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.

Here’s two new colours from the dye pot.

On the left, Chocolate Brown – I’d call it a Dark Chocolate – dyed at full strength.

And on the right, Sky Blue. This batch I dyed at a medium strength.

The yarn is my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight.

There’s very little variegation in these two batches, which is more easily attained working in small batches – 6 skeins in a 20 gallon pot.

As a general rule, I find that using a dye at full strength give the best ‘solid’ result. Lowest, pale values, I find more difficult – especially if the total amount of dye is under 1 tsp.

As another general rule, I prefer some degree of variegation in the uni colours – its what often distinguishes them as home dyed. But sometimes I like a change!

I did do something different with these two batches – I used Ammonium Sulphate as my mordant, instead of my usual Citric Acid.  The former is allegedly more suitable for getting a pastel-ish hue. (I can’t tell the difference!)

Here’s a pair of socks:

These are a size Medium, knit with the 54 needle cylinder on the Legare 400. The pattern is one I made up for some Harry Potter socks, just in different colours.

Here’s a pair of Ginger Stripes socks. This pair is size Large, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47.

The yarn is my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight in  two values of Bright Orange - full, and medium – as dyed here.

I fiddle with different ways of changing the colours for the heel when knitting stripes.

On this version – where my stripes are 10 rows :

• On the last stripe before the heel I knit 5 rows instead of 10.
• I begin the short rows of the heel in THE SAME COLOUR as that part row – 6 short rows worth (5 would make me change colours moving clockwise, and I’m a creature of habit who likes to change colours on a counter-clockwise row).
• Then I knit the middle part of the heel in the contrasting colour, up until I have 6 short rows remaining.
• I knit the final 6 rows in the colour of my final stripe in the leg. (Well except in this pair – I forgot to switch in the first sock until there were 4 short rows remaining, so I did the same in the second sock.)
• When I begin to knit the foot, I knit 5 rows instead of 10. That 5 rows combined with the final 5 rows of the leg go together to make a 10 row stripe – consistent with the rest o the sock.

If I did the entire heel in the alternate colour, then I would have a half width (5 row) stripe on the back half of the sock, above and below the heel like this:

Not that there’s a huge difference. I’m just sayin’.

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.

Here are two pair of socks knit from two different fingering weight yarns at the same dye rate and both with washfast Chestnut Brown.

The yardage is comparable-ish, but the spin is and wool treatment is quite different.

The pair on the LEFT, size Medium, in my 1 ply soft spun (almost no twist) 70/30 Wool/Nylon, untreated.

The pair on the RIGHT, size Large, is my 3 ply combed as well as carded 75/25 Wool/Nylon, treated (similar to superwash).

It’s interesting how the dye is taken up differently.

The feel of the socks is quite different too, even though they are fairly close in composition.

The treated yarn feels more like a typical dress sock knit from many of the socks yarns on the market. Not quite a merino, but smooth and soft and easy care. A trip to the dryer will not lead to disaster ;o)

But the soft spun have a whole different thing going on – they feel more cushy, and keep my feet dryer,longer. Like a gym sock, but lighter weight. (The yarn is actually a single ply that I normally have plied into a two ply Sport weight yarn for my Duro Sport milled socks.) I think the last of twist results in a loftier yarn, with strength added by the nylon content, not the twist.

I like a heavy wool sock for farm work and winter work, but I’m loving these one ply socks for hiking, kicking around the town and simply every day use. Because they are not treated I need to make sure they don’t accidentally end  up in the dryer, but because the wool is from my Columbia Sheep (low felting) they launder easily on delicate – where every sock I knit goes!

Tomorrow will be BROWN DAY at the farmer’s market…

I always seem to be running short of man socks for my inventory.

Here’s a good candidate:

This is my own 75/25 wool/nylon fingering weight dyed in Prochem’s washfast acid dye colour Clay. A skein is ~ 400 yards.

I guess in the photos they look pretty much the same.

The top pair is size  Large and the bottom pair is size XL. Both knit with the 72 cylinder on the Verdun 47, but I knit the XL pair a quarter turn looser on the tension.

The Large pair came easily from one skein. Actually, the XL pair did too, but it was a nail biter with only about a foot to spare! (I wasn’t so worried as I knit the Large pair first and had leftover at the ready.)

Clay is a little on the boring side as colours go, but the variegation gives it a more interesting look. There are lots of guys who would consider these WILD ;o)

I went on a merino knitting binge a while back, but still had a few balls wound, unknit, and taking up precious real estate. That’s now been taken care of and a tub is now reduced to a baggie of ends.

Here is a sampling of Size Mediums, knit with the 54 cylinder on the Legare 400. The yarn is my own home dyed 100% merino fingering weight and I reinforced all the heels and toes with Woolly Nylon.

From the left: Grasshopper with Twilight accents, Twilight with Grasshopper accents, Charcoal with Lobster Bisque accents, Pewter with Black accents.

There’s a small pile waiting for toes to be closed too. Maybe tonight.

And here’s a Wine Sock made with assorted left overs. The Lobster Bisque is 100% Merino fingering weight; mixed with 75/25 Wool/Nylon Grasshopper fingering weight, and a crocheted tie string in 100% worsted weight, Plum.  The liner is heavy felt I had made at the defunct Lindenhoff Wool Mill.

This isn’t merino – it’s my own Columbia 2 ply Mule Spun (worsted weight) that I dyed in the same colours as the merino. DW crocheted this Tea Cosy from a book I gave her for Christmas – Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior. Base colour is Grasshopper, flowers in Lobster Bisque with one in Plum.

This is Foot Loose by Diamond Yarns in colour #16 (some call it Midnight).

And my picture actually looks like the yarn, on my screen anyway.

Foot Loose is 90% Merino 10% Nylon; 175 m/50g

I just cracked this bag, so this is the only pair I’ve knit so far – size Medium, knit with the 54 cylinder on the Legare 400.

I’m pleased with how the colours act on this size, and we’ll have to wait and see if they also behave on the 72 cylinder.

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!

This is a silk blend sock yarn from Online Linie 2 Trend Collection – Supersocke Silk Color. This colourway is # 0111

55 % Superwash Merino 25% Nylon 20% Silk, ~ 200 m/50g

The top pair is size Medium, knit with the 54 cylinder on the Verdun 47.

The lower pair is size Medium +, knit with the 72 cylinder on the Legare 400.

I’m always suprised there isn’t more silk blend sock yarn on the market. Especially this year when silk seems to be enjoying an ‘it’ status. I guess it’s an expensive fibre and may not be in the target markets sited by the commercial  sock yarn companies.

I bought, um, several colourways of this series, but chose to knit this one first because I was on a turquoise kick.

Knitting requires a wee bit less tension to accomodate the lower elasticity of the the silk, but its a breeze to work with. Very consistent gauge, very very few knots (I think it was only 1 in a bag of 10),  lovely feel that you would expect from a silk blend.

Silk yardage doesn’t go as far as pure wool or many other blends, but I was able to get a Medium + sock easily out of 50 g, and very close to Large (not shown).

The most interesting thing about this yarn to me, is the red/white jacquard mini-stripe that is set within the broader solid colour stripes. If you look close (click for larger if you like) you’ll see that these mini stripes are actually a partial stripe – they don’t go right the way around the circumference. This  happens on both the Medium and Medium +, and what I haven’t worked my brain around yet – on the good side you can see this stripe is just one row, but it takes two rows of knitting to make that row, and the jacquard lines up with itself on both rows, whether knitting in 54 or 72 stitches.

I’ll have to contemplate that further when my brain is more receptive. For now, I’m thrilled to see a new twist that I hadn’t seen before!