Possessed to Knit

Sock Wars Socks

Here are my completed Sock Wars III socks.  I used Tofutsie sock yarn in the Tender Foot colorway and size 3.0 mm Knit Picks circular 32" needles.  I used a smaller needle for the heels and toes.  I also did a few little modifications like picking up an extra stitch on each side of the flap heel in an attempt to minimize the little gap between the heel and the instep.  For the toes, I slipped each edge stitch over the next stitch before grafting to make the toe more rounded.  It was somewhat like knitting a marathon.  I paced myself and took breaks as needed.  I stretched my shoulders and wrists a lot, too.  I also completed my Petite Rib socks as I traveled to visit my sister and her family.  It has been a busy week of sock knitting.  It will be fun to see how far I get in Sock Wars III. 

Sock Warriors

Here are my Sock Warriors, Justin (left) and Joshua (right), holding my Tofutsie sock yarns.  I went to see my sister, Teresa, and her family for a long weekend.  They were patient with me as I continued to check my email throughout the weekend to find out who my target is and what her sock size is.  I had a wonderful time with my darling nephews.  They took turns clicking my row counter for me.  They also enjoyed playing with my retractable tape measures, who knew that a knitting bag could be a treasure trove of toys?  My sister, Maria, is my coach as she monitors my sock knitting progress and cheers me on.  She convinced me to sign up and compete.  Al thinks the Sock Wars III competition is a little over the top, but he is well aware of how passionate we knitters can be.  My assassin's nom de guerre is Madame De Farge so I am not sure how long I will be alive in this game.  At the very least, it has turned into a fun family affair.

MSWF - Swatches

I've been experimenting with this roving that I bought at MSWF from The Barefoot Spinner.  I would like to knit a cardigan.  I could be adventurous and design my own pattern or I could use on of my Knitting Pure & Simple patterns.  I guess I will spin the yarn first before I decide.  I spun some samples of singles yarn, washed them, blocked them, and knitted them up.  The one on the lower left is my first swatch.  I boldly decided this would likely be my yarn and spun quite a bit of it.  I used the 1:8 ratio on my Wyatt Norwegian and drafted about 1 treadle per inch.  This thin, wiry yarn is 20 wpi and 4.5 sts per inch on size 6 needles.  I then increased the take up and drafted about 2 inches per treadle for the bottom swatch on the left.  The resulting yarn is a bit uneven at 12 - 16 wpi and about 4 sts per inch on a size 8 needle.  My favorite is the swatch on the top.  I used my Lendrum with a ratio of 1:5 (the bulky/plying head) and drafted about 1 inch per treadle.  This yarn is much more even, about 14 - 16 wpi and a little over 4 sts per inch on size 8 needles, so I think we have a winner! 

MSWF - Sock Yarns

I did manage to find some sock yarn at MSWF.  Starting on the left, we have Sock Hop Superwash Merino in the Mermaid Colorway from Dalis Davidson of Dancing Leaf Farm.  Next, we have Studio Sock (100% Superwash Merino) from the Neighborhood Fiber Company in the Brookland colorway.  In the center, we have more Superwash Merino sock yarn from The Sweet Sheep in the California Dreaming colorway.  I bought two skeins of this yarn as I plan to make a fancy twisted stitch sock and do not want to be worried about running out of yarn.  I'm seeing a purple/green color trend yet each yarn looks quite different.  The next yarn is Rio de la Plata kettle dyed sock yarn in Evergreen, Ethereal Blue & Sparling Grape.  And last but not least, we have Colinette Jitterbug in the Kingfisher colorway.  No preprinted yarns for me, this year it was all about the hand-dyed sock yarns.  I am even more inspired to finish up my current socks so I can cast on with one of these pretty yarns.

Maryland Sheel & Wool Festival

I purchased this lovely Romney mixed with a little Alpaca roving from the Barefoot Spinner at the festival yesterday.  My big news is that I got to meet Opal!  She even helped sort the fleeces on Friday for the fleece show like a MSWF regular.  She, Patrick and I had a wonderful time looking at wheels and roving together.  Opal is considering a second wheel and did quite nicely on the Schacht Ladybug.  She invited me to try it and I had a little trouble adjusting it.  She also did well on the Lendrum which is the one I would vote for.  I have mine set up very conveniently for plying.  I look forward to hearing her final decision.

I enjoyed checking out Patrick's entries in the Skein & Garment competition.  I was thrilled to see Mr. Penney's Argyle sweater in person, perfect zipper and all.  I did disagree with the judges, giving it third place.  Patrick's handspun and handwoven scarf was gorgeous and it won First place. 

After frolicking with Patrick and Opal, I met Kate and Toni at the Junior Spinning Contest.  The young spinners are so much fun and it is a joy to watch them compete.  Sadly, Kate will be moving to Florida this summer and this was our last contest together.  I have learned so much about alpacas and their fiber from her.  She also made our knitting classes together a lot more fun.  I will truly miss you, Kate!

Pearls on the Pulse Cuffs Completed

I've completed my Pearls on the Pulse cuffs.  I used Velvet Bilberry Jitterbug sock yarn that was leftover from a pair of socks and size 8 beads.  I provisionally casted on 24 sts on size 2.5 mm Brittany Birch dpns.  This time I started the grafting from the bottom instead of from the top of the cuff.  Before I graft, I remove the crochet waste yarn from the provisional cast on and then I take out the first row of knitting which is essentially the row where I picked up the stitches from the crocheted chain.  When I knit the cuff, the beads are added every other row with a knit row in between.  I stop knitting my cuff after the last bead row.  I end up with one bead row on each dpn and then I graft a plain row of garter stitch between them.  In the photo, I have placed the graft in the center of each cuff.

I will be at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on Saturday.  I will help Kate with the Junior Spinning Contest.  She has wonderful pictures from her Mitered Square Class with Candace Strick.  I'm looking forward to seeing Opal and Patrick there, too.  I do not plan on buying much, but as I recall last year, I thought I wasn't going to buy any sock yarn and I ended up going home with 5 skeins of sock yarn.  I know at the very least it will be a fun & relaxing day.

Tofutsie Mini Socks

The gauge requirements for Sock Wars III were released on Saturday.  I worked the weekend (so I would not have to work on MSWF weekend) and appreciated the gentle reminders from Maria and Al that the gauge had come out on April 26th.  At any rate, the gauge is 8 sts per inch, not a big surprise, but a challenge for me to achieve.  I typically do not knit sock gauges, or as Rita Buchanan would say, I knit size a 8 1/2 sock as my gauge square.  As I searched for my size 3.0 mm Knit Picks 32 inch circular needles, I came across this pattern for a Mini-sock.  I would use it when I taught sock knitting classes, especially to show the grafting technique.  I knitted the sock on the left with my 2.5 mm Knit Picks circulars and the sock on the right I knitted with my 3.0 mm Addi Turbo needles as my Knit Picks needles did not turn up.  I'm surprised at the difference between these two socks with only 0.25 mm needle size diameter between them.  It appears that I have 8 sts per inch with my 3.0 mm needles.  I think a tighter gauge would make a better sock, but that would take longer and I will want to get these into the mail as quickly as possible.  Maria has high hopes for my winning this contest, though I did explain to her that a large part of it will be the luck of the draw. 

Cashmere & Silk Sampling

I've been carding my cashmere fiber into punis with my cotton cards and spinning the punis on my Cascade Shasta spindle.  I've also been spinning natural silk on my Natalie spindle given to me by Opal.  I made some plied samples.  The top sample is 2-ply cashmere at 20 wpi.  The bottom sample is 2 plies of cashmere with 1 ply of silk at 18 wpi.  The silk adds more body to the yarn and helps to smooth out the textury cashmere singles.  I will have to make some longer plied samples and knit them up before I can decide which yarn I like better.  I should also give one ply of each a try as 2-ply yarn is better for lace and I plan on knitting a lacy scarf with this handspun yarn.

Petite Lace Rib Sock

I've completed my first Petite Lace Rib sock with my Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm sock yarn.  This sock turned out to take a lot of knitting with size 0 needles.  I worked 84 rounds in the Petite Lace Rib pattern and then worked 16 rounds with half stockingette and half ribbing before the heel.  After the short row heel (worked over 35 sts down to 13 sts), I knitted 88 rounds to the toe.  This pattern has a three stitch repeat and I had to add an extra purl stitch to the instep to keep the pattern even.  This gave me 37 sts on the instep and 35 sts on the sole of the sock.  I had 9 sts to graft to 10 sts at the top of the toe and learned how to do this from knitting Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Feet socks.  One sock down and one to go!

Pearls on the Pulse

I completed this beaded cuff today.  I've had these size 8 beads threaded on some extra Jitterbug yarn as my first beaded cuff attempt did not work out.  I used 2.5 mm Brittany birch dpns and worked three repeats of the 14 row pattern over 25 sts.  I wish I had used 2.75 mm needles to make the cuff a little bigger, but it is close enough as it is.  A fourth repeat would have been too long.  The grafting was quite a challenge and seemed to take nearly as long as knitting the cuff.  This project was a pleasant diversion from sock knitting.  I realize I will only be knitting socks once Sock Wars III starts on May 9.