Cashmara Blood Red
This is Cashmara by Fly Designs, in colour Blood Red. 80% Merino 10% Cashmere 10% Nylon. 390 yd/ 4 oz. Washer and Dryer friendly.
Cashmara is a little heavier gauge than some of the fingering weights I knit, and in my notes I have suggested, to myself, a tension of 1/2 turn looser than my standard setting. Deep Red is a pretty intense dye, and I probably could have set the tension a further 1/8 looser, but I started with 1/2 and so that’s how I continued… it was a wee bit stiff to crank at that setting but not too stiff to manage…I did hold my weights down with more force is all.
And by stiff, I don’t mean the feel of the yarn… this stuff is about as sweet as it gets!
This pair is size Medium +, knit with the 72 needle cylinder on the Verdun 47. It has a 1:1 cuff, and an Eye of the Partridge square heel with gussets.
I’ve done quite a bit of tweaking to the original pattern I had adapted. I’m very happy with this now. It still certainly takes longer than a standard CSM heel, but at least the fighting part is over.
Wow–they are beautiful & look hand knit. I am so impressed.The eye of partridge flap & square heel are my favorite when hand knitting.I may have to take lessons from the Master & get some of that yarn from Pat.
Beautiful, wonderful socks!
What made you decide to work socks with a heel flap? Fit?
So lovely. I would love to take a workshop from you to make this heel, anywhere (Lacey, perhaps?). I was in Lacey two years ago and met Pat. She’s a do it all kind of girl. My ideal class would be to select yarn among the amazing line of sock weight yarns from Pat and promptly take it to your class.
I think it was a bigger struggle than my ‘first pair” of csm socks. The original pattern I was trying to use was supposed to be a csm pattern but the heel turn was actually written in ‘dpn speak’. No doubt you hand knitting types would have recognized that right away, but I spent months trying to pound a square peg into a round hole! But, if nothing else, I’m persistent.
No, although I expect the fit would be better on a thicker-ankle. I just like the look of the square heel, especially the Eye of the Partridge stitch. And, its nice add a little a variety to my knitting, even though it’s way way slower. I expect you could probably knit this pair as fast on your dpn’s as can I on my csm.
Well thanks for the comment. I’m not sure it would be a good workshop to do. It would be a VERY LONG lesson. Mind you, I hope to get quicker with practice.
Cashmara to me is the ultimate sock yarn, and Pat does a great job on the colors. Yes, I second coming to Lacey to teach a class. We really have a good time. If you need a ride from the airport it will not be a problem. Good friends, good food, can’t beat the Lacey retreat.
One of things I really like about the cashmara colourways I have is that they lend themselves to textured knitting so well. With patterning yarns the presentation seems optimized by plain knitting – fancy stitch work is virtually lost.
Alas, Lacey is a long way for these old bones. I haven’t even managed to make it to a crank in a mere hour away. Such is life on the farm ;o)