Argyle Knee Socks
This is a project that was bound to happen.
I am using my own 75/25 Wool/Nylon fingering weight sock yarn, worsted spun, in Clay (main colour), Mauve (2nd colour including heels and toes), and Mouse Grey (3rd colour). All three colours are hand dyed in a low value to give a more subtle type of presentation.
Here’s is a view of the sock machine looking at ‘argyles in progress’. The clothes pins help keep the leading end of yarn changes from getting too slack. Once that leading end has been knit in for a few stitches, the clothes pin can come off.
When I do my hem tops I always lay the leading edge of the yarn in on the second row of knitting, which eliminated the task of weaving that end in by hand later. No doubt I can do the same thing with many of the argyle ends, but for now that’s an extra thing to think about that will muddy my poor brain, so I’m content to hand weave.
But Wo les moteurs….it’s a lot of weaving!
Its perhaps a good thing that these socks take much longer to knit in the first place, because all this weaving would certainly become a log jam in the production line.
I haven’t actually counted the ends, but it took me about 3.5 hours to weave in this pair of knee socks.
The socks are size Medium + (ladies 9 – 10ish) and on a 5’8″ish woman like DW with ‘average’ legs, the hem top should sit just below the knee.
I was hoping you’d show us the insides of a knit pair of argyles. Oy! That’s a lot of ends!
This is so VERY VERY impressive and inspiring! After I get my daily minimum done I guess I’ll try something new too. Like just getting faster at plain basic stripes.
Ah, another ‘daily minimum’ kindred spirit!
I feel guilty when I take the time away from production knitting to learn new things, but I also find that planning to do it after x socks a day, it either never happens, or worse, it happens in a rush with little success. I’m having a hoot playing with new skills knowing full well I will return to panic mode in a few weeks ;o)