Oh là là, it’s been a while since I last posted an article on this blog!
I was pretty busy this summer because of my first-ever (and the last?) commissioned design and I didn’t knit much, so I had almost nothing to share with you… I’ll talk about that design in another post and this time, I’m reviewing a new yarn, new for me and relatively new on the market.
The yarn is Moustache from fonty, launched for fall-winter season in 2020 (just a year and a few months!).
Fonty is a historical French mill, located in the central mountainous region in France, and I often use their yarns for my designs (Top-down MLBC and Alexandre II), because they are locally produced.
Moustache – funny name, isn’t it? – drew my attention at the launching, for the fiber composition: 50% of merino, 30% of super kid mohair and 20% of silk. Doesn’t this sound promising? And the shades, muted and deep, also looked nice, but I found it rather thin. A 50g ball has 225 meters (246 yards) and, though fonty weighs it as sport to DK weight yarn, with 28 stitches to 10 cm, I’d say it’s a fingering weight yarn, and even in the light end for fingering weight. When a yarn is thin, you can work with another yarn such as mohair lace yarn, but it already contains mohair and I thought it’s a pity if I don’t use it as is to appreciate the quality. But I am not courageous enough to knit a sweater with this gauge and didn’t know what to make with.
And this winter, my daughter wanted another pair of long Tabbies socks, in the shade Ochre of Malabrigo Sock I kept for me!
I finally gave in, thinking it would be an occasion to buy new yarn 😁, and it was that moment I got the idea of using this yarn for a new pair of Tabbies for me.
I learned in my (translation) job that lace shawls knitted with silk-blend yarn can be more “aggressively” blocked than those knitted with 100% wool yarn. I also read somewhere that mohair works as natural nylon and yarn containing mohair can be used for socks. Then, wouldn’t this yarn be perfect for socks?
I’m gonna show you a photos of the longue Tabbies for my daughter, in Malabrigo Sock Ochre I adore!
The size made is 2 and the leg, from the cast-on edge to the heel short rows, is 11 cm (4.25″) long. I used 58g in all.
And I chose a similar shade in Moustache.
fonty Moustache: #0406
It’s more orange and darker than Ochre but I love this golden mustard!
As I had enough yarn, I made the leg even longer than that of the socks for my daughter. I at first switched to larger needles after the cuff ribbing but found the leg too loose. Here, I was re-knitting the leg with the needles same size as those I knitted the ribbing with.
So I knitted down 13 cm (5.25″) straight using smaller needles and decided that I reached the ankle bone. I switched then to larger needles I was going to use to knit the foot and knitted another 2 cm (0.75″) before beginning the heel short rows. After that, I followed the instructions as written.
And here are the socks on my feet!
With 15 cm leg, the top of the socks can be hidden in the bottom of mom jean (I rolled them up here to show you how long they are).
So, is this yarn perfect for socks? I’d say YES absolutely!
The standard gauge of the yarn is 28 stitches to 10 cm but I had no difficulties to achieve the pattern gauge that is 32 stitches to 10 cm, as I expected. It’s thinner than Malabrigo Sock I knitted the samples with so it seems quite normal. The socks knitted up are also thinner, but despite the thinness, they are soft and warm, probably because of mohair, and simply divine! My feet are happy 🙂
I’ve made up a new hashtag for this long Tabbies: #kutsushitabbies
I combined kutsushita which means (normal length) socks in Japanese and tabbies. Please use #kutsushitabbies when you post your photos of long Tabbies!