Amble socks

Celebrating Socktober!
I finished the Amble socks from the SixSox KAL yesterday. Good news, I finally got the hang on the Kitchener stitch (and found a very helpful tutorial here - pdf-file!). It's sooo easy once you understand it.
Here's what I have to say about this project.

Amble socks

Pattern by Alison Clayton
Yarn: Regia Silk (Schachenmayr), 0090 'hellgrau'
Needles: two 2,5 mm Addi circulars

First, the pattern is nice and though it looks sophisticated very easy to remember after one or two repeats. I had to alter it however and added 6 more stitches per sock in the section between the pattern repeats. (On the picture you can see that there are two purl-bump lines instead of one along the inner leg)
These socks will make history since I tried the magic loop technique for the first time. As if that's not enough, I knitted both socks at the same time. A strategy I can highly recommend for this pattern. It is a lot easier to keep track of the very long pattern repeats (30 stichtes), you will knit it 4 times and it really sinks in. For the long pattern it is not boring and - for people with second sock syndrome - the felt sock knittig time is not as long as knitting two seperate socks.
So, why did it take me so long? Well, I only discovered the benefits of the two socks on magic loop after I turned the first sock's heel and a close look revealed many mistakes = frogging..
The Regia silk yarn is fantastic! It has a nice shiny texture and shows the pattern very well. Besides it is very soft. Somebody overheard my complaint about the tedious colourways, so Regia silk is now available in more colours and even in multicolour. Go and get it. For Amble, however, go for something bright.

See the left over? I'll talk about that in the next post.