One of the thinner yarns. I made my first Wildfoote socks with 3.0mm needles, but the socks were fairly limp (they were purple to match a vest knitted with Brown Sheep Nature Spun, and I've since lost one of the pair, unfortunately). Another pair made using 2.25mm needles came out much better; this pair was sent to my friend Jonathan for those cold Delaware winters. The price is right; it's one of the cheaper yarns at about $4/skein. The biggest drawback of the Wildfoote, however, which drove me nuts, is that they pick up cat hair better than a lint brush. The knitted fabric is very sticky. Black socks attract all the white cat hair on the floor.
Kroy comes in at least two weights. The 4-ply is of average sock yarn thickness, and makes nice medium-weight wool socks. I worked up a pair of dark lavender socks (partly to replace the unfortunate purple Wildfoote sock gone missing), and they're one of my favorite pairs. The fabric is very soft and cushy. 2.5mm ebony needles were perfect for this yarn.
(2/22/04) I recently noticed that several of my socks, including the lavender ones, have developed holes in the toe area. I never get holes in the heels, just the toes. I think my toenails scratch the fabric and cause wear. But they lasted several years before developing wear, so all in all that's not a bad deal.
I didn't know there were two weights of Kroy until I bought four skeins of Kroy 3-ply at Beehive Wool Shop on a trip to Vancouver. This Kroy is thinner than almost any other sock yarn I've worked with, probably even thinner than the Wildfoote. I made a pair with 2mm needles; knitting with this yarn seems to take forever! But the socks come out incredibly soft, and thinner than any other pair except maybe the Wildfoote. I think this is my favorite lightweight sock yarn.
My first fingering-weight socks were made out of Fortissima Cotton. I'd previously made Joan's Two-Strand Woolease socks, and figured I had the basic ideas down. Well, my first cotton socks came out two different sizes; I ribbed for only one inch on the cuff, and they fall down constantly; and the narrow toe (before I switched to the round toe) is not wide enough for my feet. But the color is perfect (blue/white ragg) and the fabric is very soft, and so I keep wearing them even despite their general suckiness.
I was knitting those socks on a cross-country plane flight, with my yarn stashed in a bright pink soft-sided lunch box on the tray table in front of me, and partway through the flight the male flight attendant sat down in the empty seat next to me and immediately asked if I was pregnant. As if.
I've made one more pair of Fortissima Cotton socks since then (a bright green that matches some of my T-shirts). The second pair didn't turn out as nice. I failed to take into account the unforgivingness of cotton, so when I made them with my standard wool sock measurements they came out too tight and too short. I later snipped the toe off and reknit the toe adding an extra inch to the feet, which helps, but they still aren't as soft as my first pair. I probably a used a smaller needle size for the original pair, rather than my current favorite 2.5mm ebonies. Next time I knit with cotton, I'll try a smaller needle and increase the circumference measurement.
This wool yarn recommends a needle size of 2.5-3mm, but it'd work up better if I used a smaller needle than my usual 2.5mm ebonies. Even with the 2.5mm needles, the socks (black with multicolored ragg) came out nice, though a little on the thin side. The fabric is nice and feels comparable to the Wildfoote only less sticky.
I picked up half a dozen balls of this yarn in a sale bin at Stitches West '99. The label suggests 3-4mm; I worked it up on 2.5mm needles. It makes a rather thicker sock that's great for boots in the winter; the cuff stands up on its own rather than falling down, and they keep my toes warm enough in the snow. One pair of skeins went towards a pair of gray socks for my friend Peter to go biking in. Another pair made a set of green/blue ragg socks that are a staple in my sock wardrobe. The last pair recently turned into a set of blue/white ragg socks that will probably be just as long-lasting as the blue/green pair. The fabric is a little scratchy before washing, but smooths out after washing.
I'm not sure where the 1000 in the name of this yarn comes from. I got a single 100g skein for an amazing $5.25 from the Parkside Wool Company in Bellevue. This yarn, a dark gray with blippets of white, green, pink, and blue, became Dan's Socks #2. The skein was just enough to make two Dan-sized socks with 6" of ribbing each (and no stockinette cuff before the heel flap).
With 30% nylon content (and 70% wool), this yarn has a higher nylon content than I'm used to. However, I was in New Orleans at a conference and I'd finished the pair of socks I'd brought with me during the first day of talks, so I took off the second morning and went in search of emergency sock yarn supplies. I went to The Quarter Stitch, a charming yarn store in the French Quarter. (When I walked in and asked for sock yarn, the proprietress showed me some worsted-weight wool and said that it made excellent socks, even showing me a pair on display. Meanwhile I kept wandering through the two-room store, poking at baskets tucked away under the main display tables, until I finally unearthed what seemed like the only two balls of fingering-weight yarn in the store. Nevermind that they were a dark burgundy that wouldn't go with my wardrobe---they'd keep me knitting through the rest of the conference, and that's all that mattered.)
Anyway, the yarn served its purpose and made a nice rather thick (though not as thick as the Topas) set of burgundy socks with multicolored sprinkles. They're probably the scratchiest socks I have (perhaps due to the high nylon content), but the cushiness makes up for it.
(9/14/00) A few months ago, I went to the Acorn Street yarn shop above U-Village to find cotton sock yarn, because it was there that I got the Fortissima Cotton that made my first ever pair of fingering-weight socks. I debated going with the Fortissima Cotton for a second time, but then decided to try a cotton-wool blend instead. This yarn is 25% polyamid, 37% cotton, and 38% wool. I wanted a pair of white socks for summer, so I decided on a simple lacy pattern (a yarnover hole every four stitches, repeated every four rows, but moving the holes over two stiches on every other lace round so they didn't all line up vertically). 2mm needles make a nice firm fabric.
Progress is going well. The first sock is finished, and I started on the second. At this rate I won't finish until December. Oh well.
The socks ended up getting finished around March... I just don't get as much knitting in during the winter because it's too cold to knit when waiting for the bus outside. White socks are lovely, even though they do pick up dirt so much more visibly.
(10/3/01) I moved from Seattle to New York City last month to start a new job. The movers came on my birthday and packed up all our household goods, including my yarn. I had no car, no furniture, and no knitting. Luckily a good friend (a quilter and a crocheter) came by to take us out to dinner, was aghast that I hadn't brought any knitting for the plane flight, and drove me to Acorn Street to buy two emergency skeins of yarn and a set of Crystal Palace bamboo needles. (I thought the Clover bamboo needles were too sticky, but the Crystal Palace needles are lovely, cheaper than my beloved ebonies, and come in smaller sizes.)
The yarn is beautiful. I call this pair my "melon ball socks". It's a dark gray background with the occasional stripe of cantaloupe, lime, blueberry, and watermelon. I finished the first of the pair in an orientation for new hires, and the colleagues at my table were joking that they expected me to knit a pair for each of them before the orientation was over. Ha.
I also knit on the New York City subway. I've noticed reactions ranging from curious stares, admiring glances, to embarrassed businessmen trying to pretend they're not staring at my hands. Very often the woman sitting next to me will forgo her book and watch me knit a few rounds before her stop comes up.
(1/21/04) I'm knitting a pair of these for Dan: black with multicolor sprinkles. I must have been planning ahead, as I had three balls in the stash, which is more than the usual two I need for my own socks. His feet are 10.5" long and 10" around. The first sock looks enormous. I started it while working my way through La Virginienne, a fictionalized account of the life of Thomas Jefferson's slave mistress, and finished it at the IUI conference in Portugal a few weeks ago. I'll have to find another good book if I want to make more progress on the second sock.
The knitted fabric is spongy and smooth except for the tweedy slubs. I've been using Crystal Palace #0 bamboos, and they're working well.
Dan says, "Knitted socks sure are comfy."
I've made a few pairs using KnitPicks' Essential line. The price makes them very economical and the colors are pretty. The yarn is very soft, not scratchy at all. I've been using 2.5mm needles. The socks are very comfortable to wear, though the fabric does tend to pill a bit. In hindsight I would probably use smaller needles to make a more dense, hard-wearing fabric.
I also made a pair of fingertip gloves using sock leftovers, which have been pilling a lot due to heavy use and much washing:
