The second pair of Swaledale Sonic Socks is finished!
The first pair is described here, and my thoughts when I cast on the second pair in January, are here.
The first pair had a very maritime theme, especially because of the beautiful swaledale yarn and its soft crunchiness, which reminds me of the sandy beaches and seaworn shells of Dymchurch beach.
This second pair is much more landlocked, with its patterns mimicking the distinctive regional brickwork of Reading, where I do most of my daily tramping about. St Mary’s Butts Church is a very distinctive Reading building, and in its grounds, there grows the very walnut tree from which I dyed the swaledale to get these three tones of tea/biscuit. It is a very warm, yellowish brown and I think these socks are going to see a lot of walking action.
Because of the anticipated wear and tear on these socks, I have deliberately constructed them in such a way that both the heel and toe are picked up at the end, and knit down. I thought that if I made them in this way, then when I wear heels and toes through thoroughly, I will be able to rip back to the pick-up places and knit down again. The knit-down toe is easy to accomplish, as the sock is knit top-down anyway, but the knit-down heel has proved a little bit trickier involving sneaky increases for a small gusset, and a bit of fudging. However I am pleased that this is a serviceable heel which will in time be tamed into a uniform fuzz, just like the now beautifully softened heel on the first pair.
I am sure others have constructed socks in this way before, but I wanted to make a really simple pattern that I could use again and again for swatching colourwork in the round, and also for making tasty, easily-mendable walking socks.
The socks are ravelled here and the pattern will soon be available from Prick Your Finger.
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