Thursday, August 31, 2006

Finally

OK, I admit it: I do not knit socks. Well, truthfully, I have knit one pair of worsted-weight socks, way back in my distant past, and there is one-half of one sock out of fingering weight currently hidden somewhere in my house. But that's it.

Which isn't to say that I don't have sock yarn around. Not much, really, maybe a total of eight or ten skeins' worth. And finally, just this week, I have found a real use for sock yarn - plying it with my handspun!

Behold! Here we have some multicolor roving (probably Ashland Bay merino, but I don't really know), perched atop a cake of pencil roving.


Here we have the roving in its awkward-yet-oddly-graceful floofed-out state - its teenage years, so to speak.


And here we have the floofiness in its adult stage - a single plied with some pink Patons Kroy sock yarn, at least until the pink ran out, whereupon I switched to a heathery medium purple Kroy.



I love it. I love it so much I couldn't wait for it to dry before I showed it off - this is still wet from the post-spinning bath.

I see more sock yarn in my future.

6 comments :

Elizabeth said...

What a cool idea! I love the results.

sarahkate said...

Wow! That looks awesome! Great idea, and now that you've got that pesky, useless sock yarn out of your stash, there's room for all the new stuff you've been wanting, right?

Anonymous said...

That is such a great idea! I have to try it someday.

My only problem is that I actually knit socks with my sock yarn. And lace with my lace yarn. Grrr. Now I'll have to go out and buy yarn specifically for plying!

Sarah said...

Very nice!

I love that Ashland Bay merino too! Looks just lovely! And soft!

Abigale said...

Very cool idea indeed. I've never been able to bring myself to ply my handspun with anything but more handspun...

I have enough sock yarn to knit everybody and their brother a pair of socks (but not my brother - he wears a size 15 shoe, ain't never gonna happen!).

Somehow I just don't think I could do it - love the Ashland Bay, the colours are so pretty!

Abi

Sner said...

Great idea! It looks amazing. I have a few solid colour sock yarns that I don't actually know if I will used them as socks - you're giving me all kinds of ideas!