Country of Origin: Romania
Summary
Berroco Sox is a woolen yarn that is engineered to pattern in a fair-isle fashion and is offered in 12 fabulous color combinations, making it so hard to decide which one to bring home. I could tell from the yarn dye spacing that it would be a self-patterning yarn, but had no idea what to expect. I chose colors that would look good with jeans and the additions of brown to my wardrobe.
Berroco Sox is also offered in 6 attractive stripe patterns in gorgeous color combinations.
An average pair of socks requires one skein.
My Impressions
Berroco has done a superb job of mastering the fair-isle look for simply knitting in the round. This yarn has a new wool feel. It knit up quickly and effortlessly. The pattern repeat was 4 3/4 inches with a total of 18 horizontal stripes of pattern/color.... 11 rows of 5 different yet complimentary colors and 7 rows of unique fair-isle like patterns within each repeat.... this kept the knitting interesting and I believe added to the speed of the overall sock knitting.
The Knitting Experience
I chose to use US # 1 dpn's to make a slightly thicker sock verses the recommended Us #2's. The yarn was pleasant to knit
with....knittied up quick and effortlessly. No snagging, no twisting, and no knots. With repeats over 4", it was easy to set goals, like "just to the next brown stripe" to speed the knitting along before stopping.
The bands of horizonal bands of color work perfectly, regardless of the size of the sock..... the bands are just slightly narrower on a larger sock or wider bands of color for a smaller sock.
The yarn can be pulled from either the center of the skein of the outside of the skein. Because of the long repeat, its truly not necessary to match exactly, however....if this makes you
nuts...its a long repeat that may allow you to utilize waste yarn in toes or heel, so a second skein may not be necessary to match them identically.
Washability
Machine washable. Recommend Gentle cycle with warm water (I washed mine in cold water) and lay flat to dry. I have found the socks to soften with washing. They wash beautifully and the size remained the same. Any of my own knitting flaws seemed to disappear.
I love them!
Wearability
The wool/nylon blend means there is no need to reinforce either the heels or toes. After many wearings, they have not shown any signs of wear.
Seem durable with no pilling. Very soft on the feet ... no scratchiness and non-irritating to the bottom of the feet.
Holds elasticity over time and is comfortable to wear with shoes.
