All My Sock Yarn... Mostly

In my last post I talked about going through my stash for the annual moth check and to see what I had. While I do have a few sweater quantities, my stash is pretty much made up of sock yarn. It is my kryptonite. I love everything about it: the color, the fact that you can get a fancy skein because it is only one, the small amount of space it takes up. Well, about the small amount of space it takes up... when you multiply "one more sock skein" a bunch of times you get this.

Self striping and variegated on the left, solids on the right

What I've learned is that I really have equal love for all colors.... but I might want to knit up some of the orange island so the other colors don't start getting jealous. Also, I think I only have one pair of socks with orange in it.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is not all of my sock yarn. After I took the first picture, I found a few more skeins squirreled away here and there. But it really is the majority of it.

I hid this bin of sin inside my yarn trunk. I was wondering where the Regia had gone off to.

What was the real purpose of going through my sock yarn? Well, while the motivation should be to make sure I am moth free (I am!), or to destash some skeins that aren't "me" anymore (I did), what I really was trying to do was figure out what I might want to weave next. I had to commandeer Connor's yarn basket so that I could have a new weaving basket. Look at all that possibility! I'm excited.

Clearly all this yarn was just waiting for me to learn a new skill so I could make them look even more attractive in finished projects

Now the question is, what will I put on the loom first?

If anyone else has gone through/ goes through their stash, I'd love to see pictures. Does anyone else have a sock skein addiction like me? Do you find that your stash leans a certain way color-wise or do you have equal love for all colors?

Yarn... Yarn... Sock!

I've been pretty disciplined about not buying new yarn since May. Since my knitting is still going rather slowly, I was planning to continue being disciplined... but then a skein of skein of Tosh Sock in the Void color way showed up at my LYS and, well... I fell. I had been on the lookout of a skein in the Onyx color way since February, but hadn't been able to locate one. Void is close enough for what I want to do with it. The problem was that there was a lone skein in the Neon Peach color way next to Void that I've eyed for the last few months. It had been a hard week so I figured if one skein of yarn was going to make me feel good, two skeins would probably make me feel better. Plus I had saved up enough "fun money" to go ahead and splurge.

Loud sock yarn, just the way I like it

Meanwhile, I've been knitting away on vanilla socks for a few months now and I'm ready for a slightly more complicated sock. I'm currently debating whether to knit Hieroglyphic Socks, Roll The Bones, or Diamondback Socks. I've got the yarn selected. The Hieroglyphic Socks would be knit with Lisa Souza's Hardtwist Petite in St. Louis Blues and Coachella; Roll the Bones would be knit with Tosh Sock in Filtered Light and Baah! La Jolla in California Poppy; Diamondback Socks would be know with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Zombie BBQ. What would each of you choose to knit first?

Left to right: St. Louis Blues, Coachella, Filtered Light, California Poppy, and Zombie BBQ 

Of course you would think that I would want to cast on with the new yarn in the stash. Sometimes I do, but often I like the new yarn to marinate a bit in the stash before I'm ready to knit with it. Does anyone else like to gaze at their new acquisitions before casting on?

Enchanted Yarn And The Mysteries Of Twist Angle Revealed

It is done! The long awaited Greenwood Fiberworks sock roving in the Enchanted color way has been finished. I am pleased, but the yarn isn't as springy as I was hoping for sock yarn. I did some investigating on what it takes to spin better sock yarn and learned a thing or two.

I'm not sure why I believed this, but whenever I read about the angle of twist on yarn, I just assumed you held the yarn at a certain angle to the wheel when spinning it. (i.e., you spin the yarn off to one side) After reading an article on Spinning Great Sock Yarn and the additional article on Twist Angle by HJS Studio, it finally clicked: the angle of twist is literally what angle the twist appears to be in the yarn, not the angle you hold it to your spinning apparatus. Color me enlightened. The article also mentioned something about how more fiber can get used up with a higher angle of twist (more twist = more fiber used) This explained the great mystery to me on why my yardage kept ending so low compared to other people's sock yarn. The next time I spin, I will pay much more attention to the amount and resulting angle of twist I put into a yarn. I'm excited!

Conversation Between Workers - 5KCBWDAY4

Today is Day 4 of Knit Crochet Blog week and the topic is to write a dialogue between yourself and [a tool you use for your craft]. Rather than follow the topic exactly as written, I'm just going to use it as jumping off point. I'll be writing writing a letter to my favorite crafting tool: yarn.

Dear sock yarn,

I love you more than I ought to. I only wish that I could knit you faster so I could buy more friends to join you in your cubby.

-Audry

P.S. You guys probably already know this, but I can't help myself when it comes to sock yarn. You'll have some new friends joining you shortly.

Knitting Lab = Mojo Restoration

After dealing with the sock that refused to be knit, I lost my knitting and blogging mojo. I was starting to think that I'd never feel better until Tyler and I went to Interweave Knitting Lab in San Mateo. And then this happened. 

Canon Hand Dyes is one of my new favorite yarns and when I found out Amy of CHD was going to be at KnitLab, I was beside myself. And then Pigeonroof was there.... and Knitwit. Here is the evidence of my lack of self control.
The top row is: Freia Ombre Worsted in Denim, and two skeins of Pigeonroof SUPER Sock in Malachite (top) and Dragon Days (bottom)
The bottom row is all the Canon Hand Dyes (L-R): In the William base we have a brown heel toe skein, Vintage Christmas, We're All Mad Here, Etude No.18, and I Desire Nothing But The Reward Of A Villian. The next two skeins are the Charles base in The Prince Of Darkness Is A Gentleman and Days Of Wine And Roses.
The truth is, I wanted more. So much more. I satisfied myself a bit by enabling everyone at the yarn shop later on.

I also talked to Esther who treated me to some stitch markers. I'm super stoked about the Little Prince and Star. We had talked about the Celestarium. It was #1 in her queue and I had the original with me. So naturally one thing led to another and now I have some lovely stitch markers.

I did finally manage to finish the stubborn socks this past week. I'll talk about them soon. Unfortunately I'm not diving into anything new because I'm trying to finish the epic Dad Sweater in time for his birthday. I have less than 4 weeks to do it. I think I can, but I'm currently in the vast wastes of the stockinette body.... and the sock yarn is calling to me.