Halloween Knits & a Scary Story About Scratchy Yarn

I just finished knitting these socks with some Halloween-themed self-striping yarn that I bought on deep clearance last year from Hobbii. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t a fan of the yarn’s hand feel, but I do love the festive colors. And honestly, since I’ll only wear them one week out of the year, it’s not quite a horror story – just a slightly spooky reminder that you get what you pay for.

The “Pattern”: A Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel

A Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel isn’t really a pattern as much as it is a construction technique. I’ve written about it so many times on this blog that I don’t have too much left to say about it. In fact, I just wrote about it last week, so go read that post if you want to know more about knitting striped socks like this!

I will say that this technique has you grab some scissors and snip into your knitting where you want to put your heel. That’s always exciting and a little scary! There’s a video of it in last week’s post.

The Yarn: Hobbii Halloween Sock Wool

As I mentioned in the intro, I wasn’t a fan of this yarn: Halloween Sock Wool by Hobbii. It’s not awful, but it’s not on the same level as my go-to self-striping yarn: Felici by Knit Picks. 

You can see the difference in the photo below: the green yarn is Felici, and the orange is the Hobbii Sock Wool. Notice how the orange has more fuzzy fibers sticking out? That’s what makes yarn feel scratchy or rough. You can also see that the Felici yarn is more consistent in thickness, while the Hobbii gets thinner in spots, which can make your stitches look uneven. It just feels like a lower-quality yarn overall.

All that said, I got 100 g for $6 with free shipping, so don’t feel too bad for me! And although I didn’t love this yarn, I want to be clear that I’m not extending my “low-quality” conclusion to all Hobbii yarns. I know a lot of knitters who have had great experiences with them, and I love that Hobbii has so many affordable yarn options, which makes knitting accessible to more people. (Let’s not gatekeep this hobby!)

P.S. If you’re reading this at the time of publication, it’s six days until Halloween and you likely don’t have time to knit these cool socks, but check out my post 8 Quick Halloween Knitting Patterns if you’ve got the itch to knit something spooky. I just clicked all the links to make sure they still work and discovered that most of the patterns are on sale right now until Halloween! Yay!