No Nylon Sock Knitting Experiments- my explorations and experiments to date
Some of my no-nylon socks right side out. L-R.
Top Row: a. Wensleydale 4ply (not high twist), b. Natural Sock 4ply (BFL/ Cheviot high twist), c. Natural Sock 4ply.
Bottom Row: d. Natural Sock 4ply, e. Whistlebare’s Cuthbert Sock (Wensleydale/ mohair), f. my new sock yarn (BFL/ Jacob high Twist).
Over the last 4-5 years I have been knitting no- nylon socks. It started with a curious question: “Is it possible to knit socks with ‘normal’ (as I called it) wool yarn?”. This led to the discovery that most people do not and would not knit socks without nylon, as most claimed that it would not hold up.
While I found that there is some truth in this, I also found that there was a lot of assumptions being made without a thorough testing process going on. And so, the story was told, from one knitter to another, socks could not be made without nylon.
Humans have knitted with non -superwash and nylon free yarns for a long time, and my instinct told me that I wanted to try, so I did. Some experiments failed pretty badly, and others have with stood the test of time almost miraculously.
My first experiment with no nylon socks was back a long time ago when I started knitting. I had no idea about gauge, fibre content, or yarn structure and decided to knit a pair of socks in something like a a merino/ cashmere/ angora 4ply base from Shilasdair. Of course you can imagine what happened- sadly within the first wear the toes were through. Being a young and enthusiastic knitter I didn’t let it bother me, but it was just a part of my experimentation process. Next up I tried a skein of Bear in Sheep’s clothing ‘Bear Masham’, a loosely twisted BFL/ Masham 4ply base- 75% BFL and 25% Masham. Bernie, the owner told me not to knit socks in this yarn! How right she was. Within the first couple of wears the socks had felted beyond belief, but on the other hand, there were no holes. Again, this did not put me off, but I seen it as a little bit of progress in my sock experiments.
At the same time I was knitting a few pairs of other socks: I was also knitting some typical sock yarn socks- 75/25% merino nylon/superwash bases, and also some socks out of some random sock yarn I bought at a local yarn shop- probably some mix of wool/ acrylic- I can’t quite remember now.
The same socks as above but inside out so you can see felting.
i. I then went on to develop my Natural Sock as I felt I wanted to experiment further. My business was at the place where I felt I could take the risk. I then had long and many phone calls with the mill I work with to talk about what fibre would be best, what the yarn structure should be, while at the same time searching the internet and asking knitting friends the best way to knit no nylon socks. The mill I worked with suggested a BFL/ Cheviot blend- 50%/50%- that way there could be enough softness and strength from the BFL to work on feet, while the Cheviot would add a certain hardiness to the socks. So that is how my Natural Sock yarn came to be. I tested this yarn myself, on my own feet to see how it stood up. I was surprised at how much I loved the yarn, and that it seemed to work pretty well for socks. I hadn’t and haven’t had any major issues with this yarn for socks myself, but I have also learnt a lot about knitting no nylon socks since I did the first test. The yarn was to have a high twist so that it would stand up better to wear and was to have a 2ply construction as the person I was talking to on the phone thought this might be the best construction for wear.
The Natural Sock yarn felted a little bit more than I would have liked perhaps, after knitting them a bit on the large side (this was before I learnt more about fit)- but they have no holes (still- see socks b. and d. ). I have very sweaty feet and I can even felt a superwash/ nylon sock heel (see below) without many problems. So I was quite excited to see how they would wear long term, and so far, I am pleased.
Then I got chatting to LB Handknits, and we were talking about no nylon socks. I asked her opinion on the perfect gauge for no nylon socks that are a 4ply or fingering weight (400m/100g), and she suggested that 35sts per 10cm was a good gauge. So then I went through a phase of knitting my socks at the correct gauge, which, in actual fact resulted in socks that were too small (sock c.).
I then resigned myself to the fact I may have to cast on 64+ sts for a pair of socks to fit correctly at the correct gauge, and use a needle size below 2mm to achieve this gauge as I am a loose knitter. This dismayed me slightly as I haven’t yet found needles below 2mm that I really enjoy knitting with. My favourite needles currently are Addi Trios 2mm and Knit Pro Symfonie’s 2mm. As a English style thrower and poker these are most comfortable for me as they aren’t too pointy.
Despite the difficulties, I found that the Natural Sock felted for me at the heels, toes and sometimes a little on the base of the foot. I realised it was doing me a great favour- I didn’t have any holes and it made the socks a bit warmer. The socks didn’t felt so much that it was a problem, but they felted enough to be an advantage while wearing them. Felting develops a stronger, thicker fabric at the points on which the fabric is agitated.
A little visual comparison showing the inside of two socks- one no-nylon and non- superwash (top) and one showing a 25% nylon and 75% merinos superwash sock (bottom).
On the left is my new ‘thick’ sock yarn showing felting. More about this below!
This is a superwash merino/nylon showing felting.
ii. So thus began the hunt for a new, thicker sock yarn, something slightly lighter than a sport weight. Now we are into 2020, and I’m back talking to the mill again about a new sock yarn. I want something slightly thicker so I don’t have to use a needle below 2mm to knit socks with. I wanted a different fibre content so that I could have a heathered grey yarn (I have no grey 4ply yarn suitable for socks), and I want a 3ply construction rather than the 2ply one I created for the Natural Sock as I recently used the lovely Whistlebare’s Cuthbert sock (sock e.) and enjoyed using a slightly more structured yarn.
I received some fibre pulls (a little piece of blended fibre) of different fibre contents to see how light or dark the yarn would be and also to assess the texture of the future yarn. I decided I wanted to go with 50% BFL/ 50% Jacob, sourced from the UK. I then ordered a trial run from the mill of about 150 skeins, some of which I dispatched to a group of testers and some of which I tested myself.
As soon as I started working with the yarn I realised it was much woollier and sheepy than my Natural Sock, (even though it was all worsted spun) and I really liked that, as that is my preference generally in yarns. I quite quickly knitted up a pair of vanilla socks as I was eager to see what they felt like on the feet.
I used a 2mm needle and achieved a good tight gauge of about 30 sts per 10cm for my new thicker yarn, which is 330m per 100g. So I was happy with my tighter gauge and knitted up a vanilla sock, with a slipped stitch toe and heel.
I then finished the socks and began to wear them. I decided when I was knitting them that I’d wear them pretty much exclusively until they started to wear out. Of course this isn’t how you’d normally wear socks, and probably puts more stress on them than necessary, but it was part of my experiment and I wanted to proceed as quickly as possible. So I did, I wore them every day for almost 60 days without taking them off (apart from the odd washing day, which didn’t happen very much!). One sock started to develop a hole in the toe, which I mended and probably would have lasted another 60 days. The other toe started to develop a hole a week or two later so I decided to try a different tact for that and snip off the toe and reknit it while adding to the length of the foot as I realised that having a sock too short will put too much pressure on the toe area making holes appear more quickly and will also make them uncomfortable to wear. I am still wearing these socks and cannot really comment further at this stage on how they are wearing, apart from that my favourite one is the one I added length to and re-knitted the toe on (the one with the orange toe). It feels more comfortable and robust than the shorter original one which was mended.
First pair of my new sock yarn after I mended one and reknit the toe and added length on the other.
On the left is the original toe mended (and the sock knitted to short on the foot therefore putting too much pressure on toe area). Right shows the sock which I cut the toe off and reknit meanwhile adding length. As you can see the toe area looks (and feels) much more comfortable.
At the same time I also knitted another pair (sock f.- see photo below) in the same test batch of yarn, in a 3x1 rib this time. I started to knit these slightly differently- I made them about 1.5-2cm too long, on purpose. This was because I realised that I hadn’t taken into consideration how much the sock shrinks lengthwise when it felts on the foot. I figured this out by measuring my first pair and estimated that I’d need to knit an extra 2cm in length for shrinkage. I used a 2mm needle and cast on 60sts. The original pair did not seem to shrink in width so I did not need to cast on extra sts for the width.
I’m sure there is some scientific reason as to why it would shrink in length but not width (maybe because your foot slides forwards and back more than it slides side to side in shoes?), but I’m not entirely sure why myself. Historically, in the Dales, hosiery was knitted larger than necessary and felted on purpose so that it would stand up to better wear- so they must have believed that doing this also helped. You can check out more on this in ‘The Old Hand-Knitters of the Dales’ by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby.
So that is what I did, and so far, it is my most successful pair of socks I’ve knitted to date. Overall it had a nice amount of felting in the right places, it feels nice, bouncy and warm on the feet and I have not yet had any holes. I am wearing them about as much as normal socks I would say, maybe once every two weeks or so. I decided to go ahead and order my new sock yarn from the mill- the feedback from the testers was positive, I was happy with the way the yarn was holding up and feeling, so all being well, this yarn will be on the shelves of WMFC shop in the Autumn of 2021.
I now rarely knit with bought sock patterns unless the gauge and stitch count coincides with what I already know works with either my Natural Sock or with my new (yet unnamed) thicker sock yarn. All that is to say, don’t rely on sock patterns to do the work for you- you have to experiment with the yarn yourself to see how you can knit the best sock that will work best for your feet- the right heel, the correct length (probably longer than you think), the correct width and good heel reinforcements. You may not have sweaty feet like me, and barely felt any socks, in which case you will have to change your [own] pattern to suit your needs. Or you may have much sweatier feet than me and have to knit 3cm onto the length of your sock (there is probably a point at which a no nylon sock yarn will stop felting as well). Maybe you are a tighter knitter and don’t need to use a needle below 2mm to achieve a tight gauge. It all starts with seeing how small of a gauge you can achieve while still being comfortable while knitting, and going from there, and making up your own recipe.
In the gardening world we say ‘right plant right place’, so maybe in the yarn world I’d say ‘right yarn, right purpose’. If only I’d known that when I knitted my first pair!
The next journal post in the series will go more in depth about each of these six areas and how they contribute to good or bad wear:
Gauge and Needle size
Yarn structure and make up
Fibre Content
Sock design/ recipe
Cutting toenails and other gross things
Felting
Hope that ramble was interesting and that you stay tuned for the next instalment!
Emma