What Housework?: March socks

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A boring blog post is one that contains knitting and spinning and a shop update, but no pictures of Milo. Prepare to be bored.

I finally finished my March socks. On April 3rd.

Note the heel, as suggested by Elizabeth Zimmerman:

Here's my take on the Colonial Superwash yarn, which, as you will see, has been restocked at A Piece of Vermont: I love it.

This is only my second pair of socks using this yarn, because typically I don't knit socks very often. The last pair (the Anastasias) I did on size 1s and the fabric was a bit wimpy. I dropped down to 0s for these (sob), and I love the way it knitted up. I haven't washed these yet, but the Anastasias softened up beautifully with machine washing so I imagine these will, too. I'm all over the purple and green combo, and although I've really become enamored of the toe-up, short-row heel sock, these do fit my high arches well because of the heel flap. This is a very comfortable pair of socks.

My April socks, which are already behind schedule, were just a pile o' fiber a few days ago. As planned, I blended dyed superwash merino and Sophie's Border Leicester wool into layered batts (skein of yarn for scale):

That right there is just over 6 ounces, while the skein of yarn is 4. Fluffy! I tore off strips of roving

and started spinning:

Or, for a photo taken by the window:

I know one thing: This is wonderful spinning. It's about 30 percent merino to 70 percent BL, I think, and I can't begin to describe the smoothness of the spinning. The question is: Will it make good sock yarn? It's not especially elastic, so that may be a problem. We'll see. When carding, I alternated layers of merino and BL, all of which were dyed differently, mostly blue but also a layer of green and one of dark pink. I'm hoping the finished yarn, if I 2-ply it, will have subtle color shifts throughout. I can't wait to see.

I made two more batts, but those were already on request and have been sold to Sherri.

So, I updated the shop with lots of Colonial Superwash sock yarn. (By the way, if you are on Ravelry, I finally got in and edited my yarns, something that Kim at Knits with a Silent K had kindly been doing until I got my invite lo these many months ago. Until now, I haven't had Colonial Superwash entered, so people have had to use the wool/nylon superwash that was there, but it's not the same yarn. Sorry about that.)

Here's what's left of the new stuff:

You're My Blue Sky

Honey Love

Cream of Mushroom

Water Sprite

Still Waters

One colorway (not shown) is sold out already. If you want to get early notice, sign up for the mailing list at the bottom of any page at A Piece of Vermont.

I also have some silk/merino DK ready to go, and I'll have some bumps of merino superwash top going up next week.

In shop news, good stuff: I got my new water extractor so I'll be able to spin out my yarns and fibers in the shop rather than in the house, and it won't felt my spinning fiber the way our front loader does. (Yes, on the spin cycle, it repeatedly stops and changes direction to "fluff" clothes. Remember the silk top disaster?) On the tech side, I can't get a wireless connection so far from the house, so I have to run a cable, or at least make my husband do it for me in his spare time. Which he doesn't have.

Spring is coming, and looking through my archives I see that pictures used to be a lot colorful in the warm weather. I'm looking forward to more of those.

Comments

I knit a lot of socks. There's something about them that I am truly enamored of. I am in the middle of my first pair of toe up socks and I think I like the top down better but maybe that's because I'm more familiar with it. I have very round feet/toes so I always have to modify the toe shaping. And the shop updates look so colorful. I think we need some color and brightness. I can see the red buds on the maple outside my bedroom and it's a thing of beauty. Soon we'll have the "helicopters" all over!

Posted by: donna lee | April 05, 2008 at 08:31 AM

Those batts and the spinning look so beautiful - it inspires me to want to get back to my own spinning :-D

Love your new yarn colorways as well.

Posted by: Teyani | April 05, 2008 at 11:38 AM

The socks look great. Do you put a garter stitch border on a lot of your heel flaps? I've done it a few times and I really like it.

Posted by: Mike | April 05, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Love the March socks. LOVE em'. Good job, Jess.

Posted by: Jessie | April 05, 2008 at 08:33 PM

Not boring at all, gorgeous socks and yarn and those fibre batts look amazing. I did miss Milo just a little bit though ;0)

Posted by: yvette | April 06, 2008 at 08:56 AM

Um, I'm loving those March socks. *loving*. Loving enough to make some similar, I think (alas, must work from stash yarn, though... :-(). Can you give me more details on that heel? What's the reason for the purl sides? Whatever the reason, they're gorgeous :-)

Posted by: Kate | April 06, 2008 at 03:17 PM

Jesse, I love the socks! I'm just wondering if you might have some advice for me on my current sock project? I'm doing toe up socks, the top is a lace pattern, I did an eye of partridge heel and they are too snug across the top now. I have high arches too. Should I change the heel or just add more stitches in the gusset area?

Posted by: Mim | April 06, 2008 at 05:37 PM