Here There Be Dragons

Very cool to get a few more people knitting along with me in my sock challenge. I'll be adding everyone to the sidebar soon. If you take a picture of your sock and it's somewhere on the internet that I can link, let me know and I'll make sure that pictures are a available too!

On the subject of socks, I thought I'd finally post the pictures of the finished Blue Moon Sock Candy (in Cherries Jubilee) Dragon Scale Socks. I finished these a week ago Sunday, but it seems like they've been done for aeons.

Top and Side of Resting Dragon Socks

Just for the record, these socks were done on US size 2 needles and I cast on 64 stitches as a start point, They are about 7.5" around at the top and are a little wider in the foot because I didn't decrease when I switched to doing the bottom part in stockinette after the heel. I had a reasonable amount of yarn yet (I probably could have done another pattern interval on the leg or foot of the sock without too much concern about not finishing.

Dragon Socks in Action

These socks are actually tighter on me than they look in the picture (pardon both the disturbingly white skin and the fleece pant bottom that snuck into the picture) but they are certainly not cutting off my circulation, either. I think this particular sock would do pretty well on anyone from a size 7 to an 8 and would be fine on smaller and larger feet as long as the diameter of the widest part of the ball of the foot didn't get too much past 8".

The scale patterns are much more prominent in person than in pictures and the cotton blend yarn made for very nice stitch definition. The pooling doesn't bother me all that much, and I think the sock would look equally good in a solid colorway (which is what my next go at this pattern will be in). The tops of the sock do roll just an itsy bitsy bit (as you can see in the picture where I am wearing them) but I definitely like them without a true cuff. In this case, the yarn is definitely stiff enough to keep the sock in place, especially if it's not too loose on the wearer. (My final patterns will have cuffed and uncuffed versions).

I like the Sock Candy a lot more than I though I would, too. It's a nice thick cotton blend with enough stretch to make it relatively comfortable to knit with and it's perfect for this design because the texture really pops. When I was last at the Fold, Toni had a great yellow/lime/pale aqua colorway in stock that I might have to try for myself someday when I need a pair of summer socks. Yellow seems to be one of the few general sock colors that I don't have that much of in my sock drawer.

And for those of you interested in a bigger size, I've figured out what I need to do and have a start on the first sock of the pair. It's definitely going to take more time than this pair since I ended up down on US size 1 needles and I've got 4 pattern repeats instead of 2 to make it through on each round. I like it very much better after ripping the third time and starting again with a garter stitch cuff. With the STR Light (thank you to everyone who pointed out that there were three different sock weights now -- I'll definitely be looking for the other two weights for the husband, as he likes different weights for different times of the year) that I have, the wool doesn't create enough structure to keep the tops of the curves from drooping over. And, since this pair is for John, I thought the garter stitch top would give them a bit more masculine touch -- kind of like chainmail edging on a gauntlet.

There will be pictures as soon as I've made enough progress to get a good picture of how the scales look. One of the most fun things for me about creating something on my own is that I want to keep on knitting just to see how it will turn out! It's definitely kind of wild to see my doodlings become reality!