Quick, Cozy Socks: Velveteen Slipper Socks Pattern Review
When Nicole of Woolfield Studio released these socks on her day for the Season of Socks 2020, I knew they would be my first project in 2021. These are a sister pattern to her Shag Carpet Shorties which I tested a couple years ago. I almost never knit the same pattern twice, but I did knit those twice, the second time as a sample for a dyer!
Because my feet are almost always cold at home (my best friend once accused me of secretly strapping ice packs to my feet to make my toes as cold as they are, LOL), I really like DK socks. Aside from the extra warmth, DK socks knit up WAY faster, and if you find the really small needles usually used to knit socks bother your hands or wrists, you get to use slightly larger needles for DK socks!
The Velveteen Slipper Socks are SO fast to make! It took me less than a week, and that was even with reading a book and a half, cooking, exercising, and just generally doing other things. Without even focusing really hard these things were done in a flash!
As you may remember from the patterns I worked on in the fall (The October Sweater, Noel and Nowel Tree Skirt, Nowel Stocking), I’ve been very into cabling lately, so obviously the cables in the Velveteen Slipper Sock were also a huge draw for me.
Even though I love DK socks, DK is the weight of yarn I probably have the least of in my stash. Especially in wool for some reason. Ideally socks are knit with yarn that has some nylon in it for better durability, and that can be the other challenge when it comes to knitting DK socks. The only DK yarn I’ve come across that is similar to fingering weight sock yarn is from Hello Stella, and I’ve actually never used it to make socks! I tend to chance it with 100% superwash merino, and reminded myself just yesterday that when you make it yourself, you can also mend it yourself when the time comes. I’ll just have to learn that part later…
I used Autumn & Indigo Plume on classic DK, which was originally intended to test one of her hat patterns, but Canadian customs was loathe to part with it quickly so it didn’t arrive in time (I guess they like pretty yarn too!) This beautiful blue seems to be my theme for 2021 since the only other project I have going right now is also in a blue-ish jewel tone.
Aside from the design itself, Nicole is also just a fantastic pattern writer! If you haven’t knit socks before, she is definitely the person to learn from and has lots of beginner-friendly sock patterns too. Because she is such a good pattern writer I don’t have any real notes for you to help you succeed when making these socks! If anything I would say don’t worry about having your stitches evenly distributed on your needles if you’re using dpns, I squished all but the edge stitches of the instep onto one needle so that I could limit the possibility of laddering between needles interfering with the beautiful cables! My only other tip is that I think you should make these socks!
