I don’t want to admit to how long these socks were on the needles-it was way too long. I got the first sock and most of the second sock done fairly quickly. In fact, I was almost at the toe when I noticed that my gauge was different between the two socks. Not enormously, but… the yarn is my handspun, and I was knitting them from opposite ends of the ball, with the hope that the colors would all line up. Apparently I need to work more on my quality control, as the first sock had thinner yarn and the second sock thicker. So the project went into time out, and sat there until I was willing to face it again. I decided to just make the two socks the same length, and pretend the whole thing never happened.
This is one of the hazards of using handspun yarn, and it shows up clearly on socks. I really like using handspun for shawls, or in weaving, where any variations aren’t as critical. In a shawl you can claim it as a design feature if the bottom is thicker/thinner than the top, and in weaving you can alternate from different parts of the skein to minimize the impact of any variations. However, I knit socks. It’s in the name of the website. So, if I want to actually use my yarn instead of just watching it accumulate, I should spin for socks. And I need to work on my consistency.
Otherwise, I’m really happy with this pair. I love the colors, particularly the muted rainbow. The bright rainbow of the initial roving (colorway ‘cluster of grapes’ by ThreeWatersFarm, hence the sock name) was also beautiful, but I couldn’t see myself wearing those colors. Petting them, enjoying playing with them, yes, but wearing them? I also love the texture of this finished yarn, and the depth that adding that grey ply added. (For those who don’t hang on my every blog post, this is a six ply handspun where half is a brightly colored roving, and the other half is a grey blend of shetland wool, alpaca and nylon. The two singles were plied, and then I did a three-ply cable thing to make the overall six ply yarn.) I think the yarn does a great job of providing enough visual interest of its own, without a complicated pattern-I just love how the foot looks. I have enough yarn left for a short little anklet pair, so that’ll be next!