Indulgence Socks

In the box of yarn I'm supposed to be reviewing on my blog (I know you've been overwhelmed by such posts, bear with me. ha!) is a skein of Indulgence 6 Ply from Knitting Fever Inc.

Or should I say "was a skein" since I have obviously removed it from the box?

Anyway.

Although I've never used this yarn before, my trained eye immediately recognized it as a self-patterning yarn. I do like a self-patterning sock yarn.

Confirming my suspicions was the pair of completed socks right next to it. hehe. Those socks happened to fit Hubby. He spirited them away. Now the only time I see them is when they cycle through the laundry, which is why I don't have a picture for you.

The yarn is 75% Extrafine Merino Wool and 25% Polymide. 426 yard ball. Machine washable. With a suggested gauge of 21 sts and 27 rows 4 inches on a US3.

Oooh, Snuggly
This yarn is sooo soft and snuggly! Which is part of the reason Hubby ran off with the socks. However the whole point of the nylon content is durability, so I'm imagining it will wear well. Hmm, I should check the socks Hubby stole. He's worn them at least three times by now.

Obviously a pair of socks was in my future. Plain stockinette stitch socks are my preference for self-patterning sock yarns since the colors do all the work. However, I didn't want to have matching socks with Hubby.

My Size?
I was enamored of the Skew sock pattern from the Winter 09 issue of Knitty when the pattern came out because of their interesting construction.

However, I was hesitant to make them because of that construction and being unsure how to resize them for my wee feet. I wear a US woman's 6. My feet have an 8" circumference, which seems to fall in the "average" range for patterns, but most patterns as written are a bit big for me. pout. I like 1" of negative ease, for a 7" circumference sock.

The designer has notes on her blog about making the socks bigger, but none about making them smaller. pout, again.

Luckily, other staff members at the store have normal size feet (grin) and jumped right on this pattern. When Danni made hers she very nicely let me try them on, which confirmed my suspicion they would be baggy. We discussed resizing options and I forgot about them.

Then I saw that Westport Yarns was running a class for the pattern. Since it is the Summer of Socks, after all, I figured it was the nudge I needed to make them.

The first class was last night. It was grand fun shirking responsibility to hang out and knit. Giggles and I sat in on the class in order to heckle and knit along.

DPNs FTW!
As you can see, I'm working mine on double points. The pattern specifically advises against it. Pam was leading the class and urged the students to consider magic loop or two circulars. She said Danni started them on dpns and had to switch, but we are assuming Danni was on 5". I'm using 8" needles.

Since Giggles and I are experienced sock knitters, and the peanut gallery, we were allowed to dig our own graves for needle choice. Giggles went magic loop.

Although it was jumping ahead in the pattern, we discussed fit and decided I should drop my stitch count by a sixth. (yep. 1/6). Therefore I stopped increasing the first part at 40 stitches and the second part at 60 stitches. It isn't big enough to try on yet, so I'm not sure if our guess worked.

Back to the Yarn
This Indulgence yarn is really nice to knit with.

Have I mentioned that it's soft?

To show you can trust my review, even though it is contracted, I'll admit the yarn was just a tiny bit splitty while working the toe. But I think that was a matter of using Judy's Magic Cast On and US1 needles as much as anything. I mean, those conditions would be tough on any yarn. Now that I've got a few rows under me the issue has gone away. I bet it would have been just fine if I was knitting a straight sock.

That's about all I can tell you, since I've only just started knitting.

I will leave you with the thought that if I could get my hands on enough of this yarn to make a sweater, I would totally do it.