STR Silkie, available from Blue Moon Fibre Arts, is a 3 ply, fingering weight yarn, with one of the threads made up of a blend of superwash merino and bombyx silk.

It’s not a huge amount of silk. Let’s be honest, at 19% it doesn’t have the same luxurious cachet as a high percentage silk yarn, but it’s surprisingly soft and delicious. The silk takes dye differently to the superwash only plies, it’s far less saturated, giving a nice heathered effect that I believe goes a long way towards counteracting the horrid pooling that STR is known for.

I purchased my skein in Jade, which has a few shades but is a more tonal colourway than most of the STR stable, which will also help with pooling. My pattern, Zara, made up of a broken rib, also helped to break up the colour runs.

I wear a size 7 shoe and like my socks with a short cuff and had 42g / 1.5oz left over from my pair, which is more than enough for a child’s pair. The yardage, at 329m / 360yd, is a little on the short side, but the yarn is thicker than most fingering yarns in my stash, I got 13 wpi for the silkie, making it closer to a sport weight, compared to 16 for the STR Lighweight and ShiBui Sock and 17 for Regia Color 4ply.

The Low Down:

The Swatch:

On 2.25mm, US size 1 needles, I got a comfortable 9 stitches and 13 rows to the inch.

The Knitting:

People have reported splitting issues and irritations with this yarn. I knit these magic loop on a single knit picks circular needle and I didn’t have any trouble at all, it was actually a pleasure to knit with, soft on the hands and easy on the needles.

The First Wash:

Upon washing (hand washed in cold water with a wool wash and dried flat out of the sun) the yarn immediately bloomed and took on a very slight halo. It doesn’t negate from the look of the socks at all.

The Wearing:

They’ve worn really well, with very little pilling, fading, shrinking or stretching.

Reports on Ravelry indicate that the fabric has a tendancy to shrink and full, but with gentle washing and, admittedly, gentle wearing, I haven’t had any problems in the weeks since they were completed.

The Price:

At $24 for a 100g / 3.5oz skein, it’s at the upper end of the mass-produced indie sock yarns (is that a juxtaposition or what?) and I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I hadn’t been involved in a group order over on the Aus Knitters group on Ravelry.

However, once I started knitting with it, and even more so once I saw and wore the finish product, I really think that this one is well and truely worth the money.

The Conclusion:

I pulled out a few other hand knit socks while I was researching this review, including the same pattern in a few yarns and it has just further convinced me that this yarn is worth spending my money on.

It’s soft, easy to knit, the colour is gorgeous and it’s a nice treat to knit something as commonplace as socks with a beautiful yarn that has a touch of silk in.

Four and a half skeins out of five.