A Happy Soctober SOCK Update!!

Two pairs of finished socks and a pair of socks on the needles!

I love knitting danged near anything, but socks are at the top of the list because they’re easy and a quick knit (unless they’re a men’s size 13-1/2 EEE). Socks are a very convenient way to use up leftover yarn and create some very colorful socks that go with anything.

A bag of leftover handspun yarn and commercial yarn

I knit most of my socks, as well as the socks I list for sale, from my handspun wool yarn that I’ve dyed. A lot of the multicolored and striped socks are knit from leftovers from both my handspun yarn, and wool yarn I’ve bought, for client projects, from Indie dyers like Atomic Fiber Co.

Mandala® Ombre Yarn

I knit acrylic socks and cotton socks for customers who are sensitive to wool or have wool allergies. The two pairs of color block blue socks below are knit from the same skein of Lion Brand, mandala OMBRE acrylic yarn. These yarn cakes are 344yds of softness that feels like chenille and can produce 2 pair of medium sized socks, or a small/medium hat and a pair of small/medium mittens from one skein, when knit using size 4,5, or 6 knitting needles.

I knit both pairs of socks in the photo on the right, with yarn that I spun. Do you see it in the yarn stash, in the photo on the left?

These two pair of socks will be added to my Etsy shop today!

I hear people telling me they wish they could do a lot of different things, from sewing to woodworking. I believe that if you have the spare time and the impetus to do something, stop talking about it and just do it or try it! It can be ANYTHING!!

*** Notice: I have not received any incentives, perks, or freebies from Atomic Fiber Co. or Lion Brand Yarn Co. This blog post was whipped up on a whim.
I will suggest you find my Etsy shop and buy some SOCKS!!! Happy Soctober!

Jacquard Emerald Powdered Dye Trial

I’ve been using the liquid Jacquard dyes for several years and decided to check out the cost effectiveness of their powdered dyes.

 

One and a half teaspoons of Jacquard Emerald dye powder yielded one pound of dyed roving (deep emerald); 5 ounces of 50/50 Suffolk/Corriedale yarn (light jade), and 4 ounces of mystery roving (turquoise)!!!

 

The above photo is the yarn in an aluminum pot on my stove top. I prefer to use aluminum because of the nice color splits I get out of it.

 

The result of this experiment is that I’m not going back to liquid dyes, especially now that I learned I can mix my own. A friend also suggested I try out ProChem dyes as well, so that will have to be a future blog post.

Bored?? Get something and dye it!