Sock knitting with Patons Kroy Socks FX on an antique sock knitting machine

My daughter & I were in JoAnn's the other day, and spotted some sock knitting yarn that I hadn't tried in my antique  Creelman Brothers sock knitting machine. The beast is about 100 years old at this point, and is quite picky about what yarn it likes to work with.

My go-to yarn for socks has been the Serenity sock weight yarn from the Deborah Norville collection. My machine loves it, and it makes lovely soft socks. But I spotted some Patons Kroy Socks FX yarn, and my daughter fell in love with one of the color combinations. We made a deal: she'd buy the yarn, and I'd use it to test in my machine. If it turned out, she'd get the socks. If not, I'd ball up the yarn, and she'd get the yarn to use in her crochet work.

So, off we went. I first noticed that the Patons yarn was thicker than the Serenity stuff. In the same 50 gram size ball, there were only 166 yards, vs. the 230 in the Serenity. I was going to have to be careful. I make the socks from the cuff down, and I was afraid of running out of yarn  before I finished the toe if I did my usual calf high socks. So I decided to change the pattern to come just above the ankle.

Onto the machine it went. I had to put it on and rip it out a couple of times while I tinkered with the settings on the machine. As it was a thicker yarn, I had to loosen up the tension, and add more weight down below. Even so, the yarn jumped off the needles a couple of times when I was just starting to turn the heels and toes. Luckily, I've gotten good at repairing a run, when I catch it early enough.

I followed my pattern for size 10 women's socks, that I had worked out for the Serenity yarn. It turns out, when your yarn is bigger, and when you have a looser tension, the same number of rows in the foot makes for a longer foot. When I was done sewing the toe closed, the sock measured 10 1/2" long in the foot. That is a half inch longer than what I was aiming for. Also? The yarn, which is a wool/nylon mix, was not as nice to the touch as the wool/bamboo/nylon mix I was used to. Hmmmm....

Well, I decided to throw the finished socks into the wash, and see what the water would do to them. I washed them in warm water with a load of regular clothes, and then tossed them in the dryer on medium heat. And hoped for the best.

It totally worked! The socks shrunk and fluffed a bit in the wet finishing process, and ended up just at 10" long in the foot. And, the fluffing made them softer to the touch. My daughter squealed when she saw them, and tried them right on. She oooh and ahhed about how soft and comfortable they were. And we both absolutely love the gorgeous color changes.

The color repeat is long enough that I couldn't do my usual trick of starting each sock in the same spot in the repeat in order to get matching socks. So, when I make socks with this brand of yarn, the socks will be similar, but the color repeats will be in different spots. Michelle didn't care a bit! I think she likes them better that way.

Overall? Two thumbs up. The yarn is a bit trickier to work with on the machine, but those colors are well worth the hassle. If you were using traditional knitting needles, the extra bit of thickness wouldn't be so much of an issue. And, from here on out I'll wash them in cold on a delicate cycle, and lay them flat to dry. That should avoid any more shrinkage.

Now, I need to make myself a pair!!