Pattern | Dave by Rachel Coopey |
Dates | 4th – 16th April 2020 |
Materials | SweetGeorgia Tough Love sock Auburn Knitting Goddess Luxury sock Charcoal Trailing Clouds Nimbus Mind the Gap 2.5mm needles |
Size | Small – 64 sts |
Rating | Pattern: 5/5 Finished item: 3/5 |
The ridiculously long self-styled name of this project comes from the combination of pattern, technique and yarn that I used.
Firstly I used the Dave vanilla sock recipe from Coopknits Socks Yeah Vol 2 with an afterthought heel – the first time I’d done this but it seemed the best option considering the self-striping yarn and the method I was using.
Secondly, I knit the socks concurrently one inside the other using Kate Atherley’s War & Peace method. I’ve done this before, and it would be my go-to for vanilla socks as long as I’m not also managing too many balls of yarn. The setup is quite fiddly but then it can go pretty fast.
Finally, I used this project as an attempted stashbuster for the remains of my skein of Trailing Clouds Mind the Gap – a self striping in the colours (and sequence!) of the Transport for London tube and overground lines. I have to say the colours in my skein are spot on.
I used some leftover Knitting Goddess and Sweet Georgia sock yarn in neutral brown and black for the contrast cuffs/heels/toes. Still didn’t use up quite all of the yarns but the small remainder has gone into my mitred square blanket.
The finished socks are ok but turned out a bit big – I forgot that the method results in slightly looser gauge and the outer sock of the pair is always slightly larger. Despite this, I did manage to keep my stripes more or less aligned.