Ombré Socks
I received this beautiful Ombré sock yarn dyed by The Blue Brick for my birthday last year from family.
I finally finished knitting them!
(These two photos above were taken with my phone and the colour isn’t quite true. Close, but not exactly the same as it looks in person.)
The base is Killarney Sock Twins and the colour is Seafoam. They send you a post card of the inspiration photo of the colourway with the yarn!
According to The Blue Brick website, “Killarney Sock Twins are paired sets at 150 yards/137 metres per skein, divided into 2 matched gradients. These are ideal for gloves, mittens, socks etc.”
They have two sock bases: Killarney Sock and Killarney Sock Twins. They’re both made out of the same fibre content and weight.
The only difference (I think) is that Killarney Sock is one long gradient, whereas Killarney Sock Twin is a set of two gradient skeins.
So if you’re planning on making a pair of something, like a pair of socks or a pair of mittens, and you want them to have an identical ombré on each side, make sure you get a twin base!
I knit them toe-up, using Jo Torr’s Vanilla Sock with Gusset & Choice of Heel pattern as the reference. The number of stitches and the length are adjusted to fit my feet.
I think I’ve knit a good amount of socks now to know that I prefer toe-up to cuff-down.
Both methods are fine and I wouldn’t avoid knitting cuff-down if I see a cuff-down pattern that I like.
But if I’m knitting a simple vanilla socks, I would probably knit them toe-up.
Three main reasons why I like toe-up are:
I like casting on fewer stitches and finish off the socks with stretchy bind off
I like that with toe-up, I don’t have to pick up stitches when knitting heels
It’s easier to control the stripe placement on both toes and cuffs (If I’m using a self-striping yarn)
One of the cons of toe-up is that maybe it’s a bit more tricky to get the fit right. But once you figured out your sizing, length, stitch numbers etc, it’s fairly easy.
I also like the fit of the gusset heels more than the after-thought heels.
I haven’t tried fish lips kiss heels but I’m assuming that they fit similar to the after-thought heels.
I made a minor mistake with the heel flap patterning though.
The mistake is my fault and not the pattern, to be clear.
The instruction said “slip stitch purl-wise” and the mistake on my end occurred because I knit continental.
I didn’t realize that there’re two different kinds of slip stitch purl-wise: “slip stitch purl-wise with yarn in front” and “slip stitch purl-wise with yarn in back”.
I think if you’re knitting English method, you have your working yarn in your right hand, and most of the time you do the slip stitch purl-wise with yarn in back without thinking, unless specified otherwise.
But having the working yarn on your left hand with continental method, the working yarn is constantly being moved back and forth between the needle.
And I knit the heel flap “with yarn in front” when I should’ve knit it “with yarn in back”.
It’s not a major problem, it looks a tad different and maybe a bit less sturdy but I’m not that concerned.
I’m more amused to find out that there’re more than one way to do “slip stitch purl-wise” because of this small misreading.
The yarn is so pretty! It knit up beautifully and feels cozy. The ombré effect is amazing!
It’s really fun to see the colours change as you knit: you start with one colour and finish with a completely different colour yet complements each other. And all of that is done without switching between two yarns!
I tried “Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off” as the pattern suggested and love it!
Oct 22, 2019
