Thursday, November 19, 2009

K1C2 Wick - Review and FOs

I recently completed two pairs of socks using Knit One Crochet Two's Wick, a worsted weight yarn made of 53% soy and 47% polypropylene, which supposedly creates a fabric that wicks, pulling the moisture away from your body as you sweat. I picked up a couple of balls a few years ago on sale, but just got around to using them this summer.

I used the same pattern for both pairs, Red Dwarf, one in a solid blue, and one in the "Beach" colorway of orange and blue. This sock pattern was written for Wick and features two marine-inspired stitch patterns, fish scale on the instep, and fish tail on the back of the leg.

The blue was made for my husband, who wears a size 10.5 shoe. I used 2.5 balls to create a sock with a leg of about 5 inches. He says they fit him perfectly and are very comfortable.


The orange/blue was made for me, and I wear a size 9.5 shoe. I used two balls exactly to create an ankle-length sock.


This yarn requires a very smooth needle due to the polyproplyene content. I used a size 4 Knit Picks Options 24" circular for the magic loop technique. The nickle needles worked very well with the yarn. It also requires slower and careful knitting to prevent puffs and pull-outs. The construction of this yarn involves a puffy synthetic core with very thin but strong threads wrapped around it. This means that unfortunately it's pretty easy to catch some of the puffy part with your needle and pull it out. When this happens, you can't work it back into the yarn.

This yarn is thicker than typical sock yarn, but a size 4 needle created a nice fabric with it. The socks are nice and stretchy, and quite comfortable. I have a couple more balls I'm using to make another pair but after this, I'm not sure if I'm going to make any more due for me to the snagging issues. My husband really seems to like them, though, so I might make another pair for him.

cheery autumn socks

i finished these yesterday and wrote about them on my blog but thought i'd update this one a bit by posting on here too. these are knit from panda cotton in red cinnamon. i knit two-at-a-time (knitpicks tute), so broke into 2 balls from the start, but as i like my socks short, i think i have enough for another pair (maybe these?):

inspired by some anastasia socks i knitted for a friend a while back, i knew i wanted a spiral pattern but didn't fancy the yarn-overs. so, i just cast on a toe (judy's magic cast-on) and started knitting spirals of purl stitches at various intervals.

after the heel turn, i wasn't sure how to continue the interval spacing, so just distributed the purl clusters randomly through the round and knit on. this resulted in pretty much undistinguishable spacings, so i'll have to console myself with knowing they're different - even if they don't look it.