It may seem that knitting socks is difficult and when you first start, they probably are. Heck, there’s no “probably” to it . . I thought I would never get it but that’s just because the concept is so different from knitting a scarf or a sweater. Once you’ve done a few pairs, it’s pretty comical that they seemed so hard in the beginning. I’ll never forget how much trouble I had with my first few pairs but now, I can make plain vanilla socks, start to finish, without ever looking at a pattern. I can also take a leg, ankle, foot circumference and foot length measurement and make a perfect fitting pair of socks without much thought or math. If I can do it . . you can too.
Into the Whirled, Pakokku – An example of a self striping hand dyed yarn
Almost every time I share a picture of a finished pair of socks, someone will ask me about my favorite sock yarn. It’s a lot like fabric – there are some lines/companies that you like more than others, a few that you probably refuse to use and about 90% of the others . . well, they just make you happy . . no matter whose name is on them.
An example of a solid-ish yarn where the design was able to show.
Most sock yarn is “fingering” weight and a lot of us use the term fingering weight and sock weight interchangeably. For the purposes of socks I’m going to make, sock yarn has nylon in it. Fingering weight with no nylon, in my opinion, is for scarves, shawls, a light sweater, etc. There are people who will use 100% wool – either superwash, BFL, merino – whatever, for socks but I will not.
Into the Whirled, Pakokku – Example of pooling
Some of my favorite sock yarns, in no particular order, are:
- Western Sky Knits, Aspen Sock
- Miss Babs Tarte
- Miss Babs Hot Shot
- Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock
- Lorna’s Laces Solemate
- Wollmeise Twin
- Sweet Georgia, Tough Love Sock
- Into the Whirled, Pakokku
- Madelinetosh Twist Light
There are many others that I like but am not remembering but off the top of my head, these are the yarns that come in pretty colors, but more importantly – these yarns hold up well for me to laundry and wearing.
If you have a favorite sock yarn that isn’t listed here, or if you wish to add a comment about a sock yarn, please leave that info in a comment.
As a new sock knitter, the most frustrating thing can be to spend time and money on a handmade pair of socks and have them fall apart after being worn just a few times. It happens! I made my mom a pair of socks using 100% merino when I first started knitting socks. I know she was gentle with them and hand washed them and they developed a hole in the heel after just a couple of times of being worn. By the time I saw her and was going to fix them, there were multiple holes and they looked just horrible. It was an expensive, hand dyed yarn but it just wasn’t meant for socks.
Often, it’s the color of the yarn that gets my vote as to what yarns to use. I love the pretty colors. I love pooling and yet I love solids for designs where the design needs to be seen. Pretty cables and lace can get lost in a multi colored yarn.
Fingering weight yarns are often used for shawls and scarves and a 100% wool yarn is great for those projects.
I’m always happy to answer questions about knitting. Please feel free to email me or post comments here. If you post a comment here, you may get responses from several of us which will give you a wider range of knowledge/answers and may help someone else but ask however you would like.
Anne says
Thanks to you Judy, I now knit socks! I finished my first sock in August of 16, and just cast on my 31st pair of socks! Like you I can now knit a vanilla sock without even thinking about a pattern. I can think up some decent patterns of my own without looking at any other patterns. I LOVE making socks.
My most favorite yarn is WYS (West Yorkshire Spinners) sock yarn, 75% wool and 25% nylon.
I love the German sock wools too. (Esslinger woole, schachenmayr etc) And the Cloudborn from Craftsy is great yarn. Opal yarn is good too.
I buy most of my yarn from woolwarehouse.com. That’s in Great Britain. It’s really reasonably priced and ships FAST and for less than most shops in the USA ship.
I find that my color preferences change and evolve. I was into the yarn that looks like fair isle knitting, but now am loving the self striping and am looking more at solids.
Some of the Indy dyers have some awesome yarn, but I have trouble paying $30-$40 for yarn to make one pair of socks.
I love trying new yarns and colors outside of my favorite colorways.
My very least favorite yarn is Madelinetosh yarn. I’ve had troubles with every skein that I bought, and that is NOT cheap yarn by any stretch of the imagination! Thankfully the Loopy Ewe does replace them or take them as returns and refund.
I agree that sock yarn should have nylon or polyamid in it and 100% wool is best used in another project.
When friends ask me what’s important when learning how to make socks, I tell them, buy the best needles you can afford (I prefer ChiaoGoo needles) and get good yarn, avoid the cheap stuff because it will frustrate you.
My favorite way to make socks is with 9″ Circulars, love love love them. 🙂
Didn’t mean to write a dissertation, but I am very passionate about socks… thank you Judy, I am grateful for your part in that my developing that passion.
yanicka says
i just started knitting 2 weeks ago. For now my goal is to have a straight scarf with no holes lol
carol fun says
I LOVE to knit socks and nowadays i knit a lot of simple stockinette ones but make them scrappy using bits and pieces of lots of different yarns. Lots of fun like a scrap quilt! ( you can see them on my blog) My favorite yarns for socks are Opal and Drops Fabel and Regia. Easy to knit with and easy to care for. They are my go to yarns for socks I give away .
I’ve taught a couple of gals to knit and encouraged several more to just DO it… all of them have been very happy they took up sock knitting. I’ve only been knitting for about 8 years and what got me started was I wanted to knit socks. I’ve done shawls and hats but socks will always be my favorite thing to knit.
I appreciate how you keep encouraging people to jump in and try it. Any new skill takes some time to get the hang of it but it is so worth it!
happy knitting!
Sue J says
Dragonfly Fibers have fabulous sock yarn. I made eight pairs last year and am now totally hooked!
Becky T says
LOVE that first pair of socks in this post!