Putting the right foot forward

I'm only half-way through knitting the pair of sunset socks, so what better time to start the next project?

It's not unreasonable to start this next project asap, because it's going to be a special birthday present for a special person. (The birthday isn't far away in terms of my knitting speed.) There's no danger that the sunset socks will be forgotten, because putting that first one on felt so good!

There was an effect I noticed and liked while spinning the sunset socks; when black became flecked with a changing colour. So here's the dyed merino weighed out for the next pair.



I'll spin one bobbin entirely in black, and another in alternating colour. For reasons of rapidly approaching birthday, I'm returning to the wheel. Having done quite a lot on the drop spindle recently, I'm surprised at how much quicker it all happens on a spinning wheel. In an hour or so I've done the first 20g.

Feets don't fail me now

The first of the sunset socks is finished. And yeah, as soon as I'd finished casting off the last stitch of course I put it straight on. It feels lovely.



I'm really happy with everything, except for the big area of blue near the toe. I love the general flecked effect and the way the colours have mixed together. There are some other smaller areas of solid colour which I do like.

I put the pattern to one side when I got to the heel and used the short-row heel technique I like, but probably made the heel a bit pointy.

I've never found a way to cast off ribbing which is very elastic. This pattern recommends the tubular cast off, which I've not seen before, and works a treat! It's really stretchy, and lets the ribbing do its stretchy grippy job properly. It looks tricky to start with, but once you've done a few stitches and get familiar with it, it's very quick. One word of warning - when you cut the yarn to thread your darning needle, you'll need more of a tail than you think! I only just had enough.

Here's a confession - I've never blocked anything before - perhaps it's impatience, but I usually just put things straight on. Because of the lace pattern I'm going to do it properly. Below you can see my new sock blockers home-made from wire coathangers.

Something's afoot

Not being the fastest knitter in the world, I was apprehensive about the small needles and fine yarn, but progress so far has been remarkably quick.



I'm really enjoying knitting the pattern but I'm learning to concentrate harder; a couple of lapses meant suddenly finding too many stitches on a needle and some choice language. I think my eye has a habit of skipping to the wrong row on the pattern, so I'm developing my own system of pencil marks to help me keep on track. This pattern / colours seems to be very forgiving of the odd wrong stitch or two. It's all very useful experience for swallowtail shawl, which I will pull right out and start again.

I was bothered by the concentration of blue just after the start, but when you leave something to random chance, I guess you have to accept some pooling of colour.

Sunset socks cast-on

As I was spinning the singles I was trying to imagine the finished yarn if navajo plied and if two-plied. Would two-plying mix the colours up too much?

Having decided to try a sample of both methods, I immedately loved the effect I got from two-plying and just carried on. (It's a really dull day today, and so even with flash the colours don't look as vibrant in these snaps as they do in real life.)



The plied yarn contains every permutation of these colours; blue with red, red with orange, orange with yellow, and so on. Sometimes contrasting colours lie together, sometimes complimentary and occasionally a colour matches up with itself giving a yard or two of strong blue, orange or black. It was really exciting, and I saw colour combinations that I wanted to develop in another project.

Spinning the yarn has taken many, many hours. More hours than it would have taken me on the wheel, but I enjoy using the drop spindle, particularly my Turkish spindle, and so used it for the singles and the plying.

I would usually make a skein and set the twist at this point, but it was well-balanced and I wasn't convinced it was absolutely necessary.

So I started knitting my Toe-Up Ginko Socks. I managed to allay my impatience long enough to bother to knit the swatch. Despite not being able to find a pair of 2.75mm dpns as called for in the pattern and using the smallest set I have (3.25mm), the swatch came out spot-on, which is a very rare occurrence. I'm taking that as a good omen! I'm using needles that were my grandmother's and so I hope she knows what I'm up to and is pleased.

I had found with Lolita Legs that the magic figure-of-8 cast-on worked so well that I'm using it here, rather than the short-row toe described in the pattern.

The whooshing sound of time flying by

Where does it go? I did think I'd try and spin the 100g I'd weighed out over the weekend, but here we are at Tuesday and it's only half done. I guess it wasn't a SMART target and as I said in the last post, the journey is as important as the arriving, and I'm enjoying this project no end.

This is the first 50g, and I'm still really excited about it. I've just seen a sock pattern I really like.

Spinning a beautiful sunset

Sometimes you have a great idea, but as you follow it through, things just don't feel right. The end result may still be a good one, if not what you'd originally intended.

This is a case of something feeling right and being enjoyable right from the start. And I think with any craft, the journey is as important as arriving.

Sunsets can contain an amazing variety of colours and I've long had the idea of putting those colours into a yarn. This is the picture I've found to work from:



In case my scribblings aren't clear, the colours I've chosen are: cheesecake 10%, liquorice 20%, tangerine 30%, raspberry 10%, blueberry 30% (Before I started spinning, I changed blueberry to 20% and added 10% lagoon, a deeper blue).

(it was late evening when I started this and so the colours in the photo and the dyed fibre don't look as vibrant as they really do.)

This is the first time I've bothered to weigh out fibre for spinning; it wasn't much trouble and now I'll know exactly how much I've spun (at least in weight) before I start to ply.



I found myself drawing the fibres out straight (Worsetead) and using a medium to long draw which seemed to suit both me and my merino.

As I was working I was mulling over the 'navaho or 2-ply' question. I don't want to muddy these colours, but at the same time I'm not sure I would like the strong self-striping effect I'd get from navajo. Three ply might be better for socks, but might be too chunky, so two it probably will be. I'll try a sample of each method before I ply it all.

So... I've decided on colour and fibre first, let the yarn dictate the spinnning method, and failed to decide on a pying method; all of which goes right against Judith Mackenzie McCuin's holistic approach which is to plan it all carefully beforehand!

Having nearly finished Lolita Legs and learned to cast-on at the toe and turn a heel, I'd love to make a pair of socks, and I think these colours will be perfect. I have read that 100% wool isn't perfect for hard-wearing sock yarn, but I notice that the walking gear manufacturers are singing the praises of wool for its quaities such as thermal properties, elasticity, 'wicking' environmental friendliness, as if they've invented a new high-tech material! ('smartwool' seem to be a selectively-bred fine merino).



I'm using the turkish spindle and lovin' it. It spins really well, is really light and I love the little ball of singles that grows in the middle.

As I mentioned, it was late evening and so the tea naturally became wine and I soon got into the rhythm - twist, sip, draw, twist, sip, draw, twist, sip, draw, wind on...

What I did on my holidays

I really wanted someone to stop and ask me what on earth I was doing riffling under a hedge collecting weeds. The straight-faced answer I had ready was "I'm a witch and need some alliaria petiolata for my cauldron".

That's not far from the truth. I read a few weeks ago that this plant (aka Jack-by-the-hedge or garlic mustard) can be used as a garlicky flavouring for lamb or salad. When I first spotted some, I excitedly rubbed some leaves but decided with some despondency that lots of imagination was needed to mistake it for garlic; it did have a distinctive flavour, not much scent, but what really grabbed my attention was that it really stained my fingers green.



That's why I've been spending some of my Easter holiday scrabbling around under hedges and boiling up leaves. Annoyingly, without much success, as it turns out. The corriedale has come out with hardly a hint of green in it.

I've not given up on this. I do have a lock that I dipped in early on which has dried out looking quite green. I'm going to try again another day.

While I had the mordanted fibre in my hands, I decided to try some cammomile. I've read that the flowers give a lovely yellow colour, and I have some in the kitchen (which I sometimes use in an infuser to make a drink).



The result: well, not very successful, but it is yellower than it appears in the picture. I deliberately only dipped it up to its waist in the dye, so that I'd get a mixture of the yellow, the natural white and any green which might be perceptible. When this is dry I'll spin it to see what it looks like.



I've also been playing with a turkish drop spindle (and videoing it). I've really enjoyed using it. It's nice to use - it's nice and light but spins well. The fun part is that it slips apart when you've finished spinning or plying, leaving your yarn in a neat ball.