Friday, November 11, 2005

I'm a convert!

Yup, you heard right I've converted - I will now, and forever use two circulars instead of DPN's for sock knitting!!! Of course I've seen many people use this technique and they have always said it's much easier and faster than DPN's, but since I didn't want to go out and buy two circ's in every size, I decided to stick with the multitude of DPN's I already had. Well, a few weeks ago I picked up two size 3 16 inch circs on sale and this morning for train knitting I decided to experiment. I cast on and it was so easy, I thought it would take more practice but after 15 min this is what I got:

A tiny tube 20 st. around. I love it, I'll probably go to ebay and pick up a few pairs of those Addi's everyone is addicted to and then hopefully the next pair of socks will fly off the needles.

Speaking of socks, so far, many people have commented and said they'd like to see some handspun and/or handdyed sock yarn. So....yesterday I went to a couple of my LYS's and picked up this:

8 oz of singles and 8 oz of 2-ply 100% merino sock yarn. Since I haven't had much time for spinning lately I figured I'll so some self striping sock yarn from this wonderful stuff. I also bought over a pound of 60% Merino 40% Acrylic to dye as well, this yarn is slightly thicker but I think size 3 needles would work well for a thick sock - think Regia. I'm going to swatch each up on different size needles and see what works. I think it'll be a fun project and hopefully it'll come out well and I can have them up for sale soon.

Although it isn't much, I have some spinning to show

Two small skeins of tan merino, one plied with a mystery mohair batt with a little sparkle in it, and one plied with a commercially spun mohair yarn. Also a nice large skein of turquoise merino with tropical firestar thrown in, it's 190 yards in a dk weight and I have more of this stuff to ply, maybe another 120 yards or so.

ohh here is some other stuff I scored at the LYS on sale!

I'll be adding these into my handspun for some funky novelty fun.

You can still get in on the contest/poll, it'll end at midnight tonight. For all of you who have already commented, thank you so much it's really a big help!