling manner on the Small and also on the Medium (not shown) which I knit at the same tension.

This pair is size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.

And this last pair is size Large, also knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47, but with tension 1/4 turn looser than for the Medium+.

I added Black Wooly Nylon to all the heels and toes.

These will be great colours for fall and winter. (Hard to believe tomorrow is Sep 1 when the farm is sweltering in the 30′s like the rest of south-western Ontario!)

The small photos may give an impression that these are black and orange stripes, but if you look closely (or in person!) you’ll find a zillion colours in as many shades, as you would expect in Koigu.

I cleaned up a few part bags of Koigu KPPPM.

The first pair is KPPPM colourway 439, size Large knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

I used a purple Wooly Nylon added to the heels and toes to add strength to the 100% fingering weight merino. I was into a third skein – actually a leftover from a medium pair – to complete the Large pair.

The second pair is KPPPM colourway 831, size Medium +, also knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47. I used a green Wooly Nylon with the heels and toes. (The green in this colourway doesn’ stand out in the leg and foot – but if you look close at the heels or toes, you can see it in there!)

I actually squeaked this pair out of  2 skeins. Really squeaked!

On both of these pairs I did a 1×1 rib top of 25 rows. I more typically would do a 40 row mock rib, replace needles, knit two rows and hang the hem. With that type of top I am always into a third skein for anything above size Medium (given the same size leg and foot).

I wanted to see if I could squeak through on two skeins with a different top. (Not everyone buys Koigu by the bag.)

Koigu Knitting Tips

• If I only had two skeins of  a colourway I would shorten my rib top down by a few rows – say to 20 or 22, just to play safe – for a Medium +, but I still wouldn’t attempt a size Large or bigger with only two skeins. I would, however, do a size Large if I had enough leftover of a different colourway for the heels and toes. (I allow ~ 3 grams per heel or toe to knit without fear.)
• I find it prudent to crank a little slower – not Noro-slow, but not with reckless-abandon to avoid snagging the plies.  In particular if using the large hooked needles – which I have more or less permanently installed on the Legare 400.
• My notes from earlier days suggest knitting at a looser tension than my standard 4 ply setting. But for the last while I’ve been knitting at my standard setting with no problems. Not sure if the yarn changed over time, or I did!
• I always add Wooly Nylon to the heels and toes with a 100% wool yarn. To be honest, I’ve not tried it any other way, so maybe I’m just making extra work for myself, but in any event it gives me peace of mind! (If you wear unreinforced Koigu socks, I’d love to hear  your observations.)
• The Dryer. I have a pair of Koigu socks that I’ve put in the dryer virtually every week since before Christmas 2009 – definitely not recommended on the Koigu label, but I wanted to know ;o)  Over time the colours have definitely objected to their time in the dryer (faded), but the size of the socks remains the same.

Wooly Nylon

I get my Wooly Nylon online at Threadart. They carry smallish cones, but I haven’t yet found a source of larger cones that will ship to Canada. They have (or at least did have) an eBay shop and I got a good deal on collection of 50 colours.

OK. This is definitely the worst sock photo I’ve ever taken!

The socks are knit from Koigu KPPPM colourway P803.  100% merino, hand painted. 175 yds/50g.

I knit 10 pairs, took pictures of them all, and all the photos are !%$^%&&$#%.

I googled the yarn and found many pictures. They are all as horrid as mine!

You’ll have to take my word on this one – it is a beautiful yarn in pinky-peachy-orangey-reds. It is loud but not crass (IMVHO).

I thought blues were giving me trouble in the photo department, but reds are definitely an even bigger challenge.

I knit a bag of P803 (22 skeins).

I got:

(besides another lousy photo)

1 pair of Small, 4 Mediums, 2 Medium +, 2 Large and 1 XL, for a total of 10 pairs.

I can easily get a size Medium sock from 1 skein, but I can’t quite manage a Medium +. I run out part way through the toe.  But the ends from Small and Medium are sufficient to finish off the larger sizes.

However – if I were buying by the skein, I’d definitely need to buy 3 for the larger sizes, for my standard pattern.

An interesting thing with P803 – striping pattern made by the dark tones replicated pretty much the same in all sizes – even though I used 2 different cylinders (54, 72) and a different tension setting for each size.

Curious!

Over the knee socks take me a lot more time to knit, so when I’ve got the 100 needle cylinder set up I like to make ‘a number’ of pair and resign myself to a smaller pile of inventory to show for my work.

Here’s a selection Koigu KPPPM that I chose for this project:

From the left,

• 3 x 50 g P853
• 1 x 50 g P822
• 1 x 50g P706
• 1 x 50g P731

The colours are fairly true on my screen, with the exception of the P822 which looks much less green than it really is.

When I finished a pair of Size Medium Thigh Highs, this is what I had left of the 6 skeins:

About 28g of the P853, and 3 g of each of the others.

The spool of mossy green Woolly Nylon is to show what I used to reinforce the heels and toes. Normally I try to match (given my limited library) the heel and toe colours, but this time I went with pairing to the greens.

Here is the top of one sock, knit with the 100 cylinder on the Legare 400:

Here again, the colours are fairly true except the P822 which again looks less green than I think it really does.

The hem top is knit in a mock rib 9:1, then all needles in once the body of the sock begins. The blue yarn is the scarp yarn I used to run the top off the cylinder. After the hem top I’m working in 10 rows of each colour.

And here is the sock in progress after rehanging on the 72 needle cylinder.

I’m a good portion down the leg in this photo. You can see the blue scrap yarn where I attached the top onto this cylinder.

Shortly after this photo, I switch to a 3:1 mock rib on the top of the instep (removing 9 needles) to narrow the pre-heel and foot. I replace those needles 4 or 5 rows before the toe to make the kitchener easier.

You can see I’m using a 6-hole topper. (Reminds me, when I was a kid at camp we had a 6 holer!)

In theory this makes all the colour changes easier because each yarn is already threaded. In truth its a bit of a nuisance. I think it may save more time if  knitting  from cones, but knitting from rewound balls I found I had to knit fairly slowly to avoid the yarn swooping as it comes of the ball – and grabbing the yarn from the strand adjacent.

It’s actually the first time I’ve used this piece of original equipment that was standard with the Verdun 47.  I’m going to experiment with better yarn containers and whatever tweaking I can think of. The colour changes themselves were MUCH faster. Also some yarns swoop more than others (can you say NORO?) and some less so, and that may be a factor when deciding if to use this or not.

ANYWAY….here are the socks:

Now on my screen, my notorious colour B (P822) is closer to reality, while the hem top colour appears much darker than it it – which is a truly rich concoction of wines and purples and greens.

I haven’t knit Koigu for bit….so I dove into the stash and came up with a bag of KPPPM colourway P802.

Partly because I’m on a turquoise kick at the moment. And partly because I’m overdo for a Koigu fix.

It’s a win win!

Here are some samples. All have heels and toes reinforced with Wooly Nylon:

This pair is size Medium, knit with the 54 cylinder on the Legare 400.

And this pair is size Medium+, knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

And this pair is size Large, also knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

The Wooly Nylon shows a little more with the finer stitch count on the 72, but I always use as close a colour as I have for the reinforcement, so if it shows, it coordinates.

In the Medium and Medium+ I used a mock hem top, but in this size Large example I used a 1×1 rib top.

I struggled with the photo editing in these pics. What appears as a deep blue in the photos is actually a very deep rich turquoise. No amount of fiddling with the photos could take me where I wanted to go! (One of these days I’ll find a photo shop program, for under a zillion dollars, that does what I tell it to do….)

I’m glad I dove into the Koigu. I pulled a few more bags out while I was at it, but I’m going to do some more turquoise first ;o)

I seem to find myself in the midst of a knee sock binge.

Binges are good, at least in sock knitting. I find it easier to repeat a pattern several times -or many times – because I get a rhythm happening and don’t have to keep looking at my crib sheet.

This pair is knit with Koigu KPPPM hand painted merino in 4 colourways: 608P on the foot, 439P for the cuff and dark strips, 436P for the medium tones, and 402P for the lighter tones.

I needed one skein plus 15 grams of a second skein for my dark colour,  about half a skein for the lightest colour, and about 2/3 skein for each of the other two.

Besides being on a knee sock binge, I’m on a subset binge of size Medium +, so that’s what this pair is, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.

KPPPM  is 100% merino. I reinforced the heels and toes with Wooly Nylon.

A reprise of my Koigu Rainbow Socks – this pair in size Large. My main colour is P702, and the heels/toes are P132. My rainbow stripes are: Red P622, Orange P831, Yellow P712, Green P525, Blue P416, Purple P142. The main colour is one of the newer speckle yarns, and the other colours were ‘one-ofs’ that I picked off the showroom shelf at Koigu.

This pair is size Medium +, changing the heel/toes colour to # P622.

Both sizes are knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.  Heels and toes are reinforced with Wooly Nylon.

Koigu KPPPM, 100%  Merino

Main colour – #P439; 2nd colour and heels/toes – #P219; 3rd colour -  #P402;

The heels and toes are reinforced with a pale pink Wooly Nylon (from Threadart.com).

Size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47 CSM.

OK. I’m transitioning from struggling/fighting/cussing aryle work to feeling a groove with it and enjoying it. (Well, except that black pair that kept trying to smack me down!)

The argyles are still taking a lot longer, as do any of the ‘special knit’ socks but I know this newly developing skill will provide respites from production knitting along my path.

Not to mention, a great new use for the scrap drawer – each diamond is taking quite less than 5 grams of sock yarn.

Here’s putting my Koigu Mori ends to go use in a sock scarf.

I knit the scarf with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47. My hem top, heel and toe are the same colour, and then I alternated the 6 other colourways I had for the stripes, knitting each for 18 rows, and repeating the sequence 6 times.

Using my regular tension, this gave me a scarf ~ 74″ long.

I’ve been licking my computer-wounds by diving into my stash of Koigu Mori.

Here are some samples:

The bottom two pair are size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47, while the rest of the pairs are size Medium, knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400.

Koigu Mori is 50% Merino and 50% Mulberry Silk. It is definitely a ‘premium sock yarn’, retailing for ~CAN$25. per 50 grams (185 yards).

I was able to easily get a pair of Medium + from two skeins. There would not be enough for my size Large with two skeins though.

Mulberry silk is supposed to be a higher quality silk. I’m not an expert on this, but will attest that it is a fine feeling yarn!

Because silk is less elastic than wool, I loosened my tension 1/4 turn.

The kolours are koigulicious. Really, anyone who wears these socks should clamp Ott Lights to their knees, so that  – when they are trucking around – folks can fully realize their beauty!