Lies on Knitting

Decisions, decisions...

Sockyarn! I got it. Well, sock weight at least. This purple-lilac-white combination was put together bij Atelier De Woltrol. This shop sells bags of misc. roving, very handy for the beginner-spinner: I could try my hand on various kinds of fiber. The purples in my bag were all Merinos, so I changed the colours around while spinning, thus making self-striping yarn. I think sock yarn should be at least 3-ply, and I do not have a Lazy Kate, so I navajo-plied it. (again) I got me 94 grams, 263 meter, sock yarn indeed! (50 cents piece included for scale)

After I danced around the house with it, and cuddled it, and showed it to the cats (they were not impressed) I found this site, (which I bookmarked immediately!) and discovered I had not made sock yarn after all. Merino wool does not wear very well on its own, it needs some other fiber to reinforce it. Oh well. If ever I'd knit socks from this yarn I probably wouldn't want to walk on them. :-)

Remember the green yarn that I spun to knit me a clapotis from, and that Yep liked for a scarf? I could not decide, scarf or clapotis, so I started a little swatch. Just a little testknit, to see how the colours shift once it is knitted, and to find out what kind of fabric it will be. This is the swatch. But I am still somewhat insecure... Maybe I should knit it a bit larger, just to be sure.

PS Did you see? Yarn Harlot is coming to Europe!

Added later: And I got tickets!

Sock drawers again

A new photo-album appeared on the left side of this blog, containing your sockdrawer-pictures. I had a lot of fun sorting them out, and new additions are ofcourse still welcome!

I had a hard time figuring out to whom to send the skein of yarn that  I designated as a grand prize. Ruling out any hint of favouritism is hard to start with. And how does one compare two or three precious pairs of handknits like Lieke showed, to years worth of bravely producing piles of socks, thus providing for a complete family like Judith does?

I did not know. So I noted all your names on little papers, folded them, tossed them in a champagne-cooler and asked my own Yep -who is busy plastering a wall- to pick one out. And that, my friends, is how this skein of soft (Bluefaced Leicester) Fyberspates Sock Yarn found its new owner. It will fit in your sockdrawer nicely, Annita, the colour is similar to some of the socks you knitted earlier. If you'd email me your home adress I will send it right away, and I hope you have fun knitting it up!

The jury is in conference

All those lovely sock-collections. I was surprised to find so many other-than-drawer ways to keep the handknit socks happy and safe. Thank you all very much for the photographs. I will put them all in an album on this here little blog.

To decide where the skein of sockyarn will go, I'll pick one randomly. There is just too much difference to compare them honestly. I'll get back to you on that.

In the meantime, I did not knit much, not even one sock. Things here in the house are dusty due to building activities (yes, again...) and we have a small power shortage (Hi, nrrdgrrl!) caused by total failure of the ancient main switch in the house. It will be solved soon.

I did spin, though. I finished the 100 gr. of BFL that she dyed for me. I am very satisfied with the result, apart from it being NOT a sockweight as you can see. The red yarn in the picture is Fortissima Socka, to compare.

I spun it as thin as I dared, then navajo-plied it to keep the colours together. Due to the navajo-plying and me not being fast enough, it got a bit overtwisted, but I knew what kind of persuation was needed here:   I soaked it and dried it with some tension, and it was good.

I have 180 meters of this yarn, that I guess will be knit best on 3 mm needles. Not socks, but maybe a baby garment, if combined with a solid blue... I am making progress, don't you think? I bought a bag of varied purple merino roving, and started off on the next episode in The Quest for Homespun Sockyarn.