Friday socks

Friday seems like a good day to talk about socks, wouldn’t you say?  To be honest, I can talk at length about socks any day of the week, but Fridays are good days because if you’re planning some knitting time to yourself over the weekend then it gets you thinking about it in plenty of time 🙂

I wanted to show you my pair of Emergency Socks that I started back in February as I finished them this week and their new owner is very happy with them!  Emergency Socks are socks knitted to a simple pattern (the Basic 4ply Socks pattern is perfect!) that sit in a project bag ready to anywhere with you.  I often keep a WIP in the car in case I get stuck in a queue somewhere, and I’ve usually got something on the go ready to be picked up for when I’ve got a few minutes to knit but don’t want to have to concentrate on anything.  Emergency Socks are also a really good way to use up stash as you can choose from your carefully curated collection of yarns and know that there’s no pressure to get the socks finished at a particular time.

I haven’t knitted a pair of socks for my husband for longer than either of us could remember, so I asked him if he would like the next pair of Emergency Socks to re-stock his sock drawer.  I’d had this yarn in my stash for a long time so it was definitely at the top of the list for knitting – it’s John Arbon Exmoor Sock, a lovely blend of 60% Exmoor Blueface, 20% Corriedale, 10% Zwartbles and 10% nylon so they’re not quite no-nylon socks but they do feel much more like that type of sock to knit – and when I showed it to my  husband, he immediately said that he’d like a pair of socks knitted in this lovely shade of red.  (It’s called Peggles.)

I don’t usually block socks that are going onto family feet but I wanted to wash these ones as the stitches were a bit uneven, and I knew that the yarn would bloom and soften too, which I thought would be nice for a first wearing.  The photos below are before (on the left) and after – I’m not sure if you’ll be able to see the difference but I can, having seen the socks before they went into soak.

After their bath, they toasted dry on the Aga lid.  This photo is everything I love about our Aga – it’s warmth is drying socks, there’s bread proving underneath the orange Herdy tea towel (yes, it does match my mug!) and the tin at the back has the remains of a Christmas candle in it and the scent is still going even though the wick has long since burnt out.

Here they are, all nice and dry …

There’s a strange lump part way down the foot because I’m using adjustable blockers and there’s a band holding the pieces together.  Don’t the feet look big?!  My husband doesn’t have huge feet and for a few minutes, I was worried that I’d got carried away and he was going to look as if he had clown feet, but was worrying before I needed to.

Ta dah!  Just the right size and my husband is very happy with them.  And look at that woolly fuzz – you don’t get that with bought socks, do you?  These are a very welcome addition to his collection of “proper” socks and I am expecting him to get a lot of wear out of them!

I’m really glad to have those off the needles … but now I need a new Emergency Sock!

I’ve been back to my stash and found some more yarn that’s been sitting for longer than it should be.

This was a gift from Kerry at Ginger Pink yarns and I am afraid I’ve been a bit guilty of hiding it in the “too nice to use” part of my stash.  I’m trying to stop doing that as I should be the one to get the pleasure from knitting yarns, not leaving it as part of my inheritance for my girls 🤣

You may not be able to see the label too well as the light was reflecting on it, but Kerry produces plant dyed yarns in small batches using natural plant dyes.  This gorgeous gold colour is produced from apple leaves – I would never have imagined that, I would have guessed apple leaves would be green!

I hadn’t noticed until I started writing this post that the yarn composition for both this yarn and the John Arbon yarn is the same, so I think Kerry must use Exmoor Sock as a dye base – how lovely!  I am very happy to be using the same yarn again, and it is just as nice to knit up second time around.

You may have noticed that my skeins are wound into balls rather than cakes – we’ve been glued to a TV series called The Diplomat and given the choice between finding out what happened next and leaving the room to spend time getting my swift and winder out to turn the skein into a cake … well, you can see which option I chose!  I always work from centre pull balls so that they don’t roll about and collect more cat and dog hairs than they need to, and I’ve got a video on how I wind them by hand here as part of my Two at a Time Socks tutorial.

And now … this lovely sock is going to sit in my Emergency Socks project bag so that I’ve always got something to work on when I need a quick knit.  Sorted!

I’ve got one more thing to tell you about before I leave you in peace for the weekend, and it may or may not be of any use – although if you are someone who likes to have a printed knitting magazine in your hands, then I might have just the thing for you!  Our Media, who publish The Knitter and Simply Knitting have come up with an offer of 6 issues for £15 (The Knitter) or £16 (Simply Knitting) which makes them £2.50/£2.67 per issue – that’s a significant saving on what you’d pay in the supermarket!

You get free delivery to your door plus you still get whatever the free gift is for that month – you know, I am still using some of the things that I have got as free gifts from magazines over the years!  Stitch markers, notions containers, needle gauges … they’re usually useful gifts and to have those and a magazine to read full of articles and really good patterns (I know this because I have designed socks for them 😉 ) for less than you’d spend on a takeaway coffee.  Oh, I know that’s always the example but it’s quite amazing how much we spend on drinks away from home these days!

I need to tell you that this is an affiliate link so if you choose to take out a subscription and are a new subscriber then I will get a small payment – I’ll be completely honest, I am looking every way to reduce the ads on the blog and I would much rather have offers like these available instead!

You can click below for the offer that appeals to you:

Simply Knitting: https://bit.ly/4iWOG4d

The Knitter: https://bit.ly/4kWhQBP

plus I’ve put links in the sidebar to the right so you can always go back to them another day.  I’ve realised that you can’t see the sidebars if you’re on a mobile so I’ve created a new page called “Offers” and put that into the menu and then all my links can go in there.  This subscription offer is available until 5 July 2025.

Please note: after the first 6 issues, the auto renewal fee is £34.99 for 6 issues for both Simply Knitting and The Knitter.  You will get a confirmation email after checkout to confirm this for your records.

And that’s me done!  Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll catch up with you next week! xx