Cozy Autumn socks

2 months ago I started knitting the Cosy Autumn Sock by This Handmade Life. It was time to challenge myself with learning a new set of skills. I am so happy I did. It resulted in the nicest pair of wool socks in a beautiful purple colour. This is my experience knitting my first pair of socks.

About the pattern
It is a free pattern on Ravelry that has been around for almost 7 years now (published in september 2018). It has almost 1500 projects and great reviews. It is written for the magic loop technique, which is something to bear in mind if thats not something you usually do.

It is knit cuff down on US 1 or 2,25 mm needles with fingering weight yarn. It features a two by two ribbed cuff and a lace charted pattern that slightly mimics the look of cables. Which was great for me as I was not quite ready to venture into the realm of cables, just yet.

The chart use a combination of knits and purls in addition to yarn over (YO), decreases and increases. The fact that it is fully charted makes it easy to understand. The heel is constructed with a heel flap and gusset carefully explained in the pattern, which was perfect since I had never knitted a sock before.

The foot featured a toe that easily could be grafted together in the end in your desired technique. I decided to go with kitchener stitch to ensure enough space for the toes and a seamless result.

Although the pattern was great in terms of charts and explanations it had no guide for the sizes. It comes in medium (60 stitches) and Large (72 stitches) without any guidance to what that means. For me that had never knitted a pair of socks before it meant that I had to cast on and knit to see if i picked the right size. I picked the large size to begin with and had to rip everything back and start over with a size medium.

The yarn
The pattern suggests a super fine fingering weight yarn that has a gauge of 9 stitches per 1 inch or per 2,5 cm. The sample used the handdyed yarn "Fableux" that had 400 meters per 100 grams of yarn from Ewe2yarn.

The yarn I used is a fingering weight yarn from Through the Wardrobe Yarn Co a Norwegian Hand- Dyer based in Bergen. She has really creative names for her collections usually based on fairytales, books she recently read or other popular series like the Grimm collection or Bridgerton collection.

The base "Romantasy Sock" is a sockyarn with 75% merino wool and 25% nylon, a supersoft yarn! You use approximately 300 - 400 yards or 274 - 366 meters of yarn. The colour of the one I used is "I sharpened My Wit, My Wardrobe, And My Mind." A beautiful deep purple colour with some nice variation that I cannot get enough of.

Modifications and final fit
I made a few modifications to the pattern. Firstly, I went for a shorter leg than recommended in the pattern because thats what I prefer. I did one or two repeats less than the pattern recommended and it worked out perfectly.

Secondly, I chose a needle bigger than recommended resulting in a slightly looser sock than intended. I knitted this on a size US 1,5 or 2,5 mm needle instead or the recommended size US 1 or 2,25 mm needle, simply because that was the only size I had in stash. In retrospect I would prefer a slightly tighter sock, but since I used a needle size that was bigger than recommended, that was to expect. In the end I am not mad about the fit and actually enjoy a sock that is a bit looser to wear at home.

If I were too knit this sock again I would have opted for a shorter heelflap, to see if it could have made the sock more form-fitting.

Summary

The yarn, although fantastically soft and with its interesting purple colour, did not live up to my expectations. Given its price and its fiber content I did not expect it to start pilling while knitting it up, and it got even worse after 1 night of wear at home. Now, I have been wearing them almost exclusively inside my own home, yet the pilling continues. The yarn is still, after several washes, releasing colour while washing in cold water, which is something to be aware of if you want to use it for colour work, especially with white or really light coloured yarn.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that it is a terrible yarn, but I do think that you should have these kind of things in the back of your mind if you are considering bying it.

Olivia Villarreal (This Handmade Life) has written a pattern that holds your hand through the whole process of knitting the socks, and I felt safe through the whole thing. The final result is beautiful.

Overall I am really happy with the result, and will be making more of the Cosy autumn socks in the future.