Spectrum Socks

I was asked on KR to post a picture and comment about these socks. I did think that I posted a photo last fall when I finished them, but I can't find anything, so I'll talk about them again.



To start off, I do know that the colors aren't a full spectrum, but I really didn't want to call them Rainbow Socks, just too Pollyanna-ish. They started when I stopped in a yarn shop and saw a display of Noro Silk Garden Lite. I have a weakness for Noro yarns, because of the great colorways and fiber blends, so there is a goodly amount of regular Silk Garden in my stash. Enough for 2-3 sweaters, at least. I've never been tempted by the light weight before, because it is in the same colorways, just a sport/DK version of the yarn. Looking at the LYS display, I realized that I was immediately seeing 2 skeins that looked exactly alike, which in my Noro experience is rare unless one is looking at their solid colors. The colors in the variegated colors have such long repeats that generally the skeins look very different, and it would be hard to have matching socks with going through a lot of yarn.



I'll just mention as an aside that I don't usually care about my socks matching each other, fraternal twins are fine with me. It's just that when I saw those two skeins, I realized that I could have matching socks, in wool/silk, in a great Noro colorway. So I brought them home, and cast on that night. Here they are, with very long cuffs because I like them long and with toe-up socks you can just keep going-

The perspective is a little off, I have size 9 feet and these feet look smaller than that. I used size 2.5 Brittany wood DPNs, and the sock fabric seemed looser than I had expected, probably because of the high silk content. Silk is a great substitute for nylon in a sock blend, though, it wears like iron, and takes dye beautifully.

I've worn these socks a lot since they were completed 7 months ago, and they still look just like new. This yarn isn't machine washable, of course, but I have lots of handspun socks that have to be washed by hand, so this isn't a problem at all.

Fast-forwarding to the current time, I've been working on a few pieces spoken for as pattern sales or for other uses, so I don't want to post pictures here unless/until it's been okay'd. I haven't even photographed the finished pieces, though I'll try to remember to take pictures of the next couple.

I did do some spinning lately, though, and have a pair of socks underway. While its nice doing things that I'll get paid for, I'll be looking forward to being able to just knit anything I want, with no deadlines. What I really need to do is begin to build a portfolio of designs that can be offered up as needed. I'll get the camera out for the spinning and socks soon.