Sock Parade and Inadvertent Review of Cascade Heritage, Knit Picks Stroll and Knit Picks Stroll Tonal

I don't know when exactly I decided I would be knitting all of my daughter's socks. Actually, maybe I do. Last year I bought a pack of socks for my daughter. She had long feet but still had chubby little toddler ankles. I hated that when I took her socks off they left deep marks in her ankles and her feet still felt cold. That's when I remembered... I'm a knitter - I can fix this. I bought a skein of pink yarn and raided my own sock leftovers to produce a set of socks.

Army of Socks for a Three Year Old

She LOVED them. And honestly, I loved them too. Warmth and comfort for my baby? Check. Use up leftover yarns? Check. Satisfyingly quick knit? Check.
Extra bonus - by the end of the year the ones I had striped in different brands of yarn gave a really easy comparison of the durability of different yarns*. I'm not sure there's a better test for sock durability than a very active three year old.

Fast forward to this year. The socks from last year still fit okay (knitting is stretchy), until literally overnight, they didn't. I could have just run to the store for more socks like a sensible person. You can guess what I did instead. So over the next few days we're going to have a parade of little girl knit socks up in here.

Clockwise from top left: Rosy Pink Socks, Pink and Grey Socks, Pink Socks 2, Jack's Piano Socks, and Sunshine and Thundercloud Socks

*In case you're wondering, last year's batch included Cascade Heritage, Knit Picks Stroll, and Knit Picks Stroll Tonal. They all got heavy use since there were only five pairs and she wouldn't wear any other socks. Thankfully none developed holes or thin spots in a year of wear. The Knit Picks yarns were slightly thicker than the Cascade. The Knit Picks Stroll ended up pilling a decent amount, but so did the Cascade Heritage. Surprisingly, the Stroll Tonal was the clear winner in durability (it was the yellow and the Cascade was the grey in the striped socks - which made for easy comparison). I say surprisingly because it felt the softest to me and usually softest also mean pilly-est. Also, I would have assumed that the Stroll and Stroll tonal would be the same base yarn. Maybe not? So, in both feel and durability my favorite was Stroll Tonal - but in all honesty I'd use regular Stroll again too (and did). I probably wouldn't get the Cascade again simply for the fact that I prefer a slightly thicker yarn - but that's simply personal preference, not a statement on the quality of the yarn.