camping socks

These I also knit mostly while camping. The yarn is from Crown Mountain Farms in the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds color. Totally fabulous. And free! Each skein is 200 yds and I had 2 skeins, so I started at the toes and worked up so I could stop when I ran out. This got me almost to my knees, which is great cause I've wanted high socks for awhile now. These are squooshy and warm and I love how one goes from lighter to darker going up and the other going down.

My only wish is that I had made these in time to actually wear them while tenting in the mountains. It can get pretty chilly at night there.

strawberries and kiwi

I have been spinning like a fiend since being reunited with my beloved wheel. Here's one example. It's the 4oz. of superwash Corriedale I dyed a few months ago. I have been struggling with the whole learning curve of spinning in general and in making a sock yarn that pleases me, in particular. I have generally been too tight. Receiving and subsequently studying the handspun sockyarn from Crown Mountain Farms recently helped some (I just finished socks! More later).

Maybe it's cause I'm on vacation but I managed to loosen up and spin a better, if not perfect, yarn. It's just a 2-ply (like CMF's) but it's consistent and I got 387 yards. My only complaint is I can't get quite the "sproinginess" I would like, although it's not bad. Actually, I was reading up last night and realized for a worsted I should have more twist in the singles and less in the plying, so I may have been a wee bit too relaxed on the singles. I have to find the sweet spot.

green sunshine

Whew. What a crazy week. Final days of school. Soccer windup parties and playoffs. A house full of 8 crazy 5 year olds hyped up on birthday party cupcakes. What a great week.

I did get a wee bit of knitting time in on Sunday night which allowed me to finish these in time for the Cookie KAL deadline on Ravelry. I had a false start there, but recovered after ripping it out and starting over with smaller needles. These weren't a mindless knit, but engaging and satisfying.

pattern: 'Sunshine' from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids

colour: Loden

simple.fun.

The socks have been my take anywhere, mindless project for the last several weeks. A few minutes at the boy's hockey practice, some at soccer practice (not during the actual games, though. those are too riveting). Using leftover yarn from a baby hat of a few months ago. This yarn is wonderful stuff. These socks are so comfortable and squooshy I may never take them off. Plain vanilla pattern-wise for a busy yarn. I have to have some simple socks always underway. It's calming.

I'm also deriving goofy pleasure from the tree in my backyard. For most of the year it acts like it's a single tree but in spring it always blooms in two separate halves: pink and white.

Thirdly, I am having much fun with what arrived yesterday in the mail: my new Knitpicks swift and ball winder. They are sturdy and effective and all kinds of awesome. They wind my skeins into happy cakes which I now feel compelled to pet each time I pass. Gone are my endless nights winding yarn balls by hand from skeins held by the kitchen chair. I can hardly wait to do something laceweight/1000m-ish. Using the old method these would cause me no end of grief in those last, tangly, 50m or so. Not anymore! I'm grinning just at the thought.

so much sock, so little yarn

I'm close to finishing a sweater, but in the meantime here is some sock yarn I finished spinning yesterday. It's the orange and blue wool I dyed here. I am trying to achieve the perfect sock. I'm starting with superwash corriedale wool. Superwash for the obvious assurance that even when the socks inevitably go through the wash it's probably OK, as well as the added durability the superwash process gives the wool. Corriedale rather than, say, merino, for the comparative durabilility of the breed. Anyway, then I did a fairly tight twist on each of my singles and then spun it into a 3-ply. All sounds like I'm on my way to achieving a nice durable sock.

However, I only dyed and spun up 4 oz. in this colour, thinking that since 99.9% of indy dyers on Etsy sell their roving in 4oz. batches it's likely enough for a pair of socks for the average adult. Now I'm mad at myself for not doing 8oz, especially since I dyed it myself and could have dyed any amount. I have 226 yards. It's even fewer in metres (206);). Argh.

I don't feel comfortable having less than 400 yards for a pair of socks for myself and these are supposed to be for my husband. I even checked my wraps-per-inch thing to see if maybe I have more of a sport weight yarn and then might need a bit less, but no. I'm solidly in the fingering category.

So now I need half a sock's worth of something solid in a commercial yarn to round out this thing. It's difficult to get a good honest, durable sock yarn that's not trying to be anything fancier. I think I'll do toe-up and use the store yarn for the toe, heel and whatever top of cuff I need. Oh well. I know more now. That's what counts, right?

experiment sock.1.a

This may look familiar. See here and here. I was feeling like I should just move forward and finish the sock already. I had a limited amount of handspun as I'd given the majority of it away, so it prompted me to finally learn to do a toe up sock. I'm very pleased with my toe, in particular.

I am not too eager to make the second sock but I know I should. The thing is, as it was the first time I'd spun a two-ply for sock yarn, or anything for socks for that matter, I spun it a wee bit thin for my liking. I should have gone down a needle size, but then my sock probably would have ended somewhere around my ankle and I haven't worn ankle socks since about grade 6.

But the striping is pleasing and the process in general satisfying, so I have 1 lb. of superwash Corriedale waiting and ready for dyeing and subsequent spinning into 3 or 4 pairs of 3-ply socks. Cause nothing beats home-dyed/-spun/-knit footwear.