I’m about to embark on my next pair of socks from Silk Road Socks. I love this book! Each time I finish a pair, I love them more than expected. So, next up will be the Usaks. The cuff of these socks makes me think of butterflies, so I’m feeling purple. Here are my choices:

I was afraid the Ella Rae Lace would be too thin. The Cascade seemed too solid. The malabrigo is very nice, but I bought the Knitpicks longer ago, so I wanted to use that. I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense, but that’s where I landed. So, using my new-found winding skills, I turned the hank into a lovely cake.

Knitpicks Stroll Tonal handpainted yarn in Royalty. We’re off to see the wizard……

ps. Happy Birthday, Turtle! :-)

I fell in love with…

the Achilles Teal Mist yarn from Barking Dog Yarns and was planning to make Mashad socks from the Silk Road Socks book next and needed a semi-solid or solid to work with. Thus, the Misty Mashads were born.
Um, I should probably disclaim that the reason I needed a semi-solid was that I’d already tried two different variagated yarns and they’d looked a hot mess. I had all these grand ideas of how these socks looked like stained glass windows and I was going to have socks that made people think of this

Instead, I got this (socks that would be one third cream and pink/green striped on the other two thirds)

So, I started off for the third time with 2.0mm needles and was getting gauge perfectly, but the socks were a wee bit tight, so I switched to 2.25 in time for the foot. Thank goodness I did or I would have had to gift them to a friend with size 7-7.5 feet since my feet are 7.5-8. But as it is, they are just a smidge tight in the foot and ankle and I prefer they be a wee bit tight to a wee bit loose because this will show off the pattern better (and I don’t like wrinkles in my socks). Not to mention that they will stretch a little when I block them, she typed optimistically.

Please note that according to the book, switching needle sizes is not the preferred method for sizing a sock. These may wear out a little more quickly than designed, but I was being lazy and they look great, so I’m going to fly by the seat of my pants on a wing and a prayer.

Meghan came over to wind yarn one night while TH was playing WoW.

I seemed to be having issues with my yarn winder and had convinced myself it was the yarn winder, not user error. Meghan brought her yarn winder and some yarn. It turns out that you have to move the little silver yarn guide at certain points during the winding to keep the yarn winding into a nice cake. I had errroneously assumed that you could just hold the silver guide in one place and make no adjustments and everything would just work. nope. I should have figured this out for myself, but I don’t regret feeling a little silly for a few minutes when I spent a whole night laughing, looking at patterns, and watching Meghan wind yarn. At 11pm, TH wandered in and tried to wrap his mind around the fact that we had been winding yarn and giggling like children for hours. We didn’t realize how late it was and we had work the next day. oops. So, off she went to her casa and I was left with good memories, some lovely cakes, and the key to winding my own in future. Thanks, M!