SOCK FLATS

My previous post was all about patterned sock yarns, but a few years ago some yarn manufacturers came up with a new cool idea for getting colors and patterns onto hand knitted socks. White, undyed sock yarn was machine knit into a little scarf-like affair called a "sock flat" or "sock blank". It was then dyed into interesting patterns and colors at the factory, or you could buy it undyed and color it yourself any way you liked. Then the "flat" or "blank" was unraveled and re-knit into a pair of socks. What fun!

 The top photo shows a commercially dyed sock flat by Conjoined Creations, and the sock resulting from half of it. Truth be told, I was pretty disappointed. The colors on the flat were rich and lovely, but the dye didn't really penetrate deeply between those stitches. The resulting sock showed plenty of small white undyed flecks, and the colors seemed pale and washed out in comparison to the flat. The yarn was also stiff, inelastic, and scratchy, and not much fun to knit up.

 My next attempt was with an undyed sock flat. These are still available for sale, and can be purchased HERE.

The flat was fun and easy to dye up.

I unraveled, then wound one of the balls with reverse colors just for fun.

The resulting socks were (naturally) fraternal twins, but fun to knit up. The yarn was soft and pliant.

Sock flats were, for a few years, the only way to get long gradual color shifts onto socks. But ultimately I lost further interest in them because it seemed no matter how wild you made the patterns on the blanks, the results in the sock were stripes or flecks. Or flecky stripes, or stripey flecks. The flats were far prettier and more interesting than the socks!

If you would like my free generic pattern for all of the socks shown in these photos, go HERE.

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PATTERNED SOCK YARNS

I'm on a sock jag again. Maybe I've been on a sock jag my whole life. I always have at least one sock on the needles, and often have three or more going at a time. It got me to thinking how much I love patterned sock yarns. It wasn't too long ago when sock yarns came in solid colors only. BORING! The only way I could stand to knit up a sock in only one color is to make it in a complicated stitch pattern. I've done it more than once, but still find it boring. I NEED COLOR!!!!!

First there was sock yarn dyed up with short color changes, known years ago as "variegated", but commonly called "hand painted" nowadays. These were fun to knit up, and usually resulted in random stripey patterns. At left are socks from Mountain Colors Bearfoot.

It frustrated me that the color changes occurred randomly, sometimes forming stripes in one sock and puddles in the next. I devised a way to puddle the colors in every sock (top photo)-- and Sara's Colorwave Yarns was born. Details are in a previous post HERE.

The yarn for the sock shown at top is available for sale HERE.

Next were yarns which knit up in stripes and small checks- these were wildly popular when they first came out! The sock in the photo is an older version of Regia 4-ply, but there are still many colors and styles available HERE and HERE.

Then came sock yarns with longer and slower color changes. I love these! There are many brands available now, but these happen to be Fame trend.
You can get self-striping yarn with sharp color changes now too! Check out these from String Theory and Knitpicks!

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FRATERNAL TWINS AGAIN

This is my favorite trick to use up one ball each of two complementary colors. The yarn is Koigu KPPPM.

HERE is a rather different way to do it, from an earlier post.

Below is my daughter proudly wearing her Haruni shawl (previous post) on prom night.



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THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, BUT I'M OVER IT

I love this pattern! I like the ferns in the central part, but mostly I love the leafy border with mossy lace panels in between. This is my third "Haruni". The pattern is available HERE, and there are previous posts with the first two projects HERE and HERE.

For this one I used Debbie Bliss "Angel", a lace weight silk mohair blend. The yarn is delicious, but very slippery. I was shocked to discover that if I started in on this project early in the morning my fingers were too clumsy to work this! I also found it somewhat of a burden to make a big project with plain white. Easy on the eyes, but boring. I need color!

This one was a (very belated) birthday gift for my daughter, for her prom night. Maybe if I live long enough I will get to see her wear it for her wedding. Maybe.



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T SHIRT EXPERIMENTS

I have always been a big fan of tie dyed T shirts. I absolutely admire the wonderful artists who can make these. The photos above show three of my favorites that I have acquired over the years. I wish I could say that I made them myself, but now that I have tried to make some I can really appreciate how difficult it is to get patterns and colors like these.

Whenever I dye cotton yarn or crochet thread, I always put dye on a blank T shirt or two just for fun. The results have been spectacularly boring! The colors run together in unpredictable and unflattering ways, and the patterns usually result in simple blotches. Here are the latest two attempts at T shirts. One failure...



...from a distance it looks like I rolled in the chicken coop! Close up it has interesting speckles (click the picture to enlarge). I made this one by scattering dry dye powder on the wet shirt, then rinsing it off. If you do this yourself, please be aware that the dye powder is extremely dangerous stuff to inhale and take appropriate cautions!

And one modest success, made by pleating and banding the fabric. The white circles were made by tying the fabric around small pebbles.


If you would like to try your hand at tie dye shirts there are inexpensive kits available at any craft store. Make sure that the shirt you purchase is 100% cotton or the colors will be very pale! With some simple precautions this makes a good summer camp project for kids.

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DYEING DAY: MORE INSPIRATIONS

These and more beautiful crochet threads are now available here:

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BULLETPROOF

Here is the latest from my hat jag, the Tasseled Fez from Charlene Schurch's Hats On!. It is knit in what I would consider a very firm gauge. In other words the stitches are very tight, making for a warm and windproof hat. Quite a wrestling match to knit, but I like the results.


The crown of the hat lends itself well to the three needle bind off technique (worked on the right side) for constructing the points. I also love this technique (worked on the wrong side) for shoulder seams of sweaters. HERE is a pretty good video tutorial.



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