Still

Dyeing, spinning and knitting socks.

These are the first samples for my new Daisy Socks kits.

The fibre is dyed in a way that when spun according to instructions will either give you the colour and patterning on the right or the one on the left. Both are from the same batch of dyed top.

I’ve also developed another “small” obsession. Right now it is commercial yarn but I see much more dyeing and spinning in my future.

It’s a Harmony Loom from Grafton Fibers.

At the moment I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Having a great time trying to figure it all out.

It would seem…

…that my sock obsession has moved to an entirely new level. If I’m not knitting socks, I’m dyeing fibre for socks, or spinning sock yarn or browsing sock patterns or designing my own patterns. I’ve even resorted to (gasp!) crocheting socks.

First up, I finally finished my mom’s birthday socks. Okay her birthday was in February but they kept getting put on hold for other projects.

The yarn is Berroco Sox Metallic. You can’t see it in this picture but there are lovely sparkly silver threads. And yes, approved my Mom before the knitting began (although if she hadn’t liked it, my daughter would have). Pattern is my own basic top down, gusset heel, grafted toe.

I finally broke down, and despite the dozen or so skeins of sock yarn in my stash, bought two skeins of Arequipa. I couldn’t resist that little bit of alpaca.

The first skein became these:

Toe up, short row heel crocheted socks. Again my own pattern. They are soft, fit in my shoes and took all of two short afternoons to make.

I cast on the second skein of Arequipa yesterday.

“On Hold” from the new “Socks from the Toe Up” by Wendy D. Johnson of WendyKnits. I chose this pattern because my next sock knitting project is “on hold” as the yarn is still on my spinning wheel.

Gotta have socks!

Final Study Project

Well, my socks are finally done. In the end, I frogged the one that I had made from the original pattern. I just wasn’t happy with the the striping in the 2x2 ribbing. It wasn’t doing the yarn or the pattern any justice. I also had a few issues with the pattern, like the afterthought heel and the ribbing continuing right down to the end of the toe instead of stopping at the beginning of the toe shaping.

Here you can see the the original pattern on the left and my standard sock pattern on the right.

Once I had them on my feet, I knew my decision to frog was the right one.

I have a two more pairs of socks on the go right now. Not handspun though and one pair, believe it or not is crocheted! More on that soon.