Sock Summit Wrap-up

I finished up the test knit for Kathleen. I'm going to write up suggestions for the pattern, so I'm not sure when it will be available. It's a pretty scarf or shawlette depending upon the size needle you use. The shawlette isn't going to give you a lot of depth, but does cover the shoulders nicely.

Sara after being sick with multiple ear infections was able to dye up the superwash merino I had given her for my spinning handpainted socks class. I'd given her some color suggestions and let her have fun:

I think she did a fantastic job and look forward to spinning these up and seeing them as sock yarns to be used.

I picked up some really nice Shetland top from Klaus at Crown Mountain Farms that is softer than the sample I had spun up from Tactile. He also has Finn available and I'll definitely order some for him to bring down to OFFF as well as some of his own Shetland (natural colors other than the white I got). He also had a few ounces of Guanaco and I couldn't resist buying one ounce to go with the one ounce Gail had given me in payment for a massage. (I can spin more to ply together this way and get more yarn to hopefully make into a lace shawl.)



From my classes I learned how to pre-darn and darn socks. Ideally of course you would knit your socks so they don't have wear. Merike likes using a wool-mohair combination for sock knitting and this was also repeated by Judith. These seemed to be heavier socks though. Merike darns from the front. You basically do a mattress stitch up the vertical and then use those as your warp and then weave across the horizontally made stitches. Pick up any loops that are still live along the way. Lots of common sense involved here.



From Janel's spinning handpainted socks class I learned about how to look at rovings and decide if they'll spin up the way you'd like them to. All can of course be used, you'll just get different effects and knowing is half the battle! (what's the reference from?) She also showed us how to spin a finer yarn and that we need to overspin for socks. I actually got it a little overspun where she had to keep telling others to spin more. ;-)

My spinning card:



Part of the color learning involved how to make it striping. Janel shared some predominantly green merino/silk and predominantly blue merino/silk rovings and I took a small handful of each and then divided them up per her instructions and spun green-green; blue-blue and green-blue (two ply yarn). and then plied them. I did just a straight ply, no chaining or navajo plying. These were my results:



I was a teacher's aide for Anne Hanson and her lace knitting class. Someone in class had found highligher tape in the marketplace and I made sure some came home with me. I also stopped into the Briar Rose booth to buy a copy of Anne's Marie Antoinette sock after seeing a student's start of the sock.

I was also an aide for Lucy Neatby. Love her accent and wish I could have been there in the morning, but was busy spinning instead. Lisa (ljcoz), I had met on Wednesday while working the Registration desk and gave her directions on how to get to Powell's and Knit/Purl, is from Australia. Australian and Welsh accents all in the same room, and then throw in spotting Sandi Wiseheart. (Bobbie said that she had fun talking with Sandi in one of Judith's spinning classes too.) Lisa showed me (Rachel, Sara and Carissa too!) the cool way that Lucy taught how to do a ssk in the morning portion, at the Ravelry Meetup. I then remembered it while I was doing the toe portion of my sock during the Luminary Panel. Thanks Lisa for sharing! Lucy also has some innovative ways of doing bind-offs and I'm grateful to both teachers in sharing their class notes with me too.

My Hydrangea sock using Classic Elite's Summer Sox: