Indigo dyed Blue Faced Leicester with nylon. There is only 230 yards of this. It dawned on me that it would have been a good time to try toe up socks, but after swatching, knitting, frogging 4 times.. okay, I only swatched twice, once when I was supposed to before I started knitting and it gave me one set of info.. After three false starts, I swatched again, checked the WPI and realized that my swatch gauge and wpi were telling me different things and that my issues were that this was handspun, not commercial sock yarn, I cast on what I thought it should be and it looks like it should work. I've a bit of extra yarn from bobbin ends, in both the same blue and a blue/white barber pole which should work for heels and toes, to extend the yarn. Since I am knitting a sock with few stitches less than I would with commercial yarn at a slightly heavier gauge, I'm hoping I can weasle through with the yardage.
The lovely grey is more Blue Faced Leicester and Merino, both with a bit of nylon, mixed with some black merino. I really bought the first superwash fibres on a whim. However I've rather enjoyed spinning them as they draft nicely and are easy to re-card into batts. I'm on the second bobbin now, so if I can actually get myself to card up the last two batts, sit down and spin, I'll be plying in no time. The problem is that I sat down one day to play with the little support spindle . It's certainly not fast, but it is very enjoyable. Now of course, I'll probably have to unlearn all the mistakes I've picked up in teaching myself to use it. Darned if I was going to let a spinning device sit unused and untried, lest it spend it's days taunting me! I can see now that a slightly shorter spindle might be nice and even a little heavier would work as well. However I do like the tip for spinning off of this one and it's beautifully finished, so has a lovely hand feel when using it.
The lovely grey is more Blue Faced Leicester and Merino, both with a bit of nylon, mixed with some black merino. I really bought the first superwash fibres on a whim. However I've rather enjoyed spinning them as they draft nicely and are easy to re-card into batts. I'm on the second bobbin now, so if I can actually get myself to card up the last two batts, sit down and spin, I'll be plying in no time. The problem is that I sat down one day to play with the little support spindle . It's certainly not fast, but it is very enjoyable. Now of course, I'll probably have to unlearn all the mistakes I've picked up in teaching myself to use it. Darned if I was going to let a spinning device sit unused and untried, lest it spend it's days taunting me! I can see now that a slightly shorter spindle might be nice and even a little heavier would work as well. However I do like the tip for spinning off of this one and it's beautifully finished, so has a lovely hand feel when using it.
Love you new blog background! The addition of the black merino to the BFL/merino/nylon was genius. I love cool greys and this one is perfect. Beautifully spun, but I wouldn't expect to see less when I visit your blog!
ReplyDeleteI just don't get toe-up socks either. I've tried them and don't get very far. I have learned the hard way about the difference between socks from commercial and handspun yarns. It's almost apples and oranges.
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