Handknit Socks for October
October One-Skein Socks and my beloved fall leaves!
It’s finally here. Fall is finally here, and not just my favorite season, but my favorite month….
The month of October.
SO many great things about October- the colors, the cool weather, blue skies, hikes in the woods, cider, candles, fireplaces, crisp air, baking, good books- but what a great month for knitting!
Autumn and blue sky in my backyard, with the Blue Ridge peeking in the background.
I love knitting in October. I love knitting with yarn that is hand-dyed in October colors, and the winner in that category, in my opinion, is Malabrigo Rios in the colorway 227 (Volcan).
I see all the fall leaf colors in this variegated yarn - the green/golds, orange/reds and yellow/browns. The earthy colors that are my favorite, all year round.
Look at these gorgeous fall colors!
I bought the skein from one of my local yarn shops, New River Art and Fiber in Blacksburg, Virginia, home of my daughter Lauren now that she’s a freshman at Virginia Tech. Talk about gorgeous fall colors…if you go to Tech, you’re surrounded by forests and mountains that are absolutely brilliant right now. Virginia Tech Hokies like to point out that God clearly meant for all the trees to turn Hokie colors (maroon and orange) during Tech football season!
The worsted weight, 100% merino wool yarn became socks, my October One-Skein sock pattern available on my website.
If you’re familiar with sock knitting, you know that in a yarn shop, most “sock yarn” is typically very fine yarn, but you can still knit a great pair of socks out of thicker yarns, like worsted weight. Just use smaller needles than usual. I used Size 5 (3.75 mm) double pointed needles for my worsted weight yarn socks. That’ll give you a knitted fabric dense enough for all the wear you’ll give your socks, especially in the heel and toe.
However, I normally don’t choose 100% merino wool yarn for socks… and here’s why. Most dedicated sock yarns contain a small percentage (10 or 20%) of man-made fiber, such as nylon, to strengthen the yarn and lengthen the life of the sock. If your yarn doesn’t have nylon fibers included, Ann Budd (knitting sock goddess) recommends “working a strand of reinforcing nylon thread or yarn…along with the heel and toe, or be prepared to mend the inevitable holes (Ann Budd, Sock Knitting Master Class).”
Well, I didn’t carry any reinforcing nylon thread or yarn along with the Malabrigo merino wool yarn, so I may have to learn to darn socks soon - believe it or not, I’ve never actually darned anything. I will learn this useful skill one day.
However, it’s not too late for you to make use of this valuable sock wisdom! If you buy the October One-Skein Sock pattern, and you use the Malabrigo Rios yarn that the pattern calls for, consider carrying along nylon sewing thread when you knit the heel and the toes. You’re investing in a longer life for your sock if you take this step!
I’ll leave you to your October knitting…it’s the best kind! Does fall inspire you to knit more/longer/faster?
What are you knitting this October?
