PATTERN: Railroad Rib Socks by Evelyn Clark, from Fiber Trends
YARN: Handspun from my own Autumn Joy roving. Autumn Joy is a blend of Maxine's Corriedale wool (a warm, cinnamon sugar brown) blended with dyed mohair and some autumn colored firestar (just a glimmer)
First, I weighed out four ounces of the roving, and then divided it into two 2-ounce bumps. From there, I divided one of those yet again and spun two bobbins with one ounce each on my Louet S45. I plied these two singles together to get a sport weight yarn. Next, I divided the other 2-ounce bump into three roughly equal strips and spun each strip onto its own bobbin. I plyed these three singles together to make a 3-ply yarn that was also a sport weight, and got the same gauge as I did with my 2-ply sport weight. Grin....is that clear as mud? In the photo below, the softer 2-ply yarn is on the left, while the firmer, rounder 3-ply is on the right. I used size 2 needles (the pattern calls for size 3 on the sport weight yarn, but I wanted a firmer fabric)
My plan was to knit the top of the sock with the 2-ply and the foot, heel, toe with the 3-ply in the belief that this is going to wear better. When I finished spinning the two yarns, I washed them as Judith MacKenzie directs...first in hot, then in cold, roughing the yarns up a bit ((grin)). I love the finish this gives to my handspuns
What I didn't expect was the joy of working with my own fibers and watching these socks unfold. The fiber felt great in my hands as I spun it. The finished yarns bloomed and took on star power all their own. I love this Railroad Rib pattern and could hardly bring myself to put the knitting down until the socks were complete.
The ultimate joy, however, was in finally putting this finished creation on my cold winter feet!
Ahhhh....bliss!
5 comments:
Those look great! You did such a wonderful job! The colors are really difficult to capture in a photo.
Wow how cool. Our mitten swap group seems so talented in the spinning realm. I so wish I had the desire to spin again. I haven't spun since the day my favorite spindle broke even though I have a wonderful wheel.
Excellent work! I love how you made two yarns for different areas of the sock.
I must tell you that the socks I made from Bree's wool are my absolute favorites. My cold feet LOVE them!
So pretty!! I admire the steps required in making those beautiful socks...sigh...you do wonderful work :)) I look forward to chatting in the near future :)
xo
wow. i am blown away by your description of how you felt as you knit them up. i am attempting to spin the yarn i will use for my march socks, i hope my experience will be as fulfilling as it seems yours was. great job!
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