Do You Swatch For Socks?

I’m not one who usually swatch for socks – unless I’m doing a pattern or yarn that I feel like I need to test out together or if gauge is super important. So, I started knitting the Earl Grey Socks by the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) on Tuesday night. These are for my DH who only wants to wear grey, black, navy, and brown… you get the idea. I started out using Rowan wool / cotton in a perfect shade of grey that we both liked really well. The knitting was going pretty well but I decided I didn’t really like the looks of the cable in that yarn. So rummaged in my stash and came up a couple choices of Knit picks Essential; a skein of Tweed called Flint and a skein of solid called Dusk. I showed him both and he picked the Tweed. This is actually the yarn I originally bought for the project when the pattern was first posted. I thought the solid would be better for the cable pattern, but the color was more blue than grey. As I suspected, he liked the color of the tweed better and so far it isn’t really affecting the cable pattern in any way.

Here’s the first attempt with the wool/cotton

Try to see the soft fuzzy cables


And here’s the tweed (worked to the same point)


Much better; the cables look crisper… the way they are supposed to look.

Oh, and JUST in case your wondering the floor is still a “work in progress”…

Here’s Saucey making the most of the furniture being all piled up on one side of the living room. "They're mine, all mine...." (She gets to sleep in both cat beds at once!)