Friday, June 16, 2006

Bye-Bye to the INTERMINABLE SOCKS

These are the first socks, of about 2 dozen I've made in the last couple of years, that I will have to rip out altogether. Oh well. As I finished the heel flap on the second sock I finally had to admint that The INTERMINABLE Socks were much too narrow for my Best Beloved's feet.

This evening she tried them on and we couldn't even get them past the ankle. The circumference is 5.25" with the tape measure wrapped around the outside of the sock. This works out to a gauge of 16 sts/1". A little too tight. In fact, they're tighter than the surgical stockings my ex (and late) father-in-law wore. Oy.



I'll unwind the yarn onto my Louet S10's yarn winder, soak it, let it dry, perhaps weighted a smidge if the yarn's still kinking and then wind it into balls. The B.B. just loves the yarn so I'll try again with larger needles and a better gauge.

What about that torque? One sock seems to have more of it than the other. I wonder if there's anyway to avoid that slant of the ribbing. I do like the way the blue pools diagonally down the sock.

The heel flap begins at 7" of leg. For details of their construction see the February posting "The INTERMINABLE SOCKS".

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Dulan hat and present for my aunt

This little hat was created as a sampler for practicing color work while holding yarn in two hands. Although I made my first fair isle sweater over 30 years ago, I'd never used two hands for color work. Then I watched a video of a workshop taught by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts -- borrowed from Maury, NCS's inestimable librarian. Gibson-Roberts also demonstrated how to make the band of raised purl stitches at the cast on edge. I used some anonymous but yummy wool odd balls a colleague at work had given me for charity knitting. So, when Brenda Dayne touted the Dulan project I knew just where this little hat would go. The doubled yarn should make it warm enough, I hope.




















This is my aunt's very late Christmas present. It's made with kitchen cotton so she can throw it in the wash. My aunt is a devoted "greenie" who couldn't find a string bag to use instead of all the plastic and paper. I hope it works for her.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Finally back to fibers

I've been really, really busy since I last posted. We were involved with a wonderful family event as we celebrated my daughter's wedding on June 4 in Duck, NC. I hardly noticed I wasn't knitting or spinning!


I did have a weekend with some fiber time in May.



I was able to attend my guild meeting on May 12. And, the next day I spun up some fairly junky roving I'd won at the November (??) guild meeting. Perhaps someone can tell me what it is, should a guild member be reading this. It spins up as a fairly rough yarn and isn't suitable for wearing anywhere hear the skin.







But, it was a lovely day and I was able to take good photographs.