Well, maybe not as bad as all that...

Two weeks ago I was chain plying some singles made from Fat Cat Knits fiber. A beautiful merino/bamboo/nylon blend dyed in gradient colors that I wanted to preserve. It didn't go well. Some of the singles had so little twist in them that they fell apart. I had to knot things together far too often.

Boy was I mad! Beautiful fiber, well prepared in lovely colors and a significant investment in my time and money all ruined because I rushed things. I didn't let enough twist enter the fiber, and I didn't sample enough while spinning to make sure things were going well. I finished the plying anyway, but was so disappointed in myself that I didn't skein it up.

Then came the K-W fair and I started spinning up my new fiber. I went for the Gotland from Hubbart Farms first. I was attracted to it because the cloaks worn by the good guys in the Lord of the Rings were made from Gotland fiber. My yarn came out quite pretty and I'm thinking I'd like to make some color work fingerless gloves from it.

While I was at it I decided to skein up my despised chain-plyed yarn from before. Time healed my wounds because now I'm in love with it! I don't know that it would make good socks, being underspun, but who cares? Look how pretty it is:

Not nearly as bad as I thought. I couldn't even see the knots in it. The colorway is called Wizard Tower and I was thinking of it for Jim, since he's a D&D fan. Want a closer look?

Not too shabby. Possibly even usable. What's the moral of the story? I guess I'm too hard on myself.

Oh what a day!

Saturday was the annual knitter's pilgrimage to Kitchener for the K-W Knitter's Guild Fair. There didn't seem to be as many people there this year, but what was missing in quantity was more than made up for in quality. I met so many wonderful people that I know from the internet and this blog, plus yarn store owners and vendors from last year that I wanted to say hi to this year.

My first stop this year was to Ashley and Andy at All Strung Out.  I just had to get a picture for my mom of the yarn pots she made for them:

There were a few other vendor's selling yarn bowls this year, perhaps because of the article in Vogue Knitting a little while back.

I also made a stop at Hubbert Farms to visit Jody. We hit it off:

Get a load of these grand champion, hand-spun color work mittens she made:

They take my breath away. I aspire to this skill level.

Just over in the next booth, I spotted a fellow blogger and we had a spontaneous moment of bloggers blogging bloggers:

Can you guess who's behind the camera? It's Brenda Knits. Ain't she cute?

We also hit it off and had a lovely chat. Then we kept bumping into each other in the booths. She'd turn around and there I'd be. I wasn't stalking you Brenda, honest!

I even met Anne Hanson and stopped to say hello. I'll confess to being a little shy with her, but it was also weird because I felt like I know her. I wanted to ask how David was and if her garden was still producing. Surreal.

And now, what you've all been waiting for, the purchase report. It seemed to me that there wasn't an IT vendor this year. And having just purged the stash I was cautious about purchasing more yarn. You don't really go to the fair to buy a sweater's worth of yarn. It's more about what's new, or a treat, or finding a bargain.

I found myself buying fiber instead. From Hubbert Farms, I bought Jody's hand-prepared Gotland fiber:

From Wellington Fibers a lovely wool/mohair/silk blend that I think wants to be socks:

From Roving Winds Farm I bought 1oz of pure, cream cashmere. No picture because it just doesn't do it justice. I got sucked into buying it when I felt a sample scarf. I don't think you can actually touch cashmere. It's more like the fiber giving you a whisper of a caress. Lovely.

But the big item this year was almost 19oz of Shetland from Michelle at Hopeful Shetlands:

This should be enough to make me a shrug or a vest. I aspire to a hand spun sweater but decided it would be smart to start a bit smaller. I've worked with Michelle's Shetland fiber before and loved it.

So that's it. It was a great day, with great traveling companions, and beautiful weather. I don't think I could handle this much fun more than once a year.

The only downer was that I couldn't wear my newly completed Folklore because it was just too warm. I draped it over my arm and it started some conversation. The zipper installation is great on it, and I'm moderately pleased with the fit. If you'd like to see pictures, head on over to Ravelry.

Funny Feet

His feet sure look funny, but he's got cute knees:

The picture is really about his new socks, but I get distracted when Jim wears shorts. He loves long socks, but I don't love knitting them. I'm very happy that this pair is done. The stripes of the Kroy FX helped make them fun.

And in other news, here's a tip for casting on a lot of stitches. I like to put in stitch markers every 20 stitches to make counting easier and more accurate. One time I had to cast on over 400 stitches (it was for a bottom up shawl). Not being sure I even had that many stitch markers, I grabbed a contrasting ball of sock yarn and after casting on twenty stitches I put in a slip knot of the contrast yarn. Then, every twenty stitches I put in a backward loop of contrast yarn, making sure that there was plenty of extra contrast yarn in between. I didn't cut the contrast yarn, so it's not wasted and can be used again or even knit with. 

And here it is, my latest unvention:

Oh yeah, and that's no shawl on the needles. That's my Rowan sale yarn in the process of being knit up into an Eadon cardigan.

Rise and Shine

A good day starts with a healthy breakfast.  Well, now you can have your bacon and eggs with fiber.

This knitting project got started when a co-worker and good friend showed me these nifty fingerless gloves, saying "If I had a pair of those, I'd wear them."

And I said, "I can make that." So I did! Details on Ravelry.

Now dig in.

The Purge

You can feel the season start to change. It's cooler. The leaves on the trees are looking dull, and many that were scorched by summer's heat and drought are already on the ground. There's an urge to prepare, to clean, to focus one's energy for the next shift.

This weekend, my cleaning energies fell on my yarn room. There were books strewn about, left behind as inspiration failed, that needed to be sorted and tidied. Many needles were caught mid-way in a project, abandoned as troubles slowed me down. These I liberated, leaving the project at loose ends, and sized them up to be slotted into their proper place. But the yarn.. ah, what to do about the yarn.

Earlier I had purchased a book, Knitting Plus, in hopes of learning how better to make myself sweaters that fit. I've learned a lot from it already and I'm eager to try out the patterns. Many are very simple, making good templates, and I think I could learn a lot from working them. Others have wonderful cables or pretty lace details that appeal to me.

In looking through my yarn stash though, I realized that I don't have the yarns to make these sweaters. My stash has overflowed its containment, and yet so much of it I don't want to knit with. So I purged.  I pulled it all out, bagged it up and called a friend. She's a mom, in school and on a budget. We were recently talking and she said she couldn't go to the KW Knitter's Fair this year. So I invited her over to shop my stash. The price was right (free) so she took it all.

Gosh it felt good to purge it! I feel so much lighter and now I can buy the yarn I need to make the sweater I want with no guilt about what's already at home.

And you should see how much tidier my yarn room looks.

ETA: Re-reading this, I realize it sounds as if I gave everything away. Well I didn't. Just the yarns that were holding me back. Several sweater's worth of yarns that I bought on sale that I can't find a pattern for. Much yarn is still left in the stash, mostly sock yarn, but there's some laceweight and sport weight and beloved odd balls and of course the Rowan for which I am now searching for a pattern.

Afflicted

Itchy!!  I've been so itchy the past week. Poison ivy got me and there's a rash on my leg, on my shoulder going up to my neck, there was a bit on my arm and a smidgen near my eye. It feels like ants crawling on you and you can't scratch. I used calamine lotion, and over the counter antihistamines and the best thing of all was plain ole Benadryl. The meds do take a toll though, and I've just felt flat all week. No spunk. Jim nicked named me Itchy-bitchy.

So how did I get the itch on all these different locations? Well, the one on my leg was the primary contact with the plant, I can tell because it's the worst one. I think the rest came from secondary contact, from something that I touched that touched the plant, but it took me a while to figure out from where. The new spots of rash kept occurring all on the left side. I was thinking about this as I was walking the dog and realized that his dangling leash could easily have dragged through the evil plant.

I couldn't get home fast enough! I threw the leash in the trash, washed down with some rubbing alcohol, then plain water, then a full on shower.  So far, so good, no more rashes.

To cope with my affliction I amused myself with stories of how much worse it could be. And I treated myself to some bright colors, spinning some FatCatKnits fiber in the colorway nerds, then knitting it up into these precious mittens:

They are size 6-8 and I'm going to put them aside for Christmas. The superwash BFL will make them easy for even a muggle to care for.

I was supposed to be tackling the zipper on my Folklore, and I tried, but it was ten stitches to the inch. I did three inches and it took an hour. Seriously? Times two sides?  Not happening.  So today, I took the sweater to our local tailor and he tells me he can do it, no problem, and have it done by September 9th, all for $28. It sounds like a great deal to me. Of course I'm nervous that something bad might happen to my knitting, but then again, if I were to do it myself, something bad might also happen. You could even say a bad something would be more likely to happen in my hands than in the hands of an experienced tailor.

Well, it's in his hands now. I'll try not to think about it.  Lets just look at mittens again.

Kilronan, the second

Beautiful, non?

The first time I knit Kilronan for Jim it was from Lavold Silky Wool. Jim loved it. It was soft and the pattern let him feel like a knight wearing chain mail armour. It looked good on him too except... the Silky Wool soon gave up all memory. The cables went flat and the sweater flared out at the back, exposing Jim's lower back.  He wore it faithfully for as long as possible, and then requested another.

My first hurdle was finding the right yarn. Jim knew he wanted red, and that it had to be soft.  I found both these qualities easily in Cascade 220 super wash sport. I bought the yarn from Paula at All Strung Out in Guelph. The store has an impressive wall of Cascade in rainbow colors. I bought what I thought would be plenty of yarn, but forgot to reckon in that Jim wanted extra length. What luck then that Paula could get me two more skeins in the exact same dyelot, several months later. I used over 15 skeins on this project. It is a long garment:

But the Cascade makes for nice rounded cables.  I worked almost all of them without a cable needle.  The five stitch cable was a bit too much though.

The trickiest bit of this sweater was removing that center ribbed band that nips in the waist. It's very feminine, but not suitable for a knight's surcoat.  Removing the ribbing means that you can't follow Alice Starmore's detailed instructions anymore and instead, you must hash out where to end the cables all on your lonesome. 

And let us not forget the wicked sleeve caps. I ended up removing the last four rows of plain work at the top of the sleeves and then removed the extra stitches during the cast off round. I was hoping for a blunter cap to the sleeve. It almost worked, but they still want to puff. The sweater needs a good tug at the back and then Jim's shoulders fill out the caps.

I recently realized that I knit Jim sweaters and me socks. It's time to switch that up and give the man more socks and me more sweaters.  But I'm glad I took the time to resurrect this old favourite. Jim deserves it, if only for being such a good sport.

What season's next? Sweater Season!

The stores may be gearing up for back to school, but I'm gearing up for sweater season and I'm getting excited!

This week, I completely finished Jim's sweater, the one with the puffed sleeves, but I haven't taken any pictures yet as its hot outside today. I'm still not thrilled with the shoulder caps, but it will do.

Also this week, I finished the knitting on my Folklore sweater, but it is far from done. Today, I've been working on hand sewing the steeks.  Here's a steek peek, from the wrong side:

I'm catching every strand through the middle with my needle and thread.  This is a super wash yarn and I want to secure it as best I can. Here's what it looks like on the right side:

Can hardly see it, eh?  Still, this faint thread will be turned under to the back.

After I sew it, I'll cut it. Then I'll prepare my zipper according to this fabulous technique developed by TechKnitter and explained here by Eunny Jang:



After that, it's just a matter of knitting the zipper to the sweater with some i-cord, then capturing the cut ends of the sweater beneath the zipper tape with another row of handstitching, this time in a non-contrasting thread. Piece of cake, right?  No, I'll confess, I'm quailing at the thought of the amount of work left to do on this sweater. I even want to reknit the cuffs still.

It's just under a month till the KW Knitter's Fair and I'm hoping to be wearing it there. Will I make it?  I know you're just on the edge of your seats.

All this and I'm suffering under the handicap of being distracted by other projects I want to start. At first I thought I wanted to make Twist and Shout, then the Twist Collective Fall 2011 was released and I thought I wanted to make Eadon. For a long time I waffled between these two projects and then I saw a Drops sweater that trumped them both, except I want to make it a pullover, from the top down. 

Don't you love sweater season?

Sharing the good and the bad

I've got two items to share with you, which shall we start with?

Let's see, I guess we'll start with the good first. I've finished another pair of handspun socks, by best so far.

I'm so much in love with these, I don't know if I can stand to wear them anywhere. The fiber is by Lofty Fibres, a super wash silk and merino blend that I hope will last. I used the fractal spinning method, spinning one of the singles with long repeats of color and the other single with short bursts of color. I know a two-ply isn't the best for durable socks, but... so pretty!

And now for the bad. One morning this week I decided it was time to sew on the sleeve to a sweater I'm making for Jim. I haven't finished knitting the second sleeve yet, but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to get a jump on things. I worked on it for well over an hour, seaming, pulling it out, and seaming again. That evening I told Jim he had to try it on. Thank goodness he did before I started seaming the side and sleeves because the cap of the set-in sleeve had a decided puff. Jim is not a puff sort of man.

It's not so bad. I had a good laugh, I hope you have had a good laugh and it was easily ripped out again. That's an hour of my life I won't get back, but it's another learning experience under my belt.

Over Coming the Hurdle

I took a two-week hiatus from spinning: the week before and the week during vacation. It was great to get back to my wheel when we returned. The spinning wasn't co-operating though. I started working the targhee braid and the fiber was so compacted, almost felted, making it difficult to draft. Also, the fiber would pull out of my hand and then get lost on the bobbin.  Seriously! I was so frustrated! I couldn't find the end to continue spinning.

So I flipped to a different fiber I'd put aside before vacation because I was frustrated with it. It was doing the same thing. What the heck?  A search through Ravelry's forums soon put me right. It turns out that if you don't move the yarn guide to a new place on the bobbin often enough, the singles will pile up until they fall to either side, breaking the fiber and burying the end of it at the same time. I had recently changed how often I move the slider on my Lendrum and that's why this problem was now occurring when it hadn't before.

Other things I learned on Ravelry's forums was to lay a life line by spinning the yarn on in one direction, say bottom to top, then moving all the way back to the start in one move. This lays a thread along the bobbin and makes it easier to find the end if it gets lost. Also, to find the end, I learned one can spin in the opposite direction real fast to make it pop out, or cup one hand over the bobbin while spinning in the opposite direction to tease the end up. I didn't need any of these tricks though because moving the yarn guide more often solved the source of the problem.

So I finished up both these yarns. The first a mohair wool blend (Spinning Moon Farm), the color in keeping with our heat wave again:

The second the Targhee, soft squishy and fine:

I joined Natchwoolie's Take Out Club, snack pack size. I get one ounce of fiber every month for six months. The fiber arrives in cute little takeout containers. This month it was Merino:

Last month it was blue faced leicester that had a wonderful sheepy smell. I worked my first laceweight with it:

I'm hoping that I can work the other snack packs into more lacewieght that I can then knit up into one shawl. It would be a wonderful sampler.

Yeah, but I sooooo need to stop spinning and get back to the needles. I have a ton of almost-done projects that are pining for some TLC. I think I'll have to put the wheel into time out for a bit. Whaaaaaaa.....

Hot, HOT, Darned HOT!

Oh man, what stinky hot, soupy weather we've been having. I have to walk the dog in the morning or it won't get done. Even so, you can see the humidity in the air and I return just slick with sweat. The dog flops on to the cold floor, six inches of tongue dragging out, not even bothering with the cool water I immediately set out for him.

What's a knitter to knit?  Not much, but silk works:

This is a Baktus scarf, knit in Fleece Artist Sea Silk. It was a fun little knit and about the only pattern that the brightly dyed yarn could handle. I will confess though, it's been on the needles a while. It was just its turn to get finished up.

I love the drape of the fabric, and the colors are much richer in a softer light.

Hot colors for hot weather. I hope it rains tonight.

Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals

It was a bitter-sweet vacation. This was likely our last vacation for our family.  Luke made it abundantly clear that he wasn't enjoying himself and if possible, he was going to make sure no one else enjoyed themselves either. Seriously, there were words exchanged. Eventually we reached a truce and perhaps even moments when he enjoyed himself, but not before he earned himself the nickname "Bitter Smurf".

The cottage was very sweet, clean and comfortable. The area where we were staying was very quite and rugged.

 
I was fascinated by the little wildflowers growing in the crevices of the pervasive rocks. Not only little flowers and grasses, but bushes and even trees grew in the rocks. Cedar shrubs hugged the ground in miniature looking from a distance like lawn.

The water was so clear! Fresh and blue, it was wonderful. There's a place called the grotto that was on the must see list and it was so worth it. A shade of blue I never expected to see in Canada.

We also did a 7km hike on the Bruce Trail. It was of moderate difficulty and I was very proud of our whole family for sticking it out.



Dexter's eye was better by the end of that first day. It must have been a bug bite. For a while there, he looked like a boxer who'd lost the fight.

The story of the trip though came one night around the campfire. We heard a rustle in the bushes behind us and saw a frog hop out onto a rock. It just sat there like it was enjoying the fire with us. Every time we looked back it was still there. After about 20 minutes, it jumped, toward the fire. We laughed and said "No, don't go to the light." But by golly if it didn't jump again, right into the fire! I thought for sure we were going to hear a hiss and a pop. We were all on our feet, yelling, helpless, when it jumped back out of the fire.  I herded it back into the bushes, but you know, it came back. Twice. We nicknamed it suicide frog.

Then, when we returned from vacation, one of our guinea pigs had died. She was six years old and spry and chipper when we left, so we figure it's just old age. The other pig seems to be fine, but we're keeping an eye on her.

Finally, yesterday, I had the day off work. I cleaned did laundry, got groceries and generally tidied up loose ends. I was eating lunch outside with Dexter running in the yard when he caught a squirrel. He had it pinned and didn't seem to know what to do with it. He wasn't biting it or anything. So I grabbed his collar to pull him off it, but he had it pinned between his paws. It was as if after years of taunting he'd finally caught one and wasn't going to let it go. But after a bit, the squirrel fought back and then there's Dexter shaking his paw as if to say "Ow! Get it off!"  Finally the squirrel let go and lay there in the grass, on its back panting for a bit before it scampered up the tree. It seemed fine and Dexter was none the worse for wear.

And that is the story of Bitter Smurf and the Bad Luck Animals. The end.

Pre-Vacation

The family is packed and about ready to head out for a week at a cottage in the wilds of Ontario. 

We'll be staying near the Bruce Peninsula and have plans to hike, swim, canoe and just plain relax.  Except, we're not off to a good start. We've got the typical pre-vacation stresses such as:

• A heavy work week leading up to vacation in order to tidy up loose ends.
• Husband injuring his pinky finger at work (likely in haste to get things done)
• Cleaning, packing and loading up the vehicles.
• A grumpy eldest son, who is "wasting a week of his life" for us.
• A dog with a mysteriously swollen eye. It appeared just after an early morning walk designed to tire him out before the trip. We're pretty sure it's a bug bite and hoping it responds to Benadryl.
• Vacation knitting that didn't pan out warranting a swift change of plans. No time to cast on - my fingers are crossed that this version of yarn will work with the pattern.

I have a finished knit to show you, and some laceweight yarn that I spun (my first!) but as you can tell not a lot of time or energy to show you properly. Wish us luck that the vacation ends better than it began.

A Puzzlement

Last night, I bought both my boys fedoras and flip flops at their request. My almost 15 year-old son just walked out the door dressed in athletic pants, a t-shirt, flip flops and his fedora. No doubt he's quite pleased with his look but it's a puzzlement to me.

In the interests of teen-aged dignity, there are no photos at this time. Perhaps after they've had a chance to break in the new duds.

Much to Learn

One of the things I'm enjoying so much about spinning is the challenge it presents to me. There's so much to learn. To help with that, I bought a couple of Judith McKenzie videos at Interweave's Hurt Book sale.

I just got them transferred to my iPad today. I had a technology fail when I was trying to figure out how to get them on the iPad. It took a week for it to finally occur to me that I could add the videos to my iTunes video library and then sync the iPad to download them. Duh. Too simple perhaps?

I like what I've seen so far of Judith's videos, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot, but I have one criticism. Like a lot of experts, Judith tends to gloss over the very simple steps that are a bewilderment to the newbie. For example, she's using a Lendrum in the video and she mentions that you can wrap the yarn around the guide to slow down the uptake when spinning lace. Now I knew about the slowdown trick, but I couldn't see in the video where she hooked the yarn and I have the exact same wheel. I would have really liked to have seen that!

Anyway, here's a parade of yarns coming off my wheel these days:

The first two are two-ply and the last, dark one is a three ply. I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of the fiber. I don't have the technical expertise to supply more details about my spinning than that I'm afraid.  So much to learn!!

Finished in Time

Yes! My father's socks were done well in advance of Father's day (thank you for asking).

I was right and the second yarn was thinner than the first, but I knit the second sock with the same needles and the same stitch count the result being that one sock is lighter than the other. Dad tried them on and they both fit about the same. I bet they'll wear different.

My mom forgot to bring her knitting, so while she was visiting I put her to work on my first pair of handspun socks and she finished up the cuff for me. 

One of these socks was spun too tightly, and the other was spun looser, but knit too tightly. The result: they both are stiff and tough to pull on. Now I've relearned the lesson about the trade off between durability and comfort. You know the one, you can knit a durable sock at a really tight gauge, but will you enjoy knitting it and will the owner enjoy wearing it? Turns out the same thing applies to spinning. Who knew?

Finally, I captured a magical, musical moment in digital space forever (or as near as we can get). Please enjoy the musical stylings of Alex, my trumpet player:

Happy Father's Day

To all the dads: ever notice how on Mother's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "give mom a break" and then on Father's day, you get to take the kids to the park to "spend time enjoying your children". Quite the racket we mom's have going on, eh?

Jim and I chuckle over this every Father's day. We were like this back when the kids were very little. I was a stay at home mom for 5 years and Jim was our sole provider. It must have been a very difficult time for him. I recall that he was always tired and would spend the better part of the weekend sleeping. I think if he had been spending more time with the children, we wouldn't have fallen for the racket.

This Father's day Jim has enjoyed breakfast cooked by his eldest son (we nudged each other under the table, but said not a word of critique out loud) and this afternoon we will be hosting my parents for a BBQ dinner in the lovely June sunshine during which youngest son shall be serenading us with his trumpet. He has a lovely mature tone to his playing even if he only hits the right note 90% of the time.

Jim was explaining to a childless friend what it means to be a father. "It's the contrasts. Within the same hour I've been absolutely furious with them and then so proud my heart hurt."

So here's to the dads who never complain when the have to mow around the swing set and the yard toys, to the dads playing endless rounds of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the dad's who smile as they chew their dry slice of fried ham, and the ones who accept their children with all their flaws. Gosh we love em!

Workin it

So Louise got me worried that I might not have time to spin and knit socks for my dad.  Brenda reassured me, but still, life does happen doesn't it? It wouldn't hurt for me to bump these socks to the top of the queue.  There's already a quadrillion projects on the needles, all lovely things, but abandoned for various good reasons. What's one more?

So I finished up the first skein of yarn and started in on my sock.  The first incarnation was beautiful, though in this picture the color is washed out.

I loved how the cables popped in my yarn. What a thrill to see my handspun making really nice cables!  But the sock was too big, and I was worried about my yarn supply.  So I ripped it. boo.

So I switched to a toe up, with no cables, and here's the second version of the sock all knit up:

I don't think the pattern does my yarn justice, it's a simple beaded rib, but I now have some yarn to spare.  It just looks like a dad sock, doesn't it? The color, and the simple ribs are classic for dads and granddads.

And on Sunday, I finished the second skein of yarn.

I was freakin out on Sunday morning when I was plying this thinking I'd made a noticeably thinner yarn. I was so upset, but I figured, I'd just knit a sock with the same rib pattern, only more stitches. It bugged me though.  But after washing and drying, no, it's the same weight.  All that self-flagellation for nothing!

I'm very pleased with my spinning progress. The yarn is squooshy, mostly even, and a delight to work with. I don't care if it doesn't wear well, because truth to tell, I think my dad will love these socks so much he'll hardly wear them.

Lots to Learn

The first handspun sock is all knitted up and it is mighty dense! It was not fun to knit.  The second sock is on the needles and is also working up just about as dense, and just about as annoying to knit.  While the yarn was more lightly plied, it came out thicker and fluffier, but I'm working it on the same size needles so the fabric has about the same density.  Here are the socks, posed with their respective yarns, for comparison:

I wish you all could give the fabric a feel and see the yarns for yourself. Another consideration is how much of the density of the fabric is the result of the knitting and is there any performance differences between a sock that is dense due to spinning, vs one that is dense due to plying?

It's interesting, this learning by internet wisdom thing.  While I have lots of theoretical spinning knowledge, I don't have the practical experience that makes it useful. I've read lots of places to put more twist in the singles and the plying when making sock yarn, but the practical question is how much more? More is relative, a fuzzy logic problem if you will. (heh) So this is a grand opportunity for me to learn through trial and error, experimentation and most likely some small disasters.  Hopefully, not too many.

 Next up on the wheel, surprise, more sock yarn! I decided that I should work up some handspun, handknit socks for Father's day for my dad. There's plenty of time yet, right?  Right? Fiber on the wheel is Cupcake Fiber Company's SW BFL with nylon, the only thing that will do for a gift.

In the category Husbands say the cutest things, Jim was watching me plying and I was talking to him about the lazy kate.
He asked "Why is it called a lazy kate?"
I replied, "I don't know. I guess it's because kate was too lazy to tension the bobbins on her own."
Thoughtful man returned "Well, that's silly. It should be called a clever kate, cause it's a smart idea."

Beyond Thrilled

Sometimes you just have to strike while inspiration is hot. This weekend, I spun myself sore but I managed to finish my first skein of sock yarn.  This fluff:

Became about 210 yards of this fingering weight 3-ply yarn:

Which is knitting up into this sock:

I'm so thrilled with this yarn. My patient husband endured many exclamations of happiness and joy.  It was worth sore legs and achy shoulders. I didn't injure myself and today I took it easy and didn't touch my wheel. 

But now have to do it again. Is there such a thing as second sock spinning syndrome? Just as a knitter puts variations into the second sock to mix things up a bit, I'm thinking of spinning the second sock differently. The sock is knitting up super dense, but with a smooth feel. I'm thinking of spinning the second skein of sock yarn with less twist in both the single and the plying. This way I can compare how they wear and learn how much extra twist is really required for durable socks.

Way back, when I first started to seriously knit socks I experimented with heels, toes, toe-up and bind offs, searching for my what I liked, what fit, and what wears well.  Now I feel like I'm on the same journey, only I'm now in search of how to best spin sock yarn.

There's a little voice in the back of my head saying "Gee, that's an awful lot of work for socks." But I'm ignoring it.  The heart knows what it wants and mine is singing for joy over the wonder of this new journey I'm on.