Handspun socks are a wondrous thing, but I work from home and run around in my socks all day on wooden floors, so they’re not the best for me. My heart seizes up a little at the thought of blown out heels on handspun and handknit knee socks, in particular, but a fan of knee socks I am. It’s COLD here in Boston in my little old house and I have enough chubby wool socks, so what I needed was to extend the length of these socks. Hooray for leg warmers! These are fitted, not the sloppy kind of my junior high years. They’re pure function, if you don’t count the high voltage color. They don’t take much yarn, either! This is undoubtedly the first pair of many, because – WOW- they are cozy.

The Facts:
Yarn: Maisy Day Handspun 2 ply bulky weight handspun Merino wool 2 ply, 5 oz. and 202 yards (I used every bit of this yarn, splitting the ball in half with a scale to get the most out of it. Amazingly enough, they are the perfect size.)
Needle: size 7 Addi Turbo for ye olde magic loop
Gauge: 4 sts. per inch
Size: 13″ long and 11″ around at the top, 9″ at the bottom (measured in stockinette section, not ribbing).
Fit: My legs are 15″ around at the largest calf point and 8″ at the ankle, meaning I’ve got some negative ease going on here. I didn’t make them as tight at the bottom as the top because they need to go over chunky woolen socks. They’re soft and stretchy, so they are not binding in the least.

These are knit just like a sleeve. Cast on and rib a bit, and then start increasing 2 sts. per increase row with the increase rows spaced about an inch apart, until you get to the desired upper leg measurement. Work straight and do a bit more ribbing. These are knit at a firm gauge and stay up with absolutely no problem.

PS: I don’t normally wear my jeans rolled up that high, but I’m not promising anything now that I have such flash leg warmers. :)

PPS: Cobblestone’s coming. I haven’t had time to do her justice in both photography and a blog post. Soon!

For the last week or so, I’ve been preparing like a madwoman for Yarn School and getting the fiber club dyed and out. The fiber club shipped fully yesterday (I haven’t had a chance to enter all your tracking numbers into the database, but you’ll get them soon) and Yarn School preparations are winding down. I might actually breathe properly soon!

Cobblestone!:

I was calm enough last night to cast on the body of Cobblestone. This is going to make super excellent airplane knitting on Tuesday. The sleeves are done. Wanna see?

I’ve got my waist shaping planned and my yoke yarn wound and ready to go. The body numbers had to be fiddled with a bit, as I’m knitting the smallest size, but I’m a bit hippy and bewbsy for the lower body, though the arms and yoke are fine. There’s only an 8 stitch difference, so the yoke fudging, which will be done on the fly, should be fine. It will be ready for Rhinebeck.

Navajo Plying:

I’ve been preparing and collecting spinning samples for Yarn School and one thing that was missing was Navajo plying, which I’ll be teaching. So, I dug out a bit of hand-dyed BFL wool top and pre-drafted it without splitting so that the color repeats would be nice and long. I spun and Navajo plied it into a bulky, amazingly puffy yarn that acted like a spring when stretched. The resulting yarn was the stretchiest, bounciest, and softest BFL yarn I’ve ever spun. I knit it into a top-down hat (no swatching!) and watched the stripes appear.

I’m going to have to Navajo ply more often.

Out of Town:

I’m leaving for Kansas and Yarn School on Tuesday the 25th and returning on the 1st of October. Any orders and emails placed after Sunday won’t be dealt with until I return. I’ll put a notice across the top of the shop to be sure everyone knows. When I get back, there is a glut of new yarn bases and fibers waiting for me to dye them. I’m going to have all kinds of new lace and sock yarns, and great yarns for sweaters, as well. There will be a bunch of new wools and blends, as well. The next fiber club will go up for sale in mid-October. I’ll post again about that, but mark your calendars if you’re interested in joining. I don’t think I’ll be able to increase the number this time, with the Christmas rush happening in the middle of it. Maybe next time.

Have fun on the internet while I’m out of the loop!