Tag Archives: River Rapids

Being a San Diegan employed in a ridiculously casual office, I almost always wear flip-flops. But thanks to the recent rain, I’ve had to wear real shoes, and therefore I’ve been wearing fun socks. Like the following, which I finished earlier this week:

Pattern: River Rapids Socks (PDF) by Sockbug
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in color #6714
Needles: US1 Clover DPNs

As I’ve mentioned before, I ended up knitting these at a tighter gauge (8 st/in, to be exact). It’s mostly due to a sizing issue, as the 7.5 st/in specified in the pattern would give me a slightly too large sock. That, and I just didn’t like the fabric I was getting with the looser gauge.

The pattern calls for sport weight yarn; I used fingering weight. I’d probably have to knit the sport weight ridiculously tightly to get the right gauge (as I tend to knit loosely) and besides, I already had the Baby Ull on hand.

The tubular cast on has relaxed a bit with blocking. Even so, I need to go up one needle size when casting on for socks with this method, as it’s not as elastic as I’d prefer.

These are totally my favorite socks to date. Not that I’ve knit all that many pairs, but still. These are certainly the most comfortable pair – the yarn feels lovely on my feet, and other than the fact that they’re just a bit loose around the heel, these socks fit me rather well.

I forgot to mention: I’ve started being a social knitter again. I went to the Whistlestop the Sunday before last, and on Saturday, I went over to Kris’s to knit with her, Miyon, Marisa, Kristen, and Jess. Fun times! I really need to go to more knitting events.

I worked on the Forest Path Stole at the Whistlestop. I don’t have a new in-progress picture yet, but Nancy has a picture of me working on it. See, I haven’t abandoned it entirely!

But in more exciting news:

River Rapids socks! Not only are they socks, but they’re lace, and they’re blue! So how can I not love them?

I finished the first sock last week, and I made progress on the second while I was at Kris’s. No finished measurements are provided in the pattern, so I had to do some calculating first, but once I figured out that a tighter gauge would give me the appropriate size, I started flying through the knitting.

The tubular cast on looks gorgeous, but it’s nowhere near as elastic as I’d like – I’ll have to cast on with larger needles if I use this method again for socks. But I can get it on my foot and over my heel, at least, and it’s snug around the ankle.

The sock looks super narrow, but it really does stretch out enough to fit. I’m very happy with the finished one so far.

Edit: I forgot to post where I got the pattern from (Kristen’s comment just reminded me). River Rapids is a Sockbug pattern. It’s written for two circulars, but it’s easy enough to knit on DPNs instead.