My Hermione’s Everyday Socks
My Hermione’s Everyday Socks
A pattern by Erica Lueder.
When I knit, I only have one project going at a time. I admire people who have many projects on the go. I’m trying to keep my life simple.
The beauty of traveling (which my family and I had done before Covid 19 hit) was I could only travel with about one skein and a little project.
Socks were a great way to improve my knitting skills and small enough to carry in my backpack.
Where I’m currently living, there aren’t any local yarn shops. So disappointing! When I visited Adelaide in South Australia, I found a yarn shop in Port Adelaide called Yarn Trader.
There’s something magical about local yarn shops. The yarny goodness is right there in front of you, and feeling the fibers is a delightful experience.
The difficulty is trying to choose your favorite yarn as you’d like to take many more than you need!
Getting back to my visit to the Yarn Trader store, I found a skein of colorful hand-dyed yarn from Hedgehog Fibres.
I’d seen Hedgehog Fibres used in other projects knitters share. The colorway I chose was “Kimono,” however, it’s been renamed “Firefly.”
I imagine this is to do with being respectful and mindful of cultural appropriation. If you’re interested in understanding why makers should not use ‘Kimono,” here is an excellent article to read by Emi Ito: https://ysolda.com/blogs/journal/an-open-letter-to-white-makers-and-designers.
Hedgehog Sock is 100 grams of delicious hand-dyed yarn. This yarn has a beautiful blend of merino wool and nylon, giving it the perfect mix of soft and squishy.
With colors shifting from popping speckles to vibrant variegations, I loved the combination of blues, turquoise, pinks, purples, and neon yellow.
I asked the team at Yarn Trader if they had a sock pattern recommendation for beginners. They recommended Hermione’s Everyday Socks By Erica Lueder. Erica’s pattern is available as a free Ravelry download.
I downloaded it and cast on two socks at a time using the magic loop method using Chiaogoo US 1 (2.5mm) circulars.
I’d learned how to knit two socks at a time (TAAT) through Kate Atherly’s Craftsy course for a simple pair of slipper socks. I figured I could use the same technique to knit these socks.
I got up to knitting the heel flap on both socks and then did the heel turn on one of the socks, then I became baffled.
I asked the marvelous people on Ravelry for their help, but I couldn’t work out how to have both socks going at the same time with this pattern.
I was very new to knitting two socks while having completed a straightforward pattern in Kate Atherley’s course. I ended up taking both socks off the needles and opting to knit one at a time using the magic loop method.
I placed the sock I had not yet worked the heel turn on some waste yarn.
The other sock I ripped back to the heel flap, reworked the heel turn, and then continued with the gusset.
It wasn’t very reassuring when I couldn’t work it out, even with the excellent advice of the knitting experts who took the time to respond to my questions.
I haven’t attempted knitting two socks at a time since because the patterns I’ve used have been more complicated, and just doing one was challenging enough!
I continued with knitting one sock, which I also had to do with my more complicated projects Smaug and Pomatomus, and finally understanding how the stitches needed to be redistributed, I managed the gusset section.
The foot and toe were much easier to knit.
The Slightly Modified Garter-Stitch Edged Eye of Partridge Heel was visually appealing, and it creates a sturdy knitted fabric. In my minimal experience of sock knitting, this heel was new to me.
The textured pattern using knit stitches and purl stitches was easy to do. Overall this pattern was harder to knit, with me trying to knit two socks at a time. It was much better when I chose to do one at a time.
I like one Ravelry member’s suggestion of using two circular needles using the magic loop method. You cast on two socks on two separate circular needles. But you do each row of the pattern on the first circular needles and then the second circular needles.
The member said this method is “no fuss, just as fast, and no second sock syndrome.” You need two sets of circular needles of the same size and two balls of wool. I’m going to attempt this in the future.
The finished socks looked gorgeous, and I loved the textured pattern on the leg and top of the foot and the Eye of Partridge heel.
If I did this kind of heel in the future, I would not do the garter stitch edge. Instead, I’d choose slipped stitches on the edge.
I wonder if I went back and attempted this pattern knitting two socks simultaneously, I would be able to work it out?
I feel my confidence has grown in my knitting ability. Still, I haven’t attempted knitting two socks at the same time for ages.
If you have had a go at knitting simple socks, this pattern is a great beginner sock knitter pattern with some texture. The Hedgehog Fibres yarn is so lovely and soft. The only thing I’ve found is the dyes do bleed in every hand wash.
I wash in cold water with a tiny bit of wool detergent as recommended by Hedgehog Fibres. They say the dyes bleeding is to be expected. Overall I love these socks and would highly recommend knitting them.
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