One skein - four socks

I made these four socks from one skein of Opal. Gave the baby socks away as a present to a friend who bought few of my other pairs. One day I will have time to add all our socks on the web site.
In the meantime enjoy our creations as posted here.

Pippi Socks

I just finished a pair of socks for my friend Lois. They were made with Regia 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon on size 1 needles. The leg part is longer than usual because Lois wanted it to go under her leg brace. I go to a lot of public hearings, city council meetings, planning and zoning commission meetings, and other public involvement events, and of course, I knit all through them. Lois says my socks are power socks because they have lots of liberal social activism knit into their very beings - a nice thought. I call them Pippi socks because they are very stripey and energetic.

Dyeing yarn

Last weekend my friend Louise and I tried something new - creating our own hand painted sock yarn. We started with ready-to-dye fingering weight 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon yarn from Knitpicks and used Country Classic wool dyes. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot. Our first efforts were not too bad, and the next time we do it, we will have much more control over the process. We can't wait to try knitting our new yarn!

fly fishing socks

These socks are knitted for a friend of mine who will be a fly fishing guide in Alaska this summer. Yarn is from a friend who raised the sheep, and did the whole process of creating the yarn herself. Yarn has no dye. I added wooly nylon from heel all the way to the toe. These socks are as natural and local as possible.

I hope he will enjoy them and I hope the socks will pass Alaska wilderness test.

I just finished a pair of socks from Regia Silk Color yarn, which is 20% silk, 55% superwash wool and 25% nylon. It is marginally more difficult to knit with, because it is not as elastic as the standard 75% wool yarn, but has a very soft hand. The socks are for my son Ian's girlfriend on the occasion of her graduation from University of Washington. Since I finished these, I started a pair on Opel yarn, 75% superwash wool. They seem very stiff and harsh compared with the Regia silk. I hope I haven't become addicted. What would I do with my Opel stash?