Need Solid Sock Yarn?

Well, you don't have to search anymore!  I have available over 40 solid colors of the spankin' new Simply Sock Yarn available for you, and another 20 or so will soon follow.... bringing complete colorcards for purchase so you can make effective color comparisons.  I'm so happy to bring to you SSYC's new sock yarn.  I've had a blast knitting it for the past few months, and it's been a learning process creating a new yarn line over the past year.  I hope you greatly enjoy knitting and wearing this new sock yarn.

With all the things going on in my life, why did I decide to bring a new sock yarn to knitters?  I'm a busy wife, mom and yarn shop owner and knitter.  I definitely have enough on my plate.  But after 4 years of owning a sock yarn shop, I found that it can be somewhat trying to get and keep in stock a wide array of solid colors of sock yarn.  I wanted a steady supply of fingering weight, wool/nylon solid colored sock yarn to offer my knitters, and when I hear "No," I just don't stop there.  Many small dyers and larger yarn companies offer a great selection of solid colors of sock yarn- and I'm going to continue carrying them at SSYC.  But depending on what line it is, the colors aren't exactly what you might want for sports teams, or the fiber might not have any nylon content (which I wanted), or it may not be a true fingering weight yarn, or it may not be available in all colors at all times.  It's a tricky equation to get everything the way I wanted it to be, and I really think I've done it right with Simply Sock Yarn... at least right for me, and I hope right for you.

Each 50 gram/175 yard skein of merino/nylon Simply Sock Yarn is hand dyed in large dye lots.  The perks of this are twofold: each skein is given attention by an artisan's hands, and that the lots are large enough so that you can get many skeins for a garment..... and come back weeks later if you need another few skeins and feasibly get more to match.  And because the skeins are 50 grams (instead of the more prevalent 100 grams skeins), you can buy a several $10 skeins to do intricate colorwork, and not have a huge hank left over.  Each 50 gram skein makes ONE sock.

The question I've received the most so far is, "Are the colors solid or semi-solid?"  That's a great question.  The medium and dark colors are solid and well saturated with color.  They "pop" and are perfect for matching those sports team jerseys, or knitting that bold fairisle pair of socks.  As many of you already know, it's hard to ensure that hand dyed colors are really solid, but I think we've done a really good job of ensuring that the primary and deep tones are well saturated with color.  The medium and light colors are what I would call semi-solid, providing a more dynamic and varied knitted fabric.  This is because as you dilute colorants to produce lighter tones, fiber can absorb the colorants somewhat unevenly in the dyepot, thus the semi-solid colors.  Shown here are two examples of what I'm referring to: Chocolate is deep and dark, and well saturated in color.  Mocha is a lighter version of Chocolate and is thus semi-solid.  Same for Wheatgrass and Wasabi, which are two of my favorites- I'm a sucker for green.

Simply Sock Yarn was designed for use as a sock yarn.  Thus the name, right?  But the superb fiber content and wide color array lends well to using it for garments.  Holli Yeoh test knit this child's' sweater for me using the Mocha and Salmon colors.  She used the Ruby pattern that she designed in her pattern line.  You can read a bit about her experience knitting this sweater on her blog.

I do have to admit that I created this line partially for selfish reasons.  I really wanted a huge array of solid colors to knit, and by creating those colors myself (with the help of my very experienced and talented dyer- I don't dye yarn) I got to fill the Simply Sock Yarn line with all the colors I was looking for.  And in the past few months, I've gotten to expand my horizons as a sock knitter by knitting more intricate sock patterns with this yarn.  While the yarn is lovely, it really makes patterns look wonderful because the solid/semi-solid colors really show stitch patterns well.

I really hope that you enjoy knitting Simply Sock Yarn.  I'm still working on getting a few of the colors just right, so you'll see a few colors missing... a basic red, blue-violets, a couple browns, more greens (again, I'm a sucker for green) and a few others.  But if you have other ideas for colors that you would like to see included, please e-mail me at allison@simplysockyarn.com !  And if you were one of the knitters who participated in the Name that Color contest from the previous post, the winning names were Adobe and Bellini.  Thanks for your help in naming the colors, and I'll be e-mailing the winners shortly.

The socks above were the first ones I knit in Simply Sock Yarn.  I wanted to test the skeins for length and the colors for bleeding.  I knit these socks for my own size 11 feet, using a skein each of Magenta and Natural.  I had plenty of yarn using just one skein of each color, and after many washes and wears, the bold Magenta dye never bled into the Natural (white) yarn.  Though I did notice that over time the socks predictably fuzzed up a bit, and the magenta fuzz made the edges of the color changes look less defined.  If I cared, I could use a razor to get rid of the fuzz and make the color changes more defined, but I'm not that way. I have worn and machine washed these socks at least a dozen times.  I have accidentally machine dried them once too.  Simply Sock Yarn can be machine dried, but I find that with any sock yarn, machine drying really increases the fuzzing of the yarn, making the stitches and pattern less defined.  I also find that turning the socks inside out before machine washing REALLY makes a difference in how much of a fuzzy halo you get on the socks over time.  Machine drying also made the socks temporarily shrink about 10%, but once I put the socks back on my feet, they went right back to their intended size.

I'll likely post this as a free pattern when I have time to write it up. I cast on 64 stitches.  I knit a 2x2 rib all the way to the heel.   As I remember it, the stripes are 7 rows dark, 3 rows light.  Then the heel and the toe are in the dark color, and the foot in the light color.  This way, I used up close to even amounts of each color, and only used one skein of each color for my large size 11 feet.

Want to see more socks knit up in this yarn?  Take a look at previous posts showing my Cerulean and Brick & Salmon socks.

Comments

[Nancy]

Congratulations on your new line! I bought 2 shades of blue at the Sock Summit. I haven't decided what to knit yet, and I'll surely look at all new projects with great interest.

[Cyndy]

Congratulations, I'm off to shop the colors!!

[SusanB-knits]

Love the yarn colors! I'm glad you're offering some solid/semi-solid colors. I love the stitch definition I'm getting with the color Sunflower! and it feels wonderful to knit.

[Elizabeth D]

Very exciting! Is it possible to get a color card? My monitor is never very truthful, and it's particularly off on the Simply Sock page for some reason -- I have NEVER seen a tangerine or copper any color like what shows up on my screen. I can guess by color name for many of them, of course, but I'd love to know for sure before I place an order.

[Allison]

Elizabeth, colorcards will be available once the entire color line is complete. It will be at least a month. Sorry!

[mary r,]

Congratulations! The colors are gorgeous. Just think of the millions of happy hours that will be spent by sock knitters designing with and knitting with the yarn.

[Suna]

The new yarn colors are lovely. I will have to figure out what I want to make so I will know what color to get! You did GREAT!!!

[Renee']

Beautiful colors. This is going to be fun!

[Sandra D]

Wowee zowee! These are great. Six skeins just jumped into my shopping basket. What a wonderful resource. I can't wait to get it on the needles. Thanks so much!

[AmyS]

Just seeing these now - FABULOUS! I have been wanting to use more solid colors, for exactly the reason you mentionn: showing off intricate patterns. Thank you so much, and long live Simply Sock yarn!

[Bev]

I am so excited for you! Now to find just the right colors for the Ophelia that I am starting in January! Thanks so much for your semi-selfish desires. The rest of us get to reap the benifits.

[Barb Rickman]

WONDERFUL! Who say's capitalisim is dead!! You Go Girl!!!!

When money surfaces, I shall indeed support your efforts. Many, many congrats!

bjr