Thursday, March 21, 2013

Languish No More

I'm genuinely trying to dig into my UFO bin and work on some things that have been languishing. I finished my March Vesper socks and I wasn't able to resist starting my April socks (which is fine according to our very laid-back KAL thread). I haven't been working on them a whole lot though, I decided to take some time and finish at least one languishing project. I dug out a pair of socks and got to work.

I really was thinking about these socks because I have a peachy-colored sweater and I wanted to wear it one day. I realized that I had no socks that matched. At all. I was sad until I remembered that I did have socks started that would match! (At least close enough since the sweater and socks won't be right next to each other.) I dug around until I found them and then dug around until I found the pattern I had printed out and started work on them again.

Super cute huh? The major problem with these socks which were about halfway done was that I had made the first sock too short. It fit but I didn't have room to wiggle my toes as much as I liked so I knew I was going to have to rip back and reknit and who wants to do that? I finished the second sock and bit the bullet and ripped back the first and fixed it though. I'm really glad I did. I forgot how much I loved the yarn and the pattern. It really looks great together!
The Stats:
The Yarn: Arucania (their sock yarn, I seem to have lost the tag)
The Needles: US 2 DPNs (2.75mm)
The Pattern: Sedona by Lisa Dykstra
The Notes: I originally started these a couple of years ago as a KAL in support of the lovely designer when she was diagnosed with cancer. I'm so sorry I let them languish because I think they're on their way to becoming a Favorite pair of socks.

That's not all though! I finally finished spinning the fiber I've been working on for my friend Lisa. Remember this?

It's Southern Cross Fibers in Serenity on Finn. As I've said before, it's not a fiber I've worked with a whole lot, it's got a feel more like a BFL than a Merino, not super soft but not really scratchy either. She requested a fingering-weight Chain-plied yarn.
I finished it the other day and here's what I got.

I think it turned out lovely and while it isn't washed and twacked yet (she said she would do that herself) I think it's a true fingering weight but I'm not thrilled with the yardage I got. Only 314 yards. Now, I may have miscounted while winding it, there's always lots of distractions in my house when I'm trying to wind yarn onto my niddy noddy but it seems pretty dense so it's quite possible that's correct. I'm not thrilled with that. It's definitely hard to tell with a chain-ply what you will end up with for yardage and I'm not devastated but for me a fingering weight in a 3-ply (even if that is chain-plied) should be more like 350+ preferably 400+ yards. I'm hoping she will love it anyway.
I have set myself a goal to finish off some spinning projects now before I start anything else so I've dug out some BFL and I'm working away at it, even though I got my Gritty Knits Merino-of-the-Month yesterday and I love it so much and I want to spin it right away! It certainly isn't making me love my BFL right now. We'll see how long I can stick it out.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Those socks are awesome! I was going to say that I always knit 2aat so that I don't have to worry about re-knitting, but I guess that would've made the problem worse because you would've had to re-knit two socks instead of one! ha!