Last year I tried knitting socks. Half way through the first one I knew something was wrong. It was big enough to fit King Kong. Oops. So I put it aside in the UFO basket. A few weeks ago I picked up the same pattern and tried again. Swatching really does help. ;-) This time around the sock actually fits. Even the second one fits! I learned the basics from this website.
My next version will address the "drat, I ran out of yarn and must go spin some more but the green is gone and all I have left is yellow" issue that cropped up right after turning the heel in this pair. The yarn is handspun Lincoln wool dyed with commercial dyes. My feet stay toasty warm but not too-warm. Important now that our
Socks are fun. I'm not a big knitting fan but socks go pretty quickly. Now I'm doing a pair of slippers that get felted when done. Check out the free pattern here.
Alpaca related info: Wayne and I go to pick up our girls on Saturday from Derwydd Alpacas. My female Melody should deliver us a cria in September 2006 and Wayne's girl, Pink Champagne, will be close behind with her own cria. It will be interesting to see how the crias compare as they have the same sire.
On an additional fiber front: I'm preparing a grey Lincoln wool fleece to send off to a mini-mill. I have a big bag of alpaca seconds that I want combined with the Lincoln. This wool fleece is exceptional - it was a ribbon winner at the Monterey Wool Competition. The locks are too long to combine with the alpaca seconds so I'm slowly chugging through lock by lock cutting each Lincoln lock in half. (Don't fret - I have 2 other ribbon-winning Lincoln fleeces.) I want to use the roving for an Australian Locker Hooking item (either a rug or a wall hanging) and spin some of the roving to make more socks.