Guess what J got me for Chrismanukkah!
SOCK. BLANKS. !!!!!!!!
... You have no idea what those are, do you? That's OK. That's what I'm writing about this week, just so you can share in my excitement!!
Sock blanks are essentially a different way to knit from a skein of yarn. Instead of a skein, you are unraveling a completed "scarf," a flat piece of knitted fabric. The cool thing about a sock blank is that you have no idea what the yarn will actually knit up to look like, because even though there is a gradient, striped or solid-color background, there is a design on top that turns out like fun little speckles in the finished project!
Examples: photos pulled from Pinterest
The spring club has releases in January, February and March. Because I am a sparkly little snowflake unicorn, I of course wanted the sparkly sock blanks! The January blank, which is sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to get size US 2 needles and start casting on, is shades of green, yellow, blue and white with fuchsia "Happy Spring" and caramel-brown bunnies stenciled on top. It's so cute! I know what the February and March blanks will look like, but I'll keep y'all in suspense each month (or you could go to her Instagram account and take a peek)! My mother has already claimed |
Y'all can follow my progress each month on Ravelry or on Instagram (search the hashtag #3KDSparkleSocks)! I'm excited to get my hands a little dirty in the sock-knitting world and expand beyond my Cushy Hiker Socks.
Some sock blank resources:
* A look inside Gale's Art studio (thanks to fellow Atlanta Knitting Guild member Barbara Benson for this one!)
* How to dye a sock blank, so that the finished product is a pair of matching striped knitted socks
* Gale's Art Etsy store (you know, because now you all either want to knit sock blanks/buy me sock blanks to knit you custom socks)
* Another one of my favorite sock blank dyers, AndreSueKnits' first foray into this fiber artform
* AndreSueKnits' Etsy store. Hers are so artistic though I'd have to buy two ... one to knit and one to turn into like, a pillow or something so it doesn't mess up the painting!