Saturday morning spinning and revising my sock plan

May 3, 2014

Good morning, and happy Saturday! We’ve finally made it to the month of May. Seems like the trees should be a lot greener than they are, but I guess that’s just a sign of how long and cold winter really was. My lawn is doing nicely, and it’s just about time for the first mowing. That’s a job I can almost enjoy now, thanks to the new lawn mower I got late in the mowing season last year. I had no complaints about the performance old mower prior to its demise, until I got the new one. It’s still a chore though.

Here’s the quick and simple hat I knit from the Cheviot last weekend. I love how the colors transition. Chain plying this yarn was definitely the right choice. It’s a little on the slouchy side, so I may frog it, re-do some numbers, and re-knit it. That’s the joy of simple knit hats. They take so little time that knitting the hat itself is not much more effort than knitting a swatch, and gives you the added benefit to see how the fabric performs in the project.

The plan for this yarn, made from longwool blend roving from Weston Hill Farm in a colorway called Acorn, was and still is socks. With the exception of Blue Faced Leicester at 24-28 microns, long wool breeds tend to be on the coarser end of the spectrum at 30-38.5 for Border Leicester, and 30-38 microns for Leicester longwool. This is not the fiber that most people would choose for socks, but I’m not most people. My sock drawer is plenty full of light duty, soft socks and they are all holding up pretty well. What my sock drawer lacks is more heavy duty, hard wearing socks.
Not just heavy socks. Heavy duty socks. I have heavy socks, or rather, I have thick, cozy, warm socks. Some of these are holding up great. The socks that are holding up usually don’t get worn unless I’m going out to shovel snow and have been put away for the winter. Some of the sport weight and worsted weight socks I’ve knit to wear around the house have worn through quickly in the heel and ball of the foot so they’ve been retired. Yes, retired. Proper sock darning is a technique I still need to learn.

The original plan was to do the cuffs, heels, and toes in a contrasting color, and to use the Heirloom Tomato colorway, also from Weston Hill. I thought its deep reddish color, just like an heirloom tomato, would be perfect against the golden brown of the Acorn colorway. I had spun a little over half of the Heirloom Tomato fiber into a bulkier weight yarn, and the remaining fiber to match the Acorn, but there was only enough to do the cuffs or the heels, or the toes. Not all three.

It’s a good thing I have a lot more fiber from Weston Hill, but sadly, none in Heirloom tomato. What I did find in my stash is four ounces in a colorway called Chris Cardinal. This is a much different red that the Heirloom Tomato, and goes nicely with the Acorn, so I’ll work on spinning that up. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can still get more of the Heirloom Tomato since I am leaning more towards that color. This is where keeping good notes on how you spun a yarn come in handy; so you can reproduce it as closely as possible later on.
That’s it for this morning. I’m off to spin for a little while here at home, then heading to Trumpet Hill this afternoon to teach some new spinners.
Have a great weekend everyone!