Rain or Shine

Stephen West has entered the sock game. Stephen sent out a newsletter this morning.

The Rain or Shine Socks are here! I'm so excited to introduce you to my venture into sock knitting with a project that is the perfect stash buster for your leftover bits of fingering weight sock yarn. I haven’t knit socks in years, but I discovered the secret key to finishing socks is to use lots of colors so you never get bored. Also, cast on the second sock as soon as you finish the first sock! 

The pattern is inspired by dewy, misty mornings when the sun is just beginning to rise and each slip stitch is like a droplet of glistening rain. These are my scrappy morning socks to wear in the morning while I knit with my pups at home, staring at my woolly colorful feet. The socks are a beginner friendly project as you only have to work with one color at a time, so you can get creative and play with color combinations whilst you knit - will you go for a subtle fade or contrasting color pops? The length of the sock is customizable by knitting more or fewer stripes which means you can knit the perfect fit and style to suit you. I think I’m a Sock Knitter now and it feels so good! What other Westknits socks do you want to see from me?

Enter the discount code “RAINORSHINESOCKS20” when you checkout on my website or on Ravelry to get 20% off my new pattern until the end of the day on Sunday 21st August.

Photos © Stephen West

If you are looking for a solid sock yarn to add to your stash colours we have you covered. I put Lang Jawoll on sale for 10% off from now until a week Saturday.

Jawoll - tried and tested a million times and for many years a sock wool classic - including reinforcement yarn for heels and toes to extend the life of your socks! LANGYARNS JAWOLL is the Rolls Royce of sockyarns. The wool is sourced from Corriedale sheep: for JAWOLL we only use wool of the finest provenance from Chilean Patagonia. During shearing the best parts of the fleece are selected and sorted out. The average thickness, the diameter of the fibre, is just 25 microns (1 micron = 1/1000 mm) so the wool feels very soft and is very comfortable to wear. The Corriedale sheep live all year round in the natural wilds of Patagonia. Because of the scant food supply, their wool remains white and grows to an average staple length of 10cm. This makes it take dye well, the colours are brillant and the finished yarn is highly resistant to pilling (knot forming). In every 50g ball there is a spool of reinforcement yarn for knitting in to strengthen heels and toes. This will increase the lifespan of your socks. Due to the superior quality of the fibres JAWOLL is also excellent for baby or toddler knits and for men's knitwear.

I don’t want to admit it but Beth and I are watching Big Brother again. We got sucked in and can’t stop - it’s that train wreck you can’t walk away from. The good thing is that I don’t have to pay attention. I can knit and listen. Elah is coming out tonight.  

A year ago when Lucy was a lot bigger than Jackson. They still like this at dinner time.