Sunday, July 3, 2011

Sock knitting

My stash is now attacking me and casting itself on in color coordinated ways. I cast on two new socks this week. 



Should I be eating more veggies? Do you think my body has found a round about way of asking for salads? I don't think it is that because I've been eating salads like they are in season. Oh they are in season? Good to know. 

I've got four (first) socks on the needles and two of them are green and cast on within days of each other. The first one was spurred on by my need to know what Knit Picks gloss yarn feels like in sock form. I had some in my stash but I had not knit with it yet. I am looking forward to knitting some knee highs and am interested in using this yarn. I decided I better get busy and get a pair knit so I can start test driving them. See how they wear and if they pill. I was told they do, but I like to see how I affect things. A friend and I knit socks from the same type of yarn and her's felted quite a bit and mine did not. On the other hand I know I can not use alpaca sock yarn the way I use regular wool sock yarn. Alpaca socks felt on my feet and I need to take that into account before and knit bigger socks. It has happened twice now, I am unwilling to lose another pair of socks to it.

The second green sock was actually cast on first. I tried it with a pattern and had to rip back because the pattern was lost in the deepness of the green. Well that and the cable pattern I chose had all the stretch of chain mail. I decided these could be plain stockinette socks too. It would be OK with me. Sometimes I feel bad for making plain simple socks, but I love having a project like that in my purse. It is amazing how much faster I churn out simple socks. Unless it is a sock for D, who knew 2 more inches could take so much longer?


My spring fling socks are moving along as well. I get to start a heel any day now. The pattern does not have any complicated stitches but it still requires my attention for each round. I think I know how to read my knitting but I think it takes as long to read it and figure out where I am in the pattern as it takes me to just keep track of where I am in the pattern while I knit it. I do like the way it looks so far, like little garden paths meandering back and forth. 

I went to the farmer's market today too. Unfortunately I found out where sheep retire.


I only like my sheep on the hoof producing fiber, I don't eat them. I did when we lived on the farm, but now I make the decisions and no sheep eating for me.

If you want to know a bit about how sheep are raised watch the movie Sweet Grass it was filmed in Montana. It brought back memories for me. I found it interesting but odd without narration. I knew what was going on most of the time but your random viewer would most likely not.

I can not say I enjoyed the film, interesting, but not enjoyable. I found the end quite off-putting and sad. One man has quite a tirade in which you learn quite a few swear words and insults. So if that kind of thing bothers you I recommend turning off the movie when he starts shouting at the sheep in the mountains. He is in pain, depressed and alone, not a good combination. He does not commit suicide but it is not fun to watch a guy fall apart at the seams.

The first part is the most interesting and full of sheep and wool. So take my recommendation with a grain of salt and check it out.

2 comments:

  1. If you knit socks out of sock yarn that has nylon in it, do they still felt? I've often wondered how you cope with wool socks and with the chance of them felting. I always assumed they wouldn't, but I guess they do.

    I met a lady at Olds who was knitting socks at her yarn booth, and she showed me a pair she knit out of her yarn that she wears in her work boots. They were two years old and they wore like iron! I didn't buy any of her yarn, but I should have found out what it was for future reference.

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  2. I'm working on a blog post about your questions. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm always looking for things I've not yet talked about.

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