King Cole Zig Zag Socks

Hello, thank you for popping in, you are very welcome here.  This post is going to be all about socks.  I know that some people will consider that to be a very dull subject for a blog post but I beg to differ because handknitted socks make me very excited indeed!  I was once told that after you have worn a pair of handknitted socks, made to fit your feet, you can never go back and I am inclined to agree; it's mostly in the fit, the way they actually hug your feet, but it's also the warmth, that 75% wool (in my case) keeps my feet toasty warm in the coldest weather.  The comfort in a good pair of socks is not to be dismissed.  I'm really not very rock 'n' roll, am I?

So, this year I have knitted three pairs of socks using King Cole Zig Zag yarn, which is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon, and I thought you might like to see them.  I bought the first ball myself to knit a pair of socks for The Mathematician, something to remind her how much her mum loves her while she is away.  She asked for a pair with a ruffle at the top which she could pull out over the top of her ankle boots rather than a cuff and I was delighted to fulfil that wish because knitting the cuff is my least favourite bit of the venture!  So, I knitted eight rows of single rib before moving straight on to the heel flap, which I always knit in eye of the partridge stitch.  (Sorry, I've just realised that this may be a foreign language to some of you, please don't give up here!)  Once the sock was finished I went back and picked up stitches around the cast on edge to knit the ruffle.  Here are the finished socks.

The Mathematician was delighted with them (I think, she may have been pretending but if so, she's a bloomin' good actress), which made me very happy indeed.  However, I was a bit disappointed with the yarn.  You see, I got this far and then found that the yarn had run out and a new piece had been joined with a knot (harrumph!  Who wants an uncomfortable knot rubbing against their foot?) and the new piece did not continue the colour pattern, it had just been joined randomly! 

Horror of horrors!  I really can't cope if the socks don't match so I had to cut the yarn and wind off 11g before reaching the point where the colours would match and I could start knitting again.  11g  out of a 100g ball!  It was very annoying.  Also annoying is the name of this shade: Heathers.  I mean, have you ever seen heather in these colours? 

I chose it because I really liked the turquoise, the orange and the magenta together but as I knitted through it the royal blue and yellow appeared and I really didn't like that yellow with the other colours, in fact I couldn't see that it had any place at all in this sock.  However, as I said, The Mathematician was delighted with them and that's the important thing.  (I've just had a look and I think this shade has been discontinued now, although I only bought this yarn four months ago.)

The next pair I knitted was with a shade called Oak, although I must admit that I can't find the ball band so that might not be right, but if it's not Oak it's Birch, and either way, I couldn't see it at all.  Can you?  When I looked at this ball of yarn I saw a shingle beach on a grey day: grey, white and blue evoked the sea, the sky and the pebbles, the black was the seaweed left on the beach when the tide receded and the beige was the sand. 

I was really looking forward to seeing how these knitted up, especially because they were for me!  Some kind and thoughtful friends bought the yarn for me for my birthday with strict instructions to knit some socks for myself.  Would you like to see how they turned out?

Not like the beach at all.  I was expecting narrow stripes rather than great big blocks of colour.  No, not a beach but certainly not a tree.  Harrumph!

The second ball of yarn which my friends bought for me was riotously colourful and just looking at it made me smile.  I knit socks from the top down so these began with muted shades of green, brown and grey before a lovely dark pink appeared.  I was reminded of an autumnal hedgerow with leaves changing colour and shiny berries.  However, the next stripe was bright orange and white and the one after that was slap-you-in-the-face green.  Then I was back to the hedgerow before another bright orange and white and, just for good measure, purple.  Now, I love purple, and I could see it in the context of my autumnal hedgerow; I could even see it with the orange and white and slap-you-in-the-face green, so I suppose it is the linking colour, but this does feel like a confusion of two completely different palettes.  It's completely bonkers but very jolly.  However, yet again the name seems to have nothing to do with the colours: this is Emberglow (although some websites list it as Ember Glow, which annoys me).  Really??  I have looked quite hard and I just can't conjure either the glowing coals of a campfire or a gas fire which looks like a real fire. 
  

I really ought to say some positive things about this yarn: the socks it has become are warm and fit well and I have washed them in the washing machine on a delicates programme at 40 degrees Celsius.  I usually hand wash my woollen socks but these seem absolutely unaffected by their automatic ordeal - phew!  It's not their fault that the people at King Cole gave them silly names and seem to have an understanding of colour which I don't share, and I really do like handknitted socks which fit my feet and keep them comfy and cosy, especially ones whose jollity makes me smile.

Now, you may be thinking that this is not the right time of year for me to be thinking about woollen socks - the temperature has warmed up, vests and boots have been discarded with abandon and short sleeves have been donned.  However, I have a little camping trip coming up soon and not only are these socks super comfy inside my walking boots, they are also absolutely essential at night when the temperature drops.  I never go camping without them because being cold makes me miserable and nobody wants a miserable camping partner, do they?

 

See you soon.

Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x