Yarns to Love
Yarn Dreams
Dear everybody,
“Phone a friend” takes on special meaning when you’re a knitwear designer and your friends are hand dyers. For Fatimah Hinds, when it came time to figure out her designs for Field Guide No. 27: Sock Odyssey, she quickly turned to her supremely talented friends, Adella Colvin and Shobha Nadarajah.
The three of them worked together to develop the color story for the sock designs Fatimah was creating.
And what a color story it is! We’re thrilled with the way it has all come together.
Today, we proudly present the four yarns that are the result of these friends’ vision and creativity.
The Many Moods of DK-weight Yarn
These yarns are superb for knitting the socks in Field Guide No. 27: Sock Odyssey.
They’re all DK weight.
It’s a whole different sort of thing to knit a DK-weight sock, rather than one with fingering. If you haven’t tried it, we encourage you to join us on this fantastic journey. We’re loving the extra smooshiness of these socks.
Please know that the socks you make with these yarns will be a) full of glorious hand-dyed color and b) delicious on your tootsies.
Pinto Bean by Lolabean Yarn Co.
The closer you get, the more you see Adella’s subtle way with speckles. You can go from the dialed-back speckles of Salt Water Taffy…
all the way to the variegated splash that is Audrey II.
The blues here are great. Look closely at Agua Dulce…
and La Playa.
A Mother’s Love shows what I mean about the subtlety of the speckles. This is going to knit up so well.
And African Violets…
You can see what I’m talking about in the two gray yarns. Strange Brew has blips of chartreuse and black…
while Thunder and Lightning lights up a bit more.
Agni Y by Serendipitous Wool
We just sit around looking at this yarn. Agni Y is merino, yak, and silk—three fibers that provide softness (merino), depth of color (yak), luster (silk) and strength (also silk). Shobha’s color sense makes it all even more dreamy. It goes without saying that this yarn makes beautiful socks. And it would make a sweater that we’d want to wear forever.
Agni T by Serendipitous Wool
We keep calling them blups, blurbs, flups, flips. “Nupps” seems to be the official term for the flecks of color in this yarn. Whatever. They’re great. They make your socks full of energy and texture. These eight colors show you what Shobha Nadarajah is all about: a brilliant eye for color.
Agni N by Serendipitous Wool
For extra fun, Shobha created mini skeins that are an easy way to add more color with stripes, cuffs, toes, and heels. Sold individually, it’s kind of great to have a little extra zing of color at hand.
One fun fact about knitting DK-weight socks: they happen faster than fingering-weight socks. We love that. These yarns are special, and we have a limited supply, so if this sounds like fun, please hop on this bandwagon soon.
Sock Curious? Join Our Class with Fatimah on June 21!
There’s so much to learn about knitting socks—whether you’re new or experienced with socks, you’ll learn plenty in our upcoming virtual class, Sock Tips and Tricks. Three hours in a Zoom webinar format, on Friday, June 21, noon-3:00 pm Eastern. You won’t want to miss this chance to learn with Fatimah. We’ll be recording the class in case you want to watch it at another time.
Are all of these Yarns machine washable as it has superwash wool?
Beautiful photography really showcases these yarns . Might need a matching sweater.
Question: do the dk socks fit as well in a shoe? I thought socks are made from finer gauge yarn so shoes don’t feel too tight when you wear them…..but as a loose knitter, I end up knitting on zero size needles (very tricky for me) and abandoning the sock projects…..because they are weird and misshapen. These dk yarns look amazing!
Some wonderful colors. I wish I could make myself like speckles.
I have never knit a sock
Why? Too fiddly. The wear and tear will mean darning in my future, lots of darning. The yarns available are almost always superwash and/or added nylon. Not a fan of superwash for many reasons, or nylon. So, no socks for me.
But…. I am very tempted. The designs are beautiful. The yarn weight is a plus. The recommended wools have gorgeous depth of color. Still, the superwash part stops me.
I really DO want to try sock knitting. So, I searched high and low for a yarn that would be high twist and sturdy nonsuperwash wool as well as affordable. Found one. I’ve ordered some skeins and will now actually take part in sock knitting for once in my knitting life, maybe more if all goes well. Who knows?
Knitting Life is an adventure.
I hate knitting with regular DPs because I end up with holes in my left thumb and forefinger.
These yarns are SO TEMPTING! So I’ll succumb. And I’ve signed up for the Zoom class.
I’m going to try this with my FlexiFlips or maybe learn Magic Loop or 2 circulars.
For toe up use two circulars for cast on. Then knit in the round with a 9 inch circular for the foot. A bit of switching back and forth at the heel then return to finish with 9 inch circ. Really fool proof
If all else fails, try 9″ circulars. I love them!
Deborah
Magic Loop is incredible–do it!!! It’s a total game changer for me–never going back to DPNs for socks. Give yourself a minute to get the hang of it, and I think you’ll really love it.
Such beautiful yarns- I MUST sign up for the class!!
All of the colors are beyond beautiful and I want to order every single one without exception !
Lovely yarns. Wish they weren’t all superwash.
If i enroll in Fatimah class on june 21 will a receive a link to watch the recording? I cannot make June 21, however the week after I have time to wattch the 3 hr recording
Hi Linda! Yes, we will send a link to the recording to all registered participants. Hope you can join us!
These colors and news
My experience in knitting sock with DK yarns is that I love the resulting thick and comfy socks, but that without any nylon in the yarn, they develop holes just about immediately. Are you guys going to add a nylon thread to these to preserve them a little? Does the silk in the blend serve a similar purpose?