So far, I have made three pairs of socks that I like to call Finnish socks. They don’t feature any Finnish or peculiar knitting techniques. Their colorwork also does not resemble any traditions. But in my mind, they are Finnish, because they are made with Finnish yarn. In late 2011 in Riga, Latvia I purchased (among other things) a few Novita skeins. Nothing extravagant or luxurious, but at that time, to me, they were very special – they were very different from what I could find in my hometown (Patras).
Soon after that trip to Riga, I used one of the skeins to make my first pair of socks. About a year after that, the second one followed. After using these pairs in many occasions and enjoying their comfort and warmth [especially during hiking], last March, I decided to combine the yarns from the first two pairs, in order to make a third one.
One skein is a simple solid grey and the other a purple self striping one. My initial idea was to use an allover slip stitch pattern to blend the stripes with the grey yarn. That is how I started making the first sock, until I reached a few centimeters after the toe. At that point I realised that my self-improvised slip stitch pattern was taking forever – and as I was experiencing a year of heavy work knitting – I wanted to make something relaxing and quick. So my next thought was to modify the idea, and use the slip stitch pattern only in the beginning and at the end of the sock, namely after the toe and at the cuff. For the main body of the sock, I used simple stripes. I don’t knit stripes very often and these ones turned out quite subtle, so I quite like them.
The construction of the sock was toe up, seamless with a short-row heel and on dpns. The socks are actually after a pattern I wrote this year for the knitting lessons I deliver over at Mouselin. I can’t go into too many details about it right now, but I can say that it is not with slipped stitches, that was the mod I made for this pair in particular.
The overall fit is quite great and I am eagerly waiting for autumn to come, to enjoy them! 😀
After three pairs of Finnish socks, I still have some yarn left from both skeins. So who knows… there might be a fourth pair in the future! 😉
