Sock Crazed

Just off the needles, a pair of heavier socks - samples for my first knitting workshop Wild & Wooly Weekend 11/10-12/06 - at the Pocono Environmental Education Center. Most of the many programs I’ve offered there are quilting and crazy-quilting related. Time to share my newest obsession with the other fiber crazed folks in the area.

Socks: “Two Ponds Hiker”
Pattern: adapted from Yankee Knitter Classic Socks
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker merino DKMC # SH 784 CC # SH 661
Needles: size 1 bamboo DPNs
Gauge: 7 sts/in. on st. st2 x 2 ribbing
Started 3/15/06 Finished 4/2/06
There was a real difference in texture between the tan and the white. The tan felt soft and flowed well through my fingers. The white had a thicker texture and didn’t flow as easily. I have a few more colors in the stash, can’t wait to see how they behave.

The sock-in-progress basket empty? Not for long! Cast on an alpaca softy this morning. Time to use the gray alpaca yarn from Cria Cradle Farm that my darling gave me for Christmas. I finally feel confident enough to tackle it. Here’s a picture of one of the skeins, the ball I hand-wound from another, and the merest start of a sock. Using #2 Bryspuns I’m getting 7spi and a firm fabric. Altogether I have 13 ounces to work with, hopefully that will yield a couple of pair. I chose the Baby Cable Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

Picked up a couple of skeins of Wildfoote at the Yarn Loft in Sparta NJ. Hard to believe they are two dyelots of the same color. Anyone have SY-400 Bluegrass in dyelot 006 or 008? Let me know if you’d be interested in a swap. If I don’t locate “mates” I’ll alternate rows to get them to blend.

Suffered my first knitting related accident - a bamboo splinter in the tip of my thumb. Not that a little thing like that is going to slow down the knitting frenzy going on around here!