Saturday, March 24, 2007

Matching socks is it possible?



A little while back I wrote about knitting socks that match. It frustrates me that people don't take the time to match a self patterning yarn so each sock lines up. Housewife said she was just glad her daughter wore socks, she didn't care if they were the same or not. Well, her daughter might like the ones I just knit for my youngest. They were knit with Moda Dea Sassy Stripes yarn, color 6946. I had purchased two balls of this yarn a few years ago to knit socks and never did. Now that I am buying higher end yarn, I didn't want to knit these for me. She wanted them and I figured that I would knit a "matching pair" for her BF, my neice. Now Moda Dea says you need to balls to knit one pair of socks. I had originally bought two, in the same dye lot so they would match. I grabbed one ball, and began knitting. The sock began knitting up different then I thought it would...but I continued. When it was done, I pulled out the rest of the ball to try to match the repeat. I didn't find a repeat...in fact the rest of the ball looked completely different than the sock I had just knit! I had a sock that would NEVER match another sock! J, my youngest daughter, decided that was fine with her. Now it is our little joke. In a way I think it proves the original point I was trying to make, that just because two socks are knit with the same yarn, doesn't make them a matched pair. Of course, it could prove another point also, that isn't mine. That socks knit with the same yarn are not supposed to match. Of course I realize this is an extreme case. On a side note, the second ball of yarn, matches the second sock, so something was wrong with the first part of the first ball of yarn. I plan on calling Moda Dea about this.


To continue this same idea a little further. Before knitting up the no match socks, I had started a pair for Hubby. They are knit in Austermann Step, Nacht Blue. I love this yarn. It has aloe in it. It is SO soft. The yarn store said one ball made a pair of socks. So I began knitting. Finished the first sock, pulled out the repeat and began the second sock. Got to the toes, and didn't have eonugh yarn to finish the sock. Went and looked at what I had pulled out for the repeat and it didn't match either. Now mind you, Hubby doesn't have larger feet. He wears a 10 1/2-11. If not for the repeat I would have been able to knit for him, but certainly not anyone with larger feet. I gave him the option to finish the socks with the no matching pull out, but he said he wanted the toes to match to. Now the difference in the blues for the toes would have been minimal, but he said no. So, we went back to the yarn store, and they were out of that color, so now we have to wait until they get more in. Am I being punished by the sock knitting gods for critisizing the non matching socks people were knitting.


I also have another pair for my BFF that match the last pair I made for myself on needles. Now they won't match mine exactly, because that is even a little too anal for me. But they will be close. TTFN, Miki

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