Ketchup!

Aren't they just beauteous! It's the Fancy Silk Sock pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, knit in Araucania Ranco Solid. It's a perfect match of yarn and pattern. The yarn did give me some trouble when I was winding it, as did the other color that I also bought. I know it wasn't me, so either it was a weird batch, or they just do something really weird when winding their hanks which makes it hard to not get in a knotted mess when you ball it up. But I'm glad I persevered, because the yarn was worth it in the end. So let this be a warning -- the yarn is worth trying, but don't try to wind it when your patience or time is short.


And speaking of yarn that has its issues, how about a yarn with genuine issues, not just superficial winding issues? These socks were knit out of some of my earliest handspun. I have learned a lot since spinning that yarn, and one of the things I've learned is that sometimes there really can be too much of a good thing. The "good thing" in this case was twist. The yarn was spun and plied so tightly that it was very difficult to work with. It was simultaneously too ropey and too springy, coiling back on itself every chance it had. I was concerned that the socks would be garbage, but they actually turned out pretty nicely. At the very least, they should last longer than the cockroaches. (Wait, cockroaches will survive a nuclear Armageddon, but now we're all doing to die from Swine Flue or food shortages caused by global warming, right? Do cockroaches survive those things? Hmm.)



For all my complaining about my handspun, I like the socks, and I sent them to my mom. The yarn, by the way, is superwash merino. Indestructible, solid superwash merino, perhaps as dense as the center of a planetary body.


The antithesis of the superwash that is trying to pose as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is polwarth. Polwarth is a soft and incredibly springy wool, mostly found (if I am correct) in Australia and New Zealand. David, over at Southern Cross Fibre, sells a lot of Polwarth, all dyed in the most perfect Australia-themed colorways. I think this colorway is called Uluru.





It ended up as a sportweight yarn, even though I was aiming for fingering. It's one of those fibers that poofs up to something larger, no matter how thin you think you're spinning it. I'm not complaining, because the resulting yarn is incredibly soft and lofty, and the yardage I got from this skein, which was spun worsted style (short forward draw) was akin to what I'd get spinning woolen longdraw. Here are the socks I made from it, for Alex:







While I play blogger-catchup, I realize that I may not write about all the details I'd usually include. Stuff like wraps per inch, and exact yardage and weight for handspun, might get left out. But I have been pretty good about logging all that information in Ravelry, so if you're ever curious about the exact details of a yarn or knitting project, please check over there. My handspun can be found here and my knitting projects can be found here. I in no means plan to have Ravelry replace the blog, but I just want to let the geeks who want to know all the details have access to them, in case I leave things out on the blog. (Which I know I've done in this post.)

I have so much to post about. I made a list, with enough content for 5 meaty posts, including this one. Next up (I think): a couple of handspun scarves, spinning for lace, and a hat pattern preview.