Handspun Socks: November 2006 Archives
It's pretty much been the epitome of cold, grey and dreary here in Chicago for the past week or so. We've had cold weather mixed with rain or cold weather mixed with grey clouds that, were it just a touch colder, I would swear were snow clouds. If you've ever lived in a place that gets snow, you'll know that the clouds just get this sort of look about them when they plan to drop snow. And the clouds I see lately, they have that look.
Good thing I've made my own sunshine.
Here's the beginning of the first Sloopy sock. It's a soft, dense fabric, and the striping is what I'd hoped it would be -- wide and well defined. I've got half an inch or so before I turn the heel. I can't wait to have happy orange feet!
Don't tell John, but I've been hanging out with my Boyfriend quite a bit lately.
I'm a little over halfway through my first bobbin of "My Boyfriend's Back", another batch of superwash roving from Crown Mountain Farms. This picture is not entirely representative of the roving, because the bit I had just spun had a lot of white areas in it. I don't know if Teyani does this intentionally, but in both batches I have spun so far, half of the roving has a good deal more open white area than the other half. For stripey sock yarn, this is an excellent thing, because those white areas help to set up a lot of nice contrasty stripes.
What makes me most happy is that while this area has lighter red areas, it really doesn't veer into the land of pink. It maintains a sort of stately and sedate deep red color (I know, I know, the photo reads pink, but that is because the color defiition is a bit poor in this flash picture).. So far, this color has been mostly acceptable to the male for whom the yarn is being spun. Because he has bigger feet than I do, I decided that rather than spinning it up in 4 ounce batches, I would divide the roving in half and spin it all up as one batch (I mean one batch made up of two plys, not one single ply) so as to have one solid continuous yarn. I still have a lot of spinning to go, but I am already at that place where I can't wait to ply and see what shows up!
Big thanks to everyone who left supportive words for me yesterday. I am working on the socks, and the more I knit, the happier I get with what I see. My Sloopy yarn is like knitting with sunshine, and the fabric is firm but soft, so I think I will have a good and durable sock. Good therapy for the grey rainy weather we are getting in Chicago right now.
Why was it so hard for me to go from this:
to this?
When I finished up John's simple grey socks, I knew I wanted to tackle some socks for myself. That seems fair, after all, a pair for him, a pair for me. I know, I have a couple of other pairs on the needles that are more complicated. But these are not projects that can easily be worked on in the car, in front of the TV, at KIP or while wandering around the Home Depot waiting for John to select just the right part for the gas regulation system that supports the beer taps in the basement.* I really do like to have one pair going that is just simple stockinette in-the-round.
But what yarn to use? I have so many good ones waiting to be tried out, including my handspun Hang on Sloopy. But every time I would go into my fiber room to think about putting it on my swift and making that center pull ball, I would pick up the skein, squeeze it, and get this angstful feeling. I'd put it back down and the cycle would start all over again. It took a good many repeats of this cycle before I actually overcame my anxiety and put the skein (on the right in the first picture) on the swift.
As I write, I am still not sure why. I have knit with my handspun before, and the feeling of moving it into a form I could knit from was exciting rather than filled with trepidation. The only thing I can think of is that I consider this to be the best yarn I have ever spun. It is balanced and even, both in twist and in ply. It has a delightful color, and in the second skein (the one that became the ball) I know it will have pleasantly long stripes. And I am about to turn it into socks. Something that will be loved, but will ultimately wear out. I am committing my best spinning effort to date, a milestone yarn, to an imperminant garment. And not even a complicated garment, but just a simple pair of stockinette socks.
One thing I've come to learn about knitting with my own handspun is that I feel a much stronger committment to this yarn than to the yarn I buy at a store. It has become very important to me to turn my handspun yarns into garments that are well made and meaningful. And as I started to cast on for my simple socks, I realized that sometimes the perfect way to highlight striping is simple stockinette. And who could possibly appreciate a slipping into a pair of my handknit handspun happy orange socks on a cold Chicago morning more than I could? So while the garment may not be permanent, the memories and good feelings of having something from my own hands will be.
And what better excuse could I have for learning how to darn socks?
*Yes, you heard me correctly, beer taps in the basement. My home brewing husband has taken his hobby to new levels, and now the Den of Great Manliness includes not only popcorn and hot dog poppers and an impressive home theatre, but taps for 5 brews. All of which he has filled with a home brew right now. Who would have thought that his birthday present in June would lead to 25 gallons of decent homebrewed beer in my basement?
