When making thick comfy socks out of a colourway called Swamp then naturally your friends will refer to them as Swocks!
I wanted to make some thick warm socks for The Englishman, choosing a colourway during the annual Black Friday sales from Hedgehog fibres the yarn was waiting for us when we arrived in England.
Originally I cast on a size large but they were huuuge! way too big, so I re cast on in a size Medium and that worked out much better. Unlike my own tiny feet making socks for The Englishman uses a whole skein of thicker ply yarn.
I genuinely enjoy knitting rib so it was a lovely time sitting in front of the fire making my way through the socks. Using only a single colour meant they were very calm and easy to knit., Highly recomended for a fireside easy knit! Also quite fun to be able to knit a pair of socks while in England, 2 years since I had learnt to make a very wobbly cast on and attempt to make some stitches. Testament to practice and dedication!
Pattern:
Yarn: Swamp from Hedgehog Fibes
Encouraged by my successful socks using the fade yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills I dove right pack in and cast on another pair!
After the last fade sock where the heel was the same yarn the whole way though, I found having a contrast yarn so much easier to see and deal with! Will be remembering that for future pairs.
I liked the contrast heel so much I did the same for the toe, I’m still struggling with the grafting stitch so the toes aren’t as smooth as I would like but they are better than the last ones so I think at this stage continuous improvement is a good sign.
So far I’ve been following the pattern and just using a ruler to measure when it says “make rib to 3cm” it works mostly but having to keep trying on the sock for my foot length which is slightly annoying for some reason?
Pattern: 
When I cast these on it had been about a year and a few days since I had first learnt to knit. That year was lots and lots and lots of practice, I was still struggling with casting on so these are a little wobbly around the top of the first one but still pretty good for my first go.
The knitting series by Summer Lee that takes you through each step of the pattern was an absolute miracle and I’m not sure I would’ve got this far without it, so thank you Summer! Link is down below for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
It knitted up well and I was super happy except for one thing, it kind of looks like dirty washing up water on the second sock. I think because I have small feet the “fade” didn’t show up as well and instead of getting the pretty pastel colours I’m mostly getting the blend in-between which looks kind of dirty?
Apart from not being very happy with the colour I was happy with how they finished up and very excited to have finally achieved an actual real pair of socks.
