Knit Socks - Betsy Lee Mccarthy [2]
Selecting Your Yarn
Once upon a time, selecting sock yarn was simple. Available fingering-weight yarns were limited to “baby colors” (often acrylic and not good sock choices), a few primary colors, and drab “man colors.” Blue Moon Fiber Arts and Koigu had not yet been conceived, and the Yarn Harlot had yet to emerge. What an extreme contrast to what we have before us today in local yarn shops, on Ravelry, and on the Internet — seemingly infinite and ever-growing options.
Colors seduce us, as does the feel of the yarn. Everywhere we look, we see an abundance of spectacular yarn: hand painted, kettle dyed, long color runs in beautiful solids and near solids, self-patterning and/or striping, randomly variegated in addition to endless solids. Wool yarns are long lasting and strong, especially when blended with 10 to 30 percent nylon or mohair and nylon. The softer merino yarns are also durable when spun with a good twist or blended with nylon, silk, bamboo, Tencel, or SeaCell, to name a few of my favorite add-ins. Alpaca blends are an affordable treat, making soft, warm socks that hold their shape and are durable when blended with wool and nylon. (If you choose 100 percent wool or a wool blend without nylon or one of the other fibers listed above, you can reinforce the heels and toes with a special reinforcing yarn to increase durability; see Reinforcing Socks, page 148.) And the combinations get more luxurious and exotic — merino, cashmere, and nylon; merino, nylon, alpaca, and possum; angora, merino, and nylon; angora and nylon; and more recently, buffalo undercoat with wool and nylon.
Wool, the traditional choice, has some real advantages for contemporary sock makers. Wool or wool-blend socks have “memory,” which makes them warmer and less likely to stretch out of shape than, for example, socks made of cotton or synthetic yarn without wool. The choice of a superwash yarn over one that requires hand washing is another consideration. When I need to be practical, I choose superwash (which has the added benefit of generally being softer than regular wool).
Options to wool are also available and include wonderful fibers, such as bamboo, cotton, corn, soy, hemp, SeaCell, silk, microfibers, and viscose. For many knitters, these are the yarns of choice, either because of climate and/or skin sensitivity, or just because they love them — how they look, feel, and wear.
Looking at the who, where, and how of yarns is yet another element of choice. Foreign and domestic producers range from large- to small-scale commercial manufacturers to independent dyers, co-ops, and boutique dye artists whose small batches are snapped up online as soon as they are available. Political choices can be made based on how green the yarn production method is, where the yarn is produced, and whether the yarn is organic. In the end, personal preference trumps. Color calls out loudly to most of us, as do the hand of the yarn, the way the yarn feels and knits up, its durability, and its ease of care. We want yarn that is consistent with our values, our expectations, and our pocketbooks.
For socks, I most often choose yarn blended with some tough stuff, such as nylon, bamboo, mohair, silk, or Tencel, to increase the likelihood that my considerable investment of love, time, and money will pay off in socks that last. I spend 20 to 40 hours knitting a pair of fingering-weight socks; in addition I spend considerably more dollars on yarn alone than it would cost for commercially produced socks. I think of my choice as “durable beauty”: The socks need to have a long, useful life, as well as being knit from yarn I love for whatever reasons. When I buy special yarn that may be less durable, I try to do it with realistic expectations — about the care that will be required, the appropriate recipient, and how often the socks will be worn. And I remember that knitting with yarn I love is a passion and an indulgence, sort of like salmon fishing or making one's own furniture from beautiful woods.
The vast array of yarn colors, weights, and