KnitMe

Conwy socks

Not that I need them right now, but I'm still happy to have finished my pair of socks.

This pattern is from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I love her books, I've never been disappointed in any of them. (She has a new one coming out this fall, too, and I'll be poised to order it as soon as it shows up.)

The yarn is the beautiful sock yarn I bought from Tess Yarn at MS&W in May. I love this yarn - it's tightly spun for durability and it is also smooth and soft, and dyed in beautiful deep colors. I knitted these on a size 0 needle because the yarn seemed a tad finer than ordinary sock yarn.

I think I did something funny with my gauge between sock one and sock two, and I'm not sure how or why. The first sock was knitted more tightly than the second - this must be the reason for the odd color behavior on this sock.

Can you see how the striping goes whacko on the foot of the sock on the right in the picture above? (it's on the left foot in the picture below...) All of a sudden, a huge puddle of blue on the instep.

The one with the 'puddle' is also a little tighter and required more repeats of the pattern to get the foot the right length. Go figure. I have no idea why this would have happened.

I used nearly all the yarn, there is just a small ball left, maybe 30 or 40 yards. I loved knitting with it and definitely plan to dive into that bin next year at MS&W.

I also finished the Noro cardigan, but I think I shall block it before taking photos. It didn't turn out anything like I expected. I expected I was going to make a top-hip or slightly cropped cardigan to save yarn. I ended up with something that is tunic length. I had plenty of yarn and just couldn't stop knitting! So I have to block it out and have a look to decide if I like it or not. Knitting mysteries.

What this means is that right now I have nothing on the needles except the silk from hell. I will probably make Emily a pair of socks, and when Sam is ready I'll wind up my cormo and start our handspun knit-along. But I doubt I'll be able to avoid starting something else too...

Comment from Emily yesterday while watching Patsy Zawistoski spinning on her single-treadle wheel in her spinning techniques video: "Look Mommy, it only has one thing, just like one of yours." The child has noticed that I have one single-treadle wheel and one double-treadle wheel. Isn't she brilliant?

The 3 ply pile

The cormo is plyed.

I think I have about 1400 yards here. The 5 hanks are not consistent as to plying tightness, so the experts tell me I should mix it up when knitting - work from more than one ball so it'll all balance itself out.

I was pretty happy with this as I went along, but the last 40-yard hank lying across the top is the result of navajo plying the leftovers, and when I saw this one it made me disillusioned with the rest. Because I've heard that it's easy to radically overply with the navajo technique, I paid close attention and plyed more loosely, and I ended up with the softest, most even yarn of the batch. Now, the rest of it looks much less attractive to me. Sigh.

I think I am going to make 'Venus' from Jaeger book 18 with this yarn - the pullover version. I have three Jaeger books for 4-ply weight yarn, and there were other designs that were maybe a little more interesting, but I think with the variable ply of this yarn I ought to stick to something very simple. I also really want a pullover, since I just finished a marathon lace cardigan in January, and I like the 3/4 sleeves.

But the yarn needs to hang around the house for awhile, so that any overplying may relax a little, so this can't start just yet. Sam and I are probably going to have a handspun knitalong later in the summer, as she has a bunch of gorgeous 3 ply Dorset that she showed off here earlier this year.

The Noro cardigan is going to be done soon, and the second Conwy sock is almost half done. The silk from hell hasn't been touched in months, I may end up having to throw that out the window and give up on it. Standing on principle is fine, but beyond a certain point, I have to remind myself that knitting is supposed to be FUN.