Solo Sock Club

We are 6 days into 2024. On New Year's Day, I noticed this Instagram Post by the Yarn Harlot. She pulled 12 skeins of sock yarn from her stash and paired each one with an appropriate pattern, bagged them up and BOOM - she calls it her Self-Imposed Sock Club. This is such a GENIUS idea, and I cannot believe my luck that I saw it on the very first day of the year. I went to the basement, retrieved 12 forgotten favorites of sock yarn and then proceeded to my Ravelry favorites section and matched them up with patterns. I bagged mine up and put them under the Christmas tree.

In lieu of a subscription that will come once a month, I will simply grab a bag and get to work. Bonus, this idea also helps work down my stash of yarn that I already have, and it's budget friendly, too. I've collected all the bags on a wooden tray. My brother and sister-in-law sent us a Harry & David gift box for Christmas, and along with the goodies came this lovely little tray. I thought it would make the perfect spot to keep my makeshift sock club. Eventually, we will put the Christmas tree away, and I feel as though the tray is a place that provides a bit of organization to the project - and if it is determined to be "in the way" at a future point, the tray can be easily moved to a new home.

When I saw the original post and decided I wanted to do this also, I was mid-project on a pair of socks. I was determined to finish them ASAP so that I could dig into the first bag of my 2024 Sock Club. Never had a project FELT like it took so long. I did complete them yesterday, and immediately asked my husband to choose a bag for me. He graciously obliged, and I opened it to find this:

This is a skein of yarn that was hand dyed by me and was originally dyed for my Etsy shop. It never did sell, but it was always a favorite of mine, so I pulled it for my sock club. This is the only skein out of the year that I dyed myself. It is a blend of 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon. The colorway is called Caramel Apple. It works up with short bursts of mini stripes in the contrast color. I'm nearly ready to turn the heel on the first sock.

Due to the way that the colors in the yarn will work up, I opted for a vanilla sock pattern in this case. I find that in knitting projects, either the colors or the textures will pop. For yarn with lots of colors, a simple pattern will show them off. For a pattern with oodles of texture, a solid and light-colored yarn will really show off those pattern details. I am using a plain pattern here to allow the dye job to really shine in my finished socks. I will post the finished socks once they are finished. Follow along, as I will have updates on all of the monthly sock knits.