Knitting fans' affection for hand-knitted socks is not a myth! On the contrary, it has now become a solidly established fact in the yarn industry. It takes a sock yarn worthy of the name to keep the feet of the little ones as well as the grown-ups comfortable and warm!
Firstly, what is sock yarn? It is a kind of yarn that matches certain criteria:
Sock yarn: its size
According to the Craft Yarn Council the thickness of sock yarn usually match the "super fine" category which one often finds under the "fingering" label.
The sock yarns that are listed in this category usually contain approximately 400 meters of knitting yarn in a 100g. ball.
This quantity is large enough to knit a "standard" pair of socks for an adult. Of course, if you wear size 11 and you’d wish to knit knee high socks, you should expect using some more sock yarn! Some spinning mills provide their sock yarn in 50g. balls. In that case you should consider taking at least 2 balls from the same set for a regular pair or 3 balls for a longer/larger pair !
If you are an "anxious kind of knitter" who is always afraid of running out of yarn to finish your socks, here’s an easy and amusing little trick: use contrasting sock yarns to knit the extremities (ribbing, heels and toes). You can easily use leftovers from your sock yarn stash to knit colourful and extraordinary socks... It would be a wonderful occasion to join the useful to the pleasant!!
The composition of sock yarn
Standard sock yarn is made of wool and 15 to 25% of nylon.
The nylon is incorporated into the yarn to add additional durability, especially on the sole, at the level of the heel and the foot.
You may also use an additional nylon spool as the Jawoll Superwash Reinforcement yarn that you can add to your main yarn when you are knitting the heel.
Maintenance of your sock yarn
According to the manufacturing norms sock yarn is made to be washable in the washing machine! To be sure, you should read the maintenance instructions on the label.
Superwash (also called SW or "anti-felting") means that the sock yarn has been chemically treated to avoid felting so that you can wash your socks carefree in the machine. That is to say, in order to keep your wool and its colour in shape as long as possible, at Biscotte Yarns we recommend you wash your knittings by hand in cold water and always dry them spread flat on a towel.
Sock yarn’s colours
Because socks are knittings with a rather small circumference and mostly hidden by pants or a pair of jeans, knitting ladies try to incorporate a little bit more of fantasy in their selection of sock yarn. That is why suppliers specialized in this type of yarn provide their sock yarns in a variety of colours.
Beginning with neutral colours you can also opt for sock yarn that automatically produces features imitating a jacquard loom or a gradual range of spectacular colours or shades.
There is also a variety of sock yarn with repeating stripes, such as our famous Bis-Sock self-striping sock yarn with our most popular colour, the watermelon sock yarn which forms stripes featuring a melon including small seeds that show up automatically whilst you’re knitting. :-)
Wonderful! Now that you have all the tools at hand to make a good selection of your sock yarn, you’ll now need a template or model to start knitting your socks. We have exactly all you need for that right here...!