As I mentioned in my Holly Berry Socks Post I had knit a pair of socks for my mother for Christmas. After I knit her a pair for her birthday last year and she asked for another pair I thought it would be a nice Christmas present, and well it wouldn’t be Christmas if I wasn’t knitting something for someone… But I was kind to myself this year and these were the only knitted present I did this year.
These socks are based on the same pattern that I use for my socks and are technically the third pair of socks I have knit for my mother, but unfortunately, the first pair that I knit for her didn’t end up fitting her! Despite the fact that she has smaller feet than I do (but only by one size), she has different shaped toes, and the socks that I knit the first time were too small for her, but ended up fitting me, because the toes were too pointy for her feet. The joys of making your own garments etc means that you can customise them to be exactly what you need.
These have been knit using Drops Fabel in the Salt and Pepper Colourway. This is a really nice budget yarn, but don’t forget it comes in 50g balls, not 100g, and don’t get caught out with this like I did the first time I knit from it! These socks were knit one from each ball so I have two small “scraps” left from these, but annoyingly the two balls were wound in different directions so a center-pull from each ball resulted in the pattern running in different directions on each sock, but thankfully the pattern is random enough that you can’t really tell unless you look really closely.
This wool is a very nice option for socks and if I didn’t have enough wool to knit socks for the next few years I might get myself some of this for my own socks. It comes in a selection of “prints” and plains which is really nice especially if you like having contrast toes and cuffs etc and also to help use up those extra bits of balls as well.
There isn’t much more to add about these socks since they are basically repeats of my socks but with far fewer increases in the toe section to make a much blunter toe, and slightly fewer stitches in the round than mine. These have been knit with a taller cuff than I normally knit on my socks, and more ribbing than I would normally do, since this is what mum prefers. Personally, I don’t like knitting ribbing that much but since I have switched knitting styles knitting ribbing is far less work and so wasn’t such a slog as normal. But it is noticeable that knitting the plain section of the cuff is much quicker than knitting the ribbed section.
Vital Statistics:
Pattern: Based on Vanilla Socks by Jo Torr, But modified to Mum’s measurements.
Yarn: Drops Fabel in the Salt and Pepper Colourway
Amount: 68g in total.
Needles: 2mm circular needles. (100cm and 20cm)
Interesting what you said about the Drops yarn. I have used sock yarn from them before but would never have thought to check that both balls were wound in the same direction.
Yeah I wouldn’t have thought to check either. Ooh well live and learn.