It’s been rainy and somewhat dreary here, but since it’s summer it feels like you’re walking through hot water when it’s not rain with the absurd level of humidity. I am grateful that we’re getting more rain than last year, because rain seems better than drought and I like to see the plants happy. I would like to request some collective finger crossing that Z’s birthday party this weekend will not be rained out. This is our second attempt. Please cross some fingers for us (when those fingers aren’t busy knitting).
Remedy for the rain? I think a little color will do. I haven’t wrangled Matt to photograph his finished socks, but I’ve moved on knitting-wise to work on the pair for my mom. I last abandoned them shortly after I completed all of the gusset decreases. Here they are almost fully formed. The yarn is Zauberball Crazy in color 1537. I tried to put it into two matching balls before I knit it, but it seemed like it was going to be impossible with this kind of yarn.
My usual method is to get out my digital scale that measures grams. Then I weigh the ball before I start. It’s not always exactly as specified on the ball band. This ball was 94 grams instead of 100 specified on the band. Then I start winding the skein onto my ball winder. I keep weighing the unwound portion of the skein until it’s half of the weight. My scale weighs to the 10th of a gram if I’m feeling ultra fastidious about it.
With self-striping yarns like this, I usually go ahead and wind the second half of the skein. Theoretically, this would make it so that the repeats would potentially both start on the outside of the ball. You can also pull from the center of the portion you didn’t wind, but that can get messy.
Then I unravel a little bit of each ball, looking for the place where they start to match and I cut them to start at that place. Yes, you lose a little bit of yarn. It’s usually not more than a gram or two. I’ve had pretty good success in the past doing this with Opal and Regia sock yarns, like this pair and this pair. For the current pair, it seemed like I would have to sacrifice too much yarn.
I’m glad I didn’t. The fiery red orange swath in the middle of the right leg above doesn’t occur again, as far as I can tell, to use in the other sock. I have another skein of this yarn, so I won’t even try to make it match. Fraternal twin socks are pretty fun too.
I love the term “fraternal twin” socks! Sometimes the effort to have identical twins just isn’t worth it or, as in your case, just isn’t possible!
When I used this the ball band said it wouldn’t make a pair of twin socks. So I did stripes – I used half and divided the other half into two balls which meant that when the colour got too similar I could switch balls. It worked fine.
That’s a great idea! I almost always do mine two at a time, so I might not be able to wrangle 3 or 4 different ends, but that’s great to know.
Those socks look really nice! I’ve worked with Crazy Zauberball a few times and I’ve never been able to find a repeat.
These are fun. I’ve always liked the handspun look of Zauberball. Makes me want to start some handspun socks!
I guess that is the reason this type of Zauberball is called “crazy”. 😉
Those socks are stunning! And this is some really good advice on knitting fairly matching socks with yarn like this, thanks for the tips.
That’s a lot of discipline when starting socks! I throw some cast-ons on a needle and go 😉
Love those flipper socks you link to!
Great socks! And in this picture, are you trying them one while they’re still on a circular needle? If so, you should add a few points to your knitter card, because that takes some skill! (I know I’ve tried things on while they were on the needles, and nearly gave myself a heart attack when stitches started slipping off in the process.)
I am trying them on while they’re on the 40″ circ. I’m doing them magic loop. 🙂
These look great! What a fun colorway!
Those colors look great as “fraternal” socks. Gives them more of a whimsical feel than if they had been identical, I think.
What awesome colors! Very autumnal.
These are beeeautiful socks. They almost glow. When you have glowing socks, being identical is superfluous.
I’d like to try knitting my socks toe-up. Do you have standard toe-up sock pattern that you can recommend?
I originally learned from a Knit Picks pattern available on their site and Ravelry.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/two-at-once-toe-up-magic-loop-socks
Thanks!
Sock have a way of chasing away the heat blues for me. These are fantastic!
I LOVE this colorway. What a great palette!
And I might be in the minority here, but I kind of love “fraternal twin” socks more than the perfectly matching socks. But I’m weird like that. Now if only I could fall in love with knitting them 😉