I have to say I am pretty disappointed with Socks That Rock. I know people rave about their yarns. And the sad part is I *love* their colorways so much.
I have several complaints about their yarns.
The problems started when it arrived. It smelled strongly of vinegar. I know vinegar is a fixative in the dyeing process. That makes sense. But the rinse process should remove that smell. It really seems like the batch I got was not rinsed out enough. It disapated with time, but it was still a bit off putting.
Then came to knitting. It knits up beautifully. The weave is tight and I had really high hopes. But the color kept coming off on my hand! I would get a grey ring around the finger where I wrap my yarn. And another finger tip got colored. This seemed odd to me. So I checked the Ravely boards. Many other people have the same experience! That seems really wrong to me.
So when the socks were completed, I washed them with Synapol and then a dye fixative. I had hoped this would help the colors to stay fresh. The dye fixative is sold by Dharma to help with any sort of dyed piece. It is supposed to help the color fastness. I figured it would be good.
The fit on my Jaywalkers isn't great. The problem is that they are hard to pull over my heel as the leg doesn't have enough give. I suspect that is more an issue with Jaywalkers. But for this reason, I only wear my Jaywalkers once a week or every two weeks.
Since I finished these on 11/25/07, I figure that even if I wore them once a week (which I think is very generous), I would have only worn them 12-13 times. And honestly, I know there are weeks when I didn't wear them.
The color really should not have faded this much in that time. I don't know if the photos really show the difference that well. The ball of yarn is the color I knit. The socks show how much they have faded.
You can definitely see how much color loss there is on the foot. And there is a lot of pilling and such. I guess I just expected more from the yarn given the rave reviews and the price. I mean the socks where I dyed the yarn myself don't have a different color on the sole of the foot. Why should professional yarn?
I nearly always handwash these with Eucalan. I put them in the machine once and saw such a difference that I feared putting them in again.
I am really saddened. I love the Raven colorways and really did want to purchase some yarn in those colors. But I can't bring myself to spend at least $25 a skein when the color will not stay!
