The Great Sock Rush of 2016

I wanted a nice, thick pair of raggsockor so I knit myself a pair. And then I cast on another pair, yet another and finally one more. I’d waited a week or so to write this post, just to see if the rush was over, but I’m eyeing that grey-marled yarn for another pair… these socks are addictive! They’re soft, warm, fun and they knit up ridiculously fast.

The weather here in Sweden has been wet and hovering just below zero. Spring is starting to peek around the corner, but there’s nothing as cozy as a thick pair of socks – unless it’s a thick pair of socks with a cup of coffee.

The picture with all four pairs shows them drying after a trip through the washing machine.

Pair #1: Järbo Raggi, top-down with a heel flap

Pattern: 90384 – Klassiska raggsockor | Project: 90384 – Kassiska raggsockor

I ran out of yarn on the second toe. Let’s call it a feature.

It turns out that Kitchener stitch is really, really easy!

Pair #2: Järbo Raggi, top-down with a heel flap

Pattern: 90384 – Klassiska raggsockor | Project: 90384 – Kassiska raggsockor

The thought was that maybe if I made the leg shorter, I wouldn’t run out of yarn at the toe. I did still run out of yarn, but I matched the color pretty closely. 🙂

Pair #3: Järbo Raggi, toe-up with a reverse heel flap

Pattern: combination of 90384 – Klassiska raggsockor and Toe-Up Stranded Sock | Project: Toe-up Ragg sock

This photo is after having been worn a few times – they went straight from the needles to my feet and I forgot to take a photo.

I wanted to try a pair toe-up and see how I did with yarn. I even put the yarn into two (fairly equal) balls first. These worked out pretty well.

I realized that the reason I stopped knitting toe-up socks was that I could never seem to get the bind-off loosen enough. I tried something new here (k1, yo, k1, pick up the right stitch + yo and pass over), which sort of worked.

Pair #4: Järbo Raggi, toe-up with gusset heel

Pattern: based on Gusset Heel Basic Socks | Project: Gusset heel basic socks

My biggest mistake was that I didn’t actually check how much yarn should go into each sock, so they could have been longer. I suppose I prefer having leftover yarn to running out, though.

The gusset heel was my favorite for a long time, but it just doesn’t have as much of an angle as the heel flap socks. It’s still comfy but I’m leaning more towards heel flaps now.

I also tried another bind-off here (An All-Purpose Stretchy Bind-Off: The Yarnover Bind-Off) which worked fairly well. I knit the knits and purled the purls. It’s not quite as fluffy as sock #3 but still nice and stretchy.