If I say it I have to do it (socks)

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If I say it I have to do it (socks)
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NorthernMonkeyGirl

Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 4649
Location: Peeping over your shoulder

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 25 6:07 pm Post subject:
I bought a second hand knitting machine two years ago with all the good intentions... has not left the case

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16240

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 25 8:57 am Post subject:

Dpack, unless you are happy with man made fibre, the price of knitting a jumper these days is horrific. One reason I spin my own wool. The last fleece I bought cost me £10; I know commercially they cost a lot more, but this was from the farmer. I have spun it up and got both light and dark grey yarn, which I have used with some commercial wool (Falklands) and some possom wool that Cassandra sent me ages ago, to knit a Fair Isle jumper. I have enough wool left to easily knit a second. It took me ages to do, but I have a rather nice jumper and am considering making a cardigan with the remainder with some bought wool for pattern.

Being awkward, and luckily being good at maths, I managed to get the jumper wool to something like DK thickness by double plying. The pattern was for a thicker wool, but with a lot of calculation it worked pretty well. It was also a knit from top one; a technique I have never used before, so an interesting time working it all out, and a few unpickings too.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18420

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 25 5:27 pm Post subject:

jamanda wrote:

I don't think I will ever knit a sock. I find the whole circular thing too complicated.

There are patterns for knitting socks flat, and seaming them. Not that I've tried.

Florence

Joined: 15 Mar 2025
Posts: 12

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 25 6:06 pm Post subject:

Had disabled step father who had to have hand knitted socks with pure wool some years ago. His mother demonstrated despite the dementia. Mother and I learned. Luckily we came from a hand knitting family.

My children had years of aran pattern hand knits. But as someone has previously posted - the cost of decent wool makes home knits expensive beyond bearing nowadays. Else I'd be in hand knits still, 70 years on from learning.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9028
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Wed Mar 19, 25 6:54 pm Post subject:
I used to work at Porthmeirion..I remember Clough Williams Ellis and his plus fours and yellow hand knitted socks, made by his wife Amabel. She made them in two pieces, foot and leg...as he wore the feet out it was just a matter of detaching the worn out foot and attaching a new one

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16240

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 25 7:02 am Post subject:

I don't knit them as two separate parts Gz, but just unpick until I get to the leg part. Perhaps I ought to put in a row to take out so I can just pull them apart.

Florence, it was my grandmother and school that taught me to knit. My mother could knit, but hated it as she was made to knit at school and was always getting it wrong so got into trouble. It took me ages to really get going, but by the time my grandmother died, I was able to take over the family knitting. Mum was the dressmaker. As I said, I spin my own wool, so can knit pure wool jumpers for a minimal price as I just buy the odd bits for patterns as I can't be bothered with dyeing the wool myself.

Gil, I don't think I would fancy a seam in a sock, although in the past they used to make hose out of woven cloth with a seam. Doesn't sound awfully comfortable.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6668
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 25 11:02 am Post subject:

I know it's not the point of the thread, so I'll say it once and then hush up...

I'm trying to get synthetics out of my wardrobe whenever possible, but the area that I'm most accepting are my socks. Darn Tough is the brand to beat. I think they're mostly wool, but in a blend. Clearly they're not the same as making your own, but I think the next best (or sometimes superior) approach is "buy it for life".
They're incredibly hard wearing yet simultaneously very comfortable, and guaranteed for life. The only socks I buy.
I have only exchanged maybe 2 pairs for new ones, utilizing the lifetime guarantee, since I started wearing them 20 years ago.....

frewen

Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 11431

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 25 6:59 pm Post subject:
No Slim - don’t hush up at all. It’s a great point well made. I am playing with various combinations of rib and heel stitches and thinking some areas I can do in pure wool, while others will have to have a bit of something synthetic in there to stop me wearing through my heels every five minutes!

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9028
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 25 7:39 pm Post subject:
That is a good idea Frewen..adding the strength and resilience where it is needed most

frewen

Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 11431

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 25 7:58 pm Post subject:
No Slim - don’t hush up at all. It’s a great point well made. I am playing with various combinations of rib and heel stitches and thinking some areas I can do in pure wool, while others will have to have a bit of something synthetic in there to stop me wearing through my heels every five minutes!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16240

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 25 8:36 am Post subject:

I don't know the brand and don't know if they are available in the UK Slim. The sock wool I use is a wool/nylon mixture. I have used my pure wool handspun, but they wore through very quickly. Machine spun might be a bit stronger, but I wear socks in working boots in the woods up to 5 days a week, so they have to be pretty tough.

It isn't easy to get rid of man made fibre from clothes in the UK. Cotton and linen are imported and wool is very expensive. Sadly nearly all our sheep are meat breeds, so we don't have anything like the amount of wool we used to, and their wool isn't so good for spinning. Sheep are shorn, but the wool is mainly regarded as waste, although it is being made into things a bit more these days.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9925
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 25 9:32 am Post subject:
I'm sure you can do it I really enjoy knitting socks, but found I wore them out faster than I knitted them. Also, sadly, my feet do not get on well with wool socks, I have to have cotton or bamboo. Bamboo sock yarn tends to make saggy socks. Cotton sock yarn is harder to source. Pretty much all 'sock yarn' contains synthetic material. Presumably to make them last.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6668
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 25 10:06 am Post subject:
How did the medieval folk manage walking around in hosiery, or whatever it was?

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9925
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 25 2:43 pm Post subject:

Slim wrote:

How did the medieval folk manage walking around in hosiery, or whatever it was?

I guess those that struggled with eczema just suffered. Also I understand it was common for peasants to go barefoot in warmer weather.

And there was a lot of time spent darning. Darning has had something of a comeback with the relatively recent new interest in knitting socks.. once you realise the effort involved in making a pair of socks, and if that effort is yours, then there is more inclination to make repairs. Sometimes entire heal replacements.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16240

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 25 8:18 am Post subject:

Having made a pair of 17th century hose from the fleece; spinning, dyeing, knitting, I know the work that goes into them. I darned my socks several times, then knitted a patch for the heel that kept going through. I suspect that, as I do now, they reknitted the feet occasionally. I think that very fine hose have been found with patches and new feet sewn onto them.

Darning used to be a part of life when I was a child, and something I learnt quite early on. If a pair of socks became impossible to darn in the 1950s, they had to be dumped. One of my teddies that I still have has one of my fathers undarnable socks inside. Sadly, her growler hasn't worked awfully well since; mid 1950s I think.

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