The unsimple, simple socks strike again

I loved how the first set of these knitted up so much I went and did them all over again :)  My gauge was a little out if I'm honest so these aren't the snuggest of socks, but boy are they warm.

In keeping with my utter sock obsession at the moment, I've also managed to cast on Twisted Flower in the Ostara 2012 yarn I finished spinning a week or so ago.

I really must get some actual work done soon!

Dear Masham,

Dear Masham,
I must confess I’m smitten. Sorry if that is a little strong after a first date, I promise the bunnies are safe.
I’ve not been long at this spinning game (6 months ish) and am still settling in with my wheel (6 weeks) but when these nice Ravelry people suggested you as this month’s fiber I had to dig the sample bag of you out of my stash. You looked so smooth and shiney in your bump, but the staple length, oh my. I’ve made good friends with merino, shetland, corriedale and oddly silk but with you I had no idea where to start. I knit lace, I knit socks but where would we find common ground? Was our first date to be one of awkward silences, stilted half started singles and a tangle of plying?

Luckily Beth Smith came to our rescue, introducing us and suggesting a good “first date venue”. Outfit chosen (wheel not spindle), date set (last night after a long day demo’ing spinning) and a suitable glass of wine poured and we were good to go. It was a jump into the unknown.

I was so worried about overspinning the singles that the first couple of grams kept drifting apart… not a good start. A quick re-read of Beth’s instructions though and I took my courage in my hands and started treddling faster. My wheel bless her is a slow old thing. I love her to bits but her 1:6.5 ratio makes for fun spinning lace. Two treddles for every 1.5-2” drafted short forwards draw though and we seemed to be getting on much better. Drafting was a dream though you still felt a little harsh on the bobbin to my untutored hands, but at least we were sticking together now. Then came the second course, plying. Ours was a short, get to know you type date so an Andean ply seemed the sensible way to go. Aside from me losing one end for about 10 mins it went swimmingly. A quick backply test, doused in suitably hot water to get a feel for what was needed and we were up and running.

All too soon your 44wpi singles were transformed into 40.6yds of 21wpi lace, set in a quick bath of warm Euclan water and dried lying across a rack in the airing cupboard. I hope you don’t mind but I took a quick picture.




Anyway I hope you had as much fun as me. Fancy a second date? I was thinking maybe from the fold or heading over to Wonderwool? Let me know what you think.

Yours still spinning,
K

A FO! The unsimple simple socks

I realised that a lot of my blog seems to be about the stuff I have in progress but that I rarely remember to get up pictures etc of my finished objects, which seems a shame really.  So here is a more positive FO posting :)

All good projects have a bit of a story behind them I think, and this one is no exception.  Ages ago I bought some fluff in a destash on Ravelry.  Anyway it turned out that there was an utter confusion as to what I'd actually bought as the beautiful grey/purple/lavender goodness that I was expecting turned out to be an equally gorgeous blue/green/teal braid.  Much PMing too and fro between me, the seller and the lady we thought had got my order and it transpired that the listing had been wrong.  Both me and the other lady were expecting the purple which didn't actually exist.  Well what I'd received was still lovely so kind of no harm no foul I thought.  The seller though, bless her, was mortified by the mistake and insisted on refunding us both the money we had paid whilst telling us to keep the braids.  Keeping with the thought that what goes around comes around, I decided that I'd find some other yarn to buy with the refund with the idea of gifting the FO.

So the money sat in my PayPal for a while and life continued on as ever while I tried to find something suitable.  Sure enough another Raveler came up with a destash and I had a slight moment of inspiration, why not knit some deep red socks for Lama Zangmo?  Sure a white kata is more traditional, but they always strike me as singularly wasteful.  The majority that you can buy feel like man-made fibers, and I'm not totally sure what happens to them after they are given.  Part of me hopes they're washed, ironed and re-sold, but either way, the creation of so many from a non-sustainable source always feels a little wrong somehow.  Shetland wool on the other hand is pretty sustainable, and warm socks when you're walking round a cool temple floor have got to be a good idea.

I finally got round to casting them on on 7 Feb, having waded my way through several other WIPs and they've clocked up a good few miles since.  They've been my commuting project, sitting in my bag with my sports kit, lunch, books, laptop etc and have been kicked about the floor at home.  Though not a yarn I'd necessarily have gone for as a first choice (2ply rather than a 3ply) they have finished up far nicer than I was thinking they would about half way through.  Yes the yarn was a bit on the splitty side which with this pattern could get a bit annoying, but once washed the yarn really floofed up to fill the space between the stitches.  The pattern is Back to Basics from Knitty which describes itself as a slight twist on plain vanilla socks.  I wasn't 100% on it when I was knitting them, for starters they do actually require a fair bit of thought at one point, but seeing the final object... yeah I've already cast on another pair.

I think that is probably enough on the talking about them though, how about some photos :)

If you are thinking of casting this one on, I would just warn you they look terrible on the needles!  I don't know what it was about the pattern or how I was knitting them (2 at a time on one circular needle) but they were possibly the most misshapen sorry looking things I've ever knit.  Blocked though, or on my feet and they are the ultimate ugly ducking transformed.