Denature

Goal #4: Knit a pair of sock with my own hand spun yarn. Check that one off of the annual goal list.

This was one of the goals I wasn't really sure I would have time for this year. But I'm really happy I did it. Plus, I'd been wanting to knit the Denature pattern for nearly two years now. My weird gauge and lack of sock knowledge had kept me from them... until now.

I had divided the braid in half when I spun up the yarn. But one skein ended up being a little thinner than the other, so I had to take out lengths of yarn to keep the stripes matching. Usually I use a Russian join when joining yarn, but since this isn't a superwash wool, I went ahead and did a spit splice for the first time ever. (I used water, not spit) It might be my new favorite kind of join.

The official info:
100% Polwarth Top from Woolgatherings. The braid was split in half for the first ply, then was Navajo plied. It ended up around a heavy fingering weight. The size small sock called for 70+ stitches to be cast on. I did some editing and cast on 52 stitches instead.
Ravelry Project Page

(Thanks for modeling the socks Mum)

Mitten Awakening

I haven't quite decided what the skein of Tanglebella wants to be just yet, so I have lined up my next braid of roving to spin. I'm rather proud to say that when I pulled the braid in half, I was able to separate it with only a 2g difference. This time I have a better plan of what I'm going to do. All going well, I will spin the two mini braids separately, then chain ply them into two skeins. If it looks like I have a decent amount of yarn, I'll make a pair of Denature socks. I've been wanting to make those socks for awhile, but I'd had a hard time finding playful yarn that would still show off the pattern. I don't know about all of you, but DNA screams robin egg blue, meadow green, dirt brown and blood red to me. For those who would like to know, it's Polwarth from Woolgatherings. And after checking my etsy account to see what this braid was (because I was too lazy to get up and walk 10 feet to get the tag) I found that I had bought it August 3, 2010. Sigh. If only that was the oldest thing in the stash....

I have pulled my Druid Mittens out of hibernation. I was rather inspired to work on them after my post about how I had only one project on the needles. I will be ripping out the mitten on the left. The cuff is too big and the hand is too small. The one on the right is much, much better. The cuff is a little tight to get over my hand, but it fits my wrist perfectly. Believe it or not, both cuffs were knit with the same size needle and have the same number of stitches. But the left one was done with one circular (and a beer in me) and the right one was done with double circulars (and no beer).