The Rainbow 'Socks of Doom' are done!

My May Rainbow 'Socks of Doom' are done and I have never been so pleased to finish a project in my life! You may remember I blogged about them a while back. They were knitted from a sock blank which although gorgeous to look at, I found a nightmare to knit as the yarn was so crinkly. The knitted fabric was very uneven and I hadn't spotted a dropped stitch until I was about to start the heel flap. A few rather rude words may well have been muttered at that point! I frogged the offending sock and put it into time out for a while. When I picked them up again last week, I decided that I didn't like the colour change down the foot that was the result of knitting a heel flap and gusset, so I frogged the other sock back to the start of the heel too. I knit long tubes and decreased for the toes before adding afterthought heels and I'm much happier now with the yarn gradient. I left them to soak for a long time, hoping that the water would help the crinkly fibres to relax. The finished socks do look neater, but still not as neat as if I'd used yarn from a skein. I hope that once they have been worn and washed a few times, they'll look more even. I can't say that I'm in a hurry to knit from a sock blank again, but if I did, I'd definitely wind it into a skein first and soak it to get it straight before knitting it. My June socks are finished too. I'll be sharing photos soon and hopefully a new pattern too. Keep watching! xxx

The sock blank was a beautiful two stranded tube that I bought from Mothy and the Squid. 

It caused me problems from the word go because the stitches in the tube had been split so that I couldn't unwind it from the end I'd started knitting from. So I had to go to the other end, cut the yarn and wind into two separate balls of yarn. Flo's assistance was much appreciated of  course!

I used stitch markers down the sock tube to keep count of the rows and couldn't wait to finish!

They had a lovely long bath in some warm water with a sachet of Soak in it.

Ta dah! Finished socks! The knitted fabric is a lot neater after blocking, but there is still room for improvement!

Love these matchy-matchy heels!

They are now in my sock drawer to be worn once the weather gets cooler.