Sock Making - 27 October 2024

As we near the end of October I proudly present the first sock I’ve knitted using Lidl's sock yarn. I’ve briefly told you about the yarn here. I now have 72g left of the 100g ball. I’m really surprised how little yarn I've used for this middle sized sock.

I'm very pleased with the patterns the yarn makes by itself. The muted colours are also very reminiscent of a cold snowy day. I’m not so convinced about the quality of the yarn though. The sock in the photo above is displayed in a cardboard blocker to make it look neater. You can probably see how some of the stitches look a bit like ‘holes’.

I found the yarn to be thinner than the 4 ply sock yarn I used for instance here. I also found the yarn was a bit uneven : sometimes it was a bit thicker and some sections, especially the lighter colour, were thinner.

I haven’t wet blocked this sock so I don’t know yet what will happen when it's damp; perhaps the yarn will bloom. I found a very clear explanation of what ‘blooming’ means in this context here.:

Blooming refers to a yarn characteristic to puff up and become fuller looking when washed and/or dried. What happens is that the overall yarn diameter increases a little, giving a "halo" and softer effect, and the offset is that the length diminishes to compensate.

One implication then is that the slightly thinner fabric may then become a bit denser which is what I need, but the explanation given also refers to the length perhaps becoming shorter. Shrinking would be very sad indeed but as usual this is a type of experiment so I’d put it to experience. I’m looking forward to finding out what happens when the socks are washed.

_{Getting ready to graft the toe section of the sock; 11 stitches left on each needle.}

I now need to quickly start the second sock and finish it in the next 3 days to complete this project within Socktober. Incidentally I didn’t know that there was an actual charity event that went by the same name. I’ve found out that Socktober was started in 2011 by Brad Montague who was very aware of the needs of homeless people in his town. You can read more about it here.

Many of the You Tube channels I watch seem to use the term Socktober loosely. They just seem to refer to sock-making starting this month before the end of year festivities, rather than the charity event. Some Youtubers may donate socks (or hats) anyway but they do not make reference to that charity event.

Thank you for reading !