How To
Yarn Detective: Sock Yarn Versus Fingering-Weight Yarn
Fingering-weight yarn and sock yarn are typically the same size and knit to the same gauge. I used to substitute them for each other with wild abandon, making socks and lace shawls with both.
Often I was disappointed in the outcome. Did that stop me from switching up my yarns? Nope, with a capital No.
I knit firmly in the land of “knit whatever you want with whatever yarn makes you happy.” There are lots of us here, and we’re mixing cocktails.
My experiments did teach me about yarn construction. Swapping sock and fingering-weight yarns taught me to really pay attention to how yarns naturally behave, and to investigate the ways I could get them to do my bidding and make my switcheroos satisfying. Sneaky, I know.
Regular fingering-weight yarn and sock yarn are about the same size and can be knit to the same gauge, but because of how they are constructed they may not work the same way in knitting.
I went to my local yarn shop and bought two yarns that bowled me over that day. One from the section marked socks and one from the regular fingering-weight yarn section.
I came home with one skein of Kelbourne Woolens Perennial Fingering (shade: Neon Pink) and one skein of Neighborhood Fiber Company Studio Sock (shade: Oaklee).
Please note that for the photos of Perennial in this post, I had to turn down the vibrancy due to the neon-ness of the pink. It is a spectacular color. (They have a lime, too.)
Here are the data points for each:
Kelbourne Woolens Perennial (blindingly pink) (in a good way)
Fiber: 60% superwash Merino, 25% Suri alpaca, 15% nylon
Draft: worsted
Ply: 3-ply
Twist: balanced/regular
Neighborhood Fiber Company Studio Sock (deep orange shades)
Fiber: 100% superwash
Spinning style (aka “draft”): worsted
Ply: 8-ply (4 strands, each of which has 2 plies)
Twist: tight
The biggest differences between these two yarns were the number of plies and the amount of ply twist. Ply can affect the look, feel and action of your knitting. When I look at yarns for a lace shawl I’m thinking about drape and openness of the lace. When I’m considering a yarn for socks I want elasticity, durability, and non-splittiness when I knit.
The black and white photo shows the ply line more distinctly.
Fingering-weight yarn (pink yarn in the photo above) can be any fiber, is usually worsted spun, and can be single or have two or more plies. The amount of ply twist is light to regular; you can see a line between the plies, it looks diagonal.
Sock yarn (orange in the photo above) is often a superwash wool, frequently blended with nylon for strength, and has three or more plies. The ply twist is tight. The visible ply line on the yarn is almost horizontal; some say it looks like beads on a string.
My fingering-weight yarn (pink) has three plies, not my first choice for lace since 3-ply yarns try to roll the yarnovers closed. The lighter ply helps to mitigate that, though.
My sock yarn (orange) is 8-ply. Like fame, my socks are going to live forever. The yarn is constructed by plying together four 2-ply yarns, tightly. That construction makes a yarn that won’t stretch out, and is crazy durable.
These swatches are 8 stitches to the inch, sock gauge.
Which Yarn for Socks?
I’ve been known to use a basic fingering-weight yarn for socks, but average fingering weight yarn isn’t designed for socks, and may not hold up to the hard wearing that socks are subject to. Lately I’ve noticed fingering-weight/sock hybrids creeping into stores. These yarns have added some of the properties of a sock yarn into a regular fingering-weight yarn.
Fingering-weight yarns may have fewer plies than sock yarn and a less aggressive ply twist, and typically they aren’t blended with any other fibers (such as nylon or silk) for extra strength and durability.
Many fingering-weight yarns are 100% merino and may not even be superwash. Make sure to read the label and think about each facet of the yarn. Beware the siren song of making socks out of single-ply merino. Your socks will likely felt on the first wearing, which would be sad.
Kelbourne Woolens Perennial is a good all-around fingering-weight yarn, and it’s one of those fingering/sock hybrid yarns. The fiber blend makes it more durable than many fingering weight yarns, and it’s washable. The addition of alpaca gives me pause: while alpaca does strengthen the yarn, it also adds drape, which is not what I want in most socks. To combat this, I would work a sock with an all over rib pattern.
Up close you can see that the (pink) Perennial, with its lighter ply twist, is a little splitty, and just doesn’t look as cohesive and sturdy as the (orange) Studio Sock. I would still use the Perennial to make socks, but not if it was a choice between that and Studio Sock.
Behold the mighty Studio Sock. It knits tightly without a split, and all of that ply goodness makes the stitches stand out smoothly, with a spring-back after stretching that you can almost hear. The combination of fibers, twists and tight gauge would make socks that will last, and give texture stitches pop.
In the MDK Shop
Which Yarn for Lace?
While Studio Sock (orange) makes great socks and textured stitches, it makes for a very particular lace. The Perennial (pink) relaxes into the lace stitches, and the alpaca adds so much to lace: drape, silkiness and little bit of halo. It has this wonderful feeling of being both lofty and swingy.
I like my lace to look (and be) flowing, especially for a shawl. Sock yarn lace looks (to me) oddly at attention. The two swatches look like the difference between a dog lounging on the couch, and the same dog the instant you pick up a tennis ball.
When I blocked the two lace swatches, the Perennial (pink) needed only enough pinning to open the holes; the Studio Sock (orange) needed a harder stretch and twice the number of pins. When I knit lace shawls with sock yarn I find I have to reblock them every once in a while to keep the lace open. The spring-back that is so useful for socks is a deficit for lace shawls.
For these swatches I used the same sized needle for an accurate comparison. In my real life knitting I would have gone up a needle size or two for the Studio Sock, to give the stitches a little more drape.
If You Know What You’re Doing, You Can Do What You Want
I am always drawn to the amazing dye work on sock yarns. Although I do know that they make better socks than shawls, I will still knit whatever I want with them. I know better now how a sock yarn will look as lace and how to convince it to behave with a little more swing.
Fingering-weight yarns make me want to touch them: even in the skein they bloom and radiate softness. They make delicious shawls (and sweaters), but sometimes a woman needs a neon pink pair of socks with a silky soft halo. I know the needles to use to combat splitting, and exactly the sock patterns that will add a little extra elasticity.
I was just wondering about this! Thanks so much!
Great article!
Very informative & answered a long asked question of mine, thank you
Great article, as I’ve only ever knitted two things successfully (I’m a habitual crocheter) I wouldn’t have thought about it being that different.
I’ve purposely chosen sock yarn over fingering when making crochet lace because regular y twist yarns tends to loosen as you crochet, and the tighter twist of the sock yarn helps alleviate some of the problems created when this happens.
Same here! This was very much appreciated ♥️
So the fingering has the nylon and the sock does not? That is s surprise.
Not true. Check labels.
I started separating my fingering weight stash into both sock and fingering weight about a year ago. I still find myself dipping into the sock yarn bin for a shawl project and the fingering bin for socks on occasion though.
Does sock yarn always have 8 ply?
And there can even be two ply sock yarns if the spin is nice and tight.
Agree – one of my favorite sock yarns is crazy Zauberball, a 2-ply (superwash, with nylon added). That stuff wears like iron.
Did not know that about Zauberball–I’ll need to try some.
oh, great to know. Thanks. I have some zauberballs that I’d love to make into socks!
Nope, it usually has 3 or more plies. An 8-ply sock yarn is exceptional.
This post has answered some of my questions about yarns I have considered buying for socks. Now, I can be a smarter yarn consumer, for socks and for shawls. Thank you.
Jillian, thank you for continuing our yarn education so we can use our stash to the fullest!
Great article but what does “worsted spun” mean?
This article will answer that! https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/woolen-worsted-mean/
Always wondered about this. Thanks for this really helpful article!!
Great article! Thank you for sharing the great examples!
I always thought that what made a side yarn was that it had nylon in it. I’m confused!!
Many sock yarns have nylon, but they don’t have too. Tighter twist, and many plies work to make a yarn durable too. Lots of sock yarns have both.
I am also confused. Everything else I have read has said yarn you knit socks from should have nylon in it.
Nylon does extend the sock’s life. However silk has inordinate strength and can be used in place of nylon. I have Shibui merino wool and bombx silk socks I knit, and they are holding up quite well.
Mohair in sock yarn can adds some real strength. It would not be kid mohair but an adult fleece. I believe Priscilla Gibson-Roberts who has written extensively on socks and handspun for socks has recommended mohair fibers as a replacement for the nylon.
Thank you! This was really helpful!
Even when “sock” is part of the yarn’s name, if it has no nylon, I pass. My socks tend to wear through at the ball of my foot, 100% wool means I only have a few months to wear them.
Great article! I love to use fingering weight to knit shawls, but I’ve always wondered why some kept their shape better than others. Now I think I understand that better. Thank you! I wish (some days) that I was a sock knitting lover, but then I see another pattern for a shawl, sweater, cowl, etc., and then I’m like…Squirrel!!!
Please tell us the needles to combat splitting! It’s an annoying problem I would love to avoid..
Less pointy needles, I almost never use needles that are suggested for lace, they tend to be the pointiest.
So helpful in demystifying this topic. I love your writing. Still chuckling about the dog analogy!
This is great information. I have leftover fingering yarn that I was considering using up in socks, but now knowing I wouldn’t be happy with the outcome, you have saved me from myself. Thank you not only for sharing your observations, but the timing of your article as well. Have a Magical Day!
What about 4 ply? I have a bunch in stash and am unsure what to do with it. I am not a sock knitter, but don’t know if I should classify it as “fingering”.
I am delighted to learn about all the yarn things! However, with knowledge comes great responsibility, and so now I cannot naively choose my yarn just by color. Gonna bookmark this and study it, because I caught the fact that cocktails were being mixed, but I missed the actual time to show up.
An additional consideration:garter stitch shawls. I live in a warm climate in Virginia and it turns out that my most “wearable” shawl for many seasons is a garter stitch shawl (with a few eyelet rows) knit from the same sock yarn you profile here. Now I love knitting with single ply and fingering weight MCN but I find that I keep pulling out that sock yarn shawl because it feels cool and has no halo or stickiness to it. Would not have predicted that! Is it the tight twist that makes it feel cooler?
Is it superwash? If it is, I think it’s the coating that gets put on the yarn. Sock yarn with a tight twist makes super springy garter stitch.
It is superwash, but so are the single plus that I use, and the mcns for that matter. I have just noticed that the neighborhood finer company sock yarn makes a cooler shawl (granted, no significant lacework).
That’s brilliant! Thank you so much for this detailed research report!
Yea. Love having ?’s answered when I didn’t know I had a ?. Thank you for great illustrations too.
This is extremely helpful and so nicely written. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing. You conveyed so, one could easily understand. Eye opening to say the least.
I know 8 st/in is “standard” sock gauge. But I find that my socks wear much better if they’re knit at a tighter gauge, at least 9 st/in, regardless of the structure of the yarn. The commercial sock yarns like Regia and Opal hold up OK at the standard gauge. But I would aim for 9 st/in for both of the yarns discussed in this post, if I were using them for socks.
Also, another use for fingering weight yarn is, of course, light-weight sweaters. Yes, it’s a lot of knitting, but the result is perfect for transitional season wear. And it’s a great way to use yarns that don’t really have enough plying twist for socks, even if they have “foot” or “feet” in the yarn name.
Hi Jillian Moreno – I just want to mention that your stockinette swatch of the pink yarn shows that you have fairly different tensions for your knit and purl rows – hence the “stripy” appearance of this swatch. When this occurs is it most commonly the purl rows that have the looser tension, and changing your method of purling, or, tightening up on your knitting on the purl rows, will address this.
I row out a lot. I can even see that I row out more at the end of a row than at the beginning. I’ve recently changed my tensioning, and clearly I don’t have it quite right yet. Thanks for the tip!
Jillian—- if you use interchangeables… put the gauge size (larger) needle on your knit side then put a smaller needle on your purl side. BOOM consistent tension without having to change your knitting style.
Fist bump, knit sister! I do this too. I use interchangeable with a smaller needle tip on the left side. Took me years to diagnose the problem. PS: This sentence: “The two swatches look like the difference between a dog lounging on the couch, and the same dog the instant you pick up a tennis ball.” I so freaking love you.
What’s rowing out? ♥️
I believe it just means that your purl rows are looser than your knit rows in stockinette.
Mystery solved! Thanks for the excellent article.
Very interesting article! I never realized there was such a difference. Now I know what to look for when choosing. I always went by “too pretty for socks” or not.
Thank you so much for the explanation. I’ve always wanted to know but was too intimidated to ask!
Thanks for this info! It coincides with much of my experience. I believe plying plied yarns is called cable plying, correct? My current favorite sock yarn is superwash corriedale + nylon (Poste Yarn from Simply Socks Yarn Co). I find it tougher than merino but just as cushy.
I am going to be cognizant of the differences the next time I buy yarn for socks. I have had some sagging socks and I have also had 1 experience with a pair of socks felt after being laundered. Thanks for the clarification!
Thanks for the explaining why what I see isn’t always what I get.
Excellent article. Very useful information. Thank you!
Love this article. I’m always up to learn more about the materials I use, and being a person who works to fit garments and wants a shawl to drape like a shawl, I was happy to be further educated about a craft I enjoy and teach.
Great piece! I’ve wondered about this for a long time.
This is a very interesting post. Particularly to me, because I’m an Indie Dyer and go through 8 different suppliers for the yarn that I dye. Not one of them sells a “sock yarn.” To those of us who dye it and buy it wholesale, that term does not apply. It is all sold to us as fingering weight. Some sellers may look at the fiber content and tightness of the ply and the number of plies and label it as “sock yarn,” but there’s no true sock yarn that I’ve ever seen in the industry. And even within one category (say fingering weight), different fiber content is going to drastically affect how a yarn will knit up. Comparing different bases is a very good exercise, but your experience between two different bases will be completely different when you take another two bases and compare those, regardless of whether it’s officially labeled as sock yarn or not. For example, Blue Barn Fiber sells a huge number of fingering weight bases and the “best” for socks is called Bright Eyes – a 4-ply Superwash BFL/Nylon blend with a high twist. But it’s still technically fingering weight yarn. It will knit up very differently than the more popular Roo base which is 50/50 SW Merino/Silk. Both of those will knit up differently than a 4-ply SW Merino/Nylon base called Schmoozie. Every single base is different.
This is amazing! I kinda had the feeling that there were differences, and for good reason. Your article put clearly what I had a vague idea of. It just clicked into place. Thank you for putting this all together in one place.
What a helpful discussion! Thank you for explaining this so carefully and fully. This will help my future knitting.
Great information, thanks for this article! I have been slogging through a pair of toe-up socks with Mini-Moochi yarn, feeling very proud of myself for finally achieving 9 stitches per inch. (Single ply yarn, not much twist, mostly merino). I now have to decide whether to plow ahead, knitting densely with a splitty yarn that might felt—-& the knitting is not fun. Or whether ‘tis nobler to froggit and turn this yarn into a shawl. With knowledge comes…..more decisions!
There’s always darning in a new sole with a sturdy yarn if/when it starts to wear out . . .
Wow. This article made me gasp with awe. You are amazing!! Maybe if I start younger next lifetime I could have all that knowledge. Better buckle down to get a head start. Thank you for the motivation!!
For me I have a definite reaction to the visuals of the two samples. When I look at the pink Perennial sample in the lace pattern my eye goes straight to the pattern. I don’t really notice individual stitches. In some respects it reminds me more of a woolen yarn where it all melts together. But looking at the orange Studio sock yarn my eye goes right to the individual stitch. I can’t get past the stitch to see the overall pattern. So visually the pattern view (pink) is more satisfying to look at.
Thank You. This has been very enlightening
Great exploration and explanation. Gauge is not everything – good to remember!
Thanks for this very helpful article. The photos speak volumes.
“Sometimes a woman needs a neon pink pair of socks with a silky halo.” Stop reading my mind.
Thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if Jillian would address the fact that some knitters would inevitably use the “wrong” yarn adjusting their knitting to overcome the “wrongness.” She did! The fact that this was so important to me despite the fact that I knit neither socks nor lace is a rather disturbing part of my character. The only way to justify this is to knit a skintight cocktail dress for Barbie using regular fingering weight yarn in all over 1×1 rib as Jillian specified. No lace, no socks and an opportunity to test the efficacy of Norwegian purl.,,Oh, gosh, see what you guys do to me??
Another useful article… written with flair!
Thank you for the excellent information, clearly explained with helpful photos.
Take a look at ontheround.com. Rachel Jones does some amazingly beautiful dye work.
Thank you for articulating a subconscious process I must have been operating by as I have learned, through trial and error, how to use each type of yarn.
Thanks for the info. Very, very interesting. I have crocheted for decades but I’m a novice when it comes to buying expensive or fancy yarn. I’m terrified I’ll ruin it. I want to buy some hand-dyed DK or fingering yarn for the first time and this was helpful.
Great photos to explain (I’m very visual) and also love the dog on couch example.
Thank you very much for your clever lesson! I have been wrestling w sock yarn on and off for a couple of days and it just did not want to be lace…sort of like trying to convince your child that a hated veggie is fun!
It all makes so much sense now!
P.S. hated veggies served with any kind of dipping sauce are often acceptable.
Can you crochet socks with these yarns?
did not know this
Thank you for explaining.
How about adding in a sturdier yarn on the sole? That way the upper can be the lovely soft silky yarn and the base can be enriched to protect it from blowing out and needing to be darned right away?
This was so incredibly helpful to me, thank you!
Hello! I’ve read your other article in which you were comparing untreated yarn to superwash yarn. You mention that superwash doesn’t make a cabled pattern stand out. What about sock yarn now? Since it has a higher twist, does it make the cable pattern stand out better than regular superwash yarn?
SO helpful. Thank you!
Thank you for this highly-detailed analysis. It’s incredibly helpful!
Wow! This is very informative! I am an intermediate-level knitter, and I’m at the point now where I feel confident using good yarn for projects instead of using something that’s “meh” in quality for fear that I mess it up! I also am very inquisitive by nature, and I really like knowing the differences between this and that. It’s like what she says above: if you know what you’re doing, you can do what you want! I’m excited to see what other nuggets of info I can get. I’m sure it will be very helpful for the next time I purchase yarn. Thanks for taking time to write such a detailed post!
This was very helpful!
you are truly heaven sent! I have been crocheting since I was 8 years old (I’m 53 now….counting the years in between just made me feel oh-so old. :/ ) and still spend countless hours browsing through yarnshops looking at only the colors and wondering why I’m never satisfied with the outcome of my patterns. Now I know the differences perhaps I’ll be more pleased with my designs…..You are extremely dedicated to the yarn profession and I’ll always come back to your articles for reference! Thank you so very much! God Bless my yarn angel!
Great article. The explanation of ply and twist is the best ever! Thank you.
Great info. Just hat I needed to know. Thanks!
Hello, can you please make a translation in French. Even if I’m quite good in English, I don’t get every thing in your article. I’ve tried with Google translate but what a pity. Thans
You have a wonderful way with words, and that would have been enough – I don’t know which I enjoyed more , “there’s a lot of us here, and we are mixing cocktails” or the reference to the yarn behaving like a dog on the couch vs. about to fetch. – and I learned something about how plies behave that was valuable. I did already know to be careful about content when making socks and I was able to help a young guy who worked in a store that sold socks who mentioned people complained that they didn’t sell socks that were 100% wool – told him he could tell customers the reason they don’t sell 100% wool socks because they’d be disappointed when they spent $25 on them and wore through them quickly, and that the small percentage of nylon was to help them wear better. I like natural fibres but a little nylon is a good thing in a sock.
Really informative article. And I love the dog analogy!
So informative! Thank you!
Found article to answer my questions. Thanks for taking the time to write it.—beginner crocheter
Such a helpful article! Thank you.