Sock Club – Bend & Fold

This year I decided to organise a couple of crafting goals rather than just allowing myself to meander along between whatever projects catch my eye.  Not that I mean I’m going to stop choosing projects on impulse based on something cool I see on Instagram or Facebook or Ravelry or an idea that just happens to pop into my head but that I am going to do those things alongside the things I plan!  I have already posted about my Temperature Blanket , an ongoing crochet project that will take all year and for my knitting goal I am going to make myself 6 pairs of socks.

It seemed to me that the best way to achieve this knitty goal would be to sign up to a sock club.  A large number of the wonderful independent yarn dyers I follow run clubs but I felt myself drawn to The Knitting Goddess, I have bought yarn from Joy each time I have visited Yarndale and love her ethos of keeping it local, with all of her yarns being British and some being from Yorkshire.  It also doesn’t hurt that I also love the colours she uses!

Sock Club dispatches every 2 months with a skein of yarn delivered to my home and a pattern from the truly fabulous Clare Devine @ Knit Share Love arriving in my inbox and Ravelry library. This gives me a month to knit each sock and hopefully time to work those impulse makes in around them!

This is the yarn for January. Its a blend of wool from Bluefaced Leicester sheep to make it soft and squishy and a little bit sheepy and nylon to make it strong enough for socks.  The colour is called Lepidolite which wikipedia tells me is:

Lepidolite is a lilac-gray or rose-colored member of the mica group of minerals with formula K(Li,Al,Rb)₂(Al,Si)₄O₁₀(F,OH)₂.^[1][2] It is the most abundant lithium-bearing mineral^[3] and is a secondary source of this metal. It is a phyllosilicate mineral^[4] and a member of the polylithionite-trilithionite series

The theme for the sock club yarn is rocks and I am really looking forward to a drawer full of these earthy muted tones.

So to the pattern!  Clare has named this series of patterns Correlative Twins.  Each pair of socks contains two patterns for socks with similar but different patterns.  I have never been an odd sock wearer but the draw of learning more techniques and avoiding second sock syndrome was strong enough for me to overcome this barrier and knit one of each sock with my yarn to make the non matching pair.  You can find the pattern here on Ravelry.

Sock one had these beautiful twisty cables made with twisted stitches and lots of knitting through the back loop.  I found the amount of counting needed to put my cables in the right places to be quite challenging and had to be careful to choose good times to knit these (not while watching my favourite TV shows!).

Sock two had the same triangular panel containing the design but instead of twisty cables this one has a blocky arrow design.  I was feeling more confident by the second sock, found it knit up quicker and I think I like this one best.

Together the detail on both socks looks like this –

And the full socks like this –

The heels look a little funny on my sock blockers but are a detail on the socks which I really love.  On my feet they look much better!

This is my first time shaping the gusset decreases beneath the foot but I find the little detail so pleasing I think it may become my go to heel shape in future.

I am thrilled with these socks and am really looking forward to pushing myself with new designs throughout the year.