FO Friday – Festoon Socks

Yes I have a FO (Finished Object)! I skipped my WIP Wednesday post this week to put some energy into finishing them. There are only so many WIPs I can have lying around and I was starting to build up quite a backlog. So may I present my finished Festoon Socks.

The Festoon Socks are a pattern by Rachel Coopey from Pompom issue 21 and I introduced them in this WIP Wednesday Blog Post. I have to say these socks were hanging around for quite some time and I’m very pleased to have finished them. So with the FO blog series I shall talk through how I found both the pattern and the yarn.

The pattern is very clear to knit as we would expect from Rachel, who has a talent for inventing amazingly intricate designs. The socks are symmetrical which I really like and makes for a pleasing pair when worn. It also means the two are not identical. There are a lot of cables here which can be quite challenging, especially as I was knitting on a 2mm needle (The pattern specifies a 2.5mm but I tend to always go down because I am a bit of a loose knitter and prefer a tighter gauge with socks).

I chose the second size which was close to the number of stitches I would cast on for a sock for myself, or that is what I had hoped. I tend to never knit a swatch for this sort of thing because a sock is so small anyway it is practically a swatch. If you are lucky with the gauge the first time then great, but if not you can always pick back and start again and have not wasted much time. As it happened these were coming out far too big for me, but when that happens especially with things like socks, hats and gloves I ask my boyfriend if he would like them instead. With his seal of approval I kept on knitting the size I started with and he would end up with a surprise pair of socks he didn’t expect.

This pattern is charted so if you struggle with charts then it might be one to avoid. The whole cabled section is charted and that makes up a pretty big part of the sock. Compromising of two charts of 29 and 14 stitches and 32 rows. If you are looking to learn more about knitting from a chart or are a bit unsure and need a bit of guidance, I would recommend this blog post from Tin Can Knits: How to read a knitting chart. They have a clear way of describing techniques that I often refer to.

I knit them in Hey Mama Wolf’s Sockyarn #04 a sturdy plastic free sock yarn which feels solid and hardwearing. This yarn feels to me on the slightly heavier end of a 4ply, which might be the reason the sock came out a little larger than expected. Also you may note that the toes of these socks are a different colour. One thing I didn’t spot was this yarn comes out at 300m/328yards. As I was knitting them a bit longer in the foot for my boyfriend I ran out of yarn. However I only noticed this after knitting one whole sock and then weighing it and it came out over 50g, oops.

Determined to have them symmetrical I came up with a plan to knit the second sock until I used up all the yarn and then unpick the end of the first sock, knit the second sock from the yarn of the first sock until I got to the same section on both socks. It worked and I was able to continue kitting with some yarn from my stash, which also happened to be plant dyed and one I have written about in an earlier blog post: Knitting With Nature.

I love Hey Mama Wolf’s Sockyarn #04, it hold stitch definition like nothing else. It’s crisp and ideal for cables, showing off every detail with mastery. The range of natural dyed colours make this yarn a work of art. It feels sturdy and hardwearing and I will think result in knitwear that will last for a long while.



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