Qiviut

Qiviut comes from the Muskox.

I've been eyeing this fibre for several years but never took the plunge. The reason, apart from its very high price, is that I read it lacked memory and so wasn't suitable for socks.

But finally I found some Qiviut that was blended 70% with 20% merino for memory and 10% nylon for strength.

Here is a pair of size Medium, knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder. I varied my standard hem top by knitting a pico edge, and I also added a wee bit lace work - three hearts circling each sock.

I was VERY nervous knitting these socks. What a disaster it would have been for this yarn to go off the rails!

And this is a pair of size Medium +, knit on the Verdun 47, 72 needle cylinder.

See the little scrap of yarn on the left? That 14" is what I had left from a 102 gram skein! (That's why I knit the Medium pair first - to see how far this yarn would knit.)

This yarn gives new meaning to the word YUMMY.

It is reputed to be:

• softer than cashmere
• stronger than wool
• and eight times warmer than wool

If I had a nickle for every fibre that was supposed to be warmer than wool! But in this case, I believe it ;o)

At 350 yards weighing in at just over 100g, the yarn is heavier than the typical 4 ply sock yarns I knit with. Yet, it feels so light I can't believe it doesn't float off the table. (Think of the best, lightest chocolate mousse you ever had.)

The yarn is very strong. Testing this I was hard pressed to break it - it took quite a tug. No doubt the benefit of the strong fibre as well as the nylon.

Have less elasticity, and being a bit heavier weight, I loosened my tension 1/4 turn when knitting these socks. Perfect. Just like butter.

Hmmm. Butter. Mousse. Maybe you're supposed to eat this stuff....

laniF yorK

Here are samples of the remaining colourways of Paton's Kroy Socks in my stash.

All of these are sized Medium and are knit on the Legare 400, 54 needle cylinder.

#55612 Summer Moss Jacquard

#55701 Kool Stripes

#55602 Country Jacquard

#55011 Flax

#55567 Paint Box

To recap Kroy Socks: 75% wool/25% nylon; 152m/50g; 28 stitches/36 rows/10 cm; 3.25mm (US #3) dpns

You may recall that I got a mountain of Kroy courtesy of E who picked it up at the factory outlet.

The price was so-o-o-o-o-o cheap that you would think there was something wrong with it - like it's seconds or something.

You can see from the patterned samples I've done that I've had very good luck with the patterns not changing on me. I randomly selected one ball of each colourway from the pile, and then selected a second ball of each colour that started at the same colour point in the pattern.

With match ups this good it is clear that there are very few knots. I think I've only hit one so far, and it was within a colour and didn't interrupt the pattern.

On the Kool Stripes sample you can see a tiny bit of white here and there which may be missed dye. Most of the colourways are jacquard which include dashes of white so any little blips are barely noticed.

One thing I have noticed - when kitchenering the toes closed I'm getting a bit itchy on my hands. This even though the yarn is quite soft. After washing (in Eucalan) and blocking, I am not getting this reaction when I handle the socks.

I was a 'Pears Soap Baby' (for those of you who have seen enough full moons in your life to know what that is). My skin is extremely sensitive. I suspect my initial reaction to the Kroy is residues to whatever chemicals the wool was treated with and that washing in a good wool wash takes care of the situation.

Erom York

This pair is Patons Kroy Socks #55613, Cyan Stripes. Sized Medium and knit on the 54 needle cylinder.

And,

This pair is Kroy Socks # 55615, Bronzed Berry Stripes, also sized Medium.

As you see, I continue to work my way through the Kroy Mountain, the huge stash snagged by E on my behalf.

I still have several colourways to work through and hope to complete that this week. (Complete one pair of each, not the whole stash!)

I have also take the bold step of winding one skein of Qiviut into a ball, ready for knitting. T-r-e-m-b-l-e.

If Obama wins...

OK, I don't normally wade into foreign politics, but I'm just wondering.... if Obama becomes president of the USA, will the White House be Obama Biden Laden?

Kroy Mulberry Stripes

This is a pair of size Medium socks knit on the 54 cylinder with Patons Kroy Sock #55616 Mulberry Stripes.

This is the first I've knit socks with Kroy. The weight of the yarn is a tad heavier than most 4 ply I've used. (LYS says, "Kroy is a truer 4 ply and most 4 ply sock yarn is actually mid-weight between a 3 and a 4 ply.")

The yarn has a wee bit of kemp/hair in the wool that shows up with some breeds of sheep. The twist isn't as tight as many sock yarns.

It has a nice soft feel.

The yarn was an easy knit - not stiff the way I would expect from colours with a red base.

I set my tension 1/4 turn looser because of the pink dye but I probably could have left it alone.

The knit was 8 stitches and 10.5 rows per inch.

By way of comparison, I knit two pairs of size Medium Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock using exactly the same settings on the sock machine and exactly the same pattern.

The above pair is colour Vera.

And this pair is colour Pilsen.

In both pairs of Lorna's I had 8 stitches per inch as in the Kroy, but 11 rows per inch, vs 10.5 in the Kroy.

So the Kroy pair, on the bottom of the above pic, are a tad longer in the leg and foot.

The real difference is in the weight.

Each of the Lorna's Laces socks, Pilsen on the left, Vera in the middle weigh 35 grams. The Kroy, on the right, weigh 45 g per sock.

I haven't tried knitting other sizes with the Kroy yet, but it is pretty clear that I will be in to the third 50 g ball to get a pair of Large socks with my standard pattern and I might even be hard pressed to squeak out a pair of Medium + with two balls.

(Don't forget I do a double hem in my standard pattern which used up an extra 21 rows of knitting.)

And in the black

This is my own 2 ply Mule Spun Worsted Weight yarn, 100% wool, 225m/112g, colour Black.

I fiddled with the picture to try and get a true representation. The black is not so much a Jet Black as a deep Charcoal Black. I think it will show lint less than the former.

This yarn was dyed in the fleece before being spun so has an excellent even colouring.

Anyone local?
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Riddle Answered....sort of.

I spent last weekend at Summerfolk. Besides a folk music festival there is an artisan village, of which I was part, along with ~ 40 others.

This is an excellent venue for musicians and artisans alike.

But am I bagged.

Artisans set up Friday morning/afternoon and 'open for business' from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday runs 10 - 10 and Sunday 10 - 9. These are long hours especially when everyone stays open at least an hour later to catch the exiting crowds.

I think next year I will camp over as do many others. I'm only a 40 minute drive away, but that last 40 minutes in the day is a real kick in the chops.

I was alone so didn't get a chance to go round and take pictures, but you can check it out here:

Summerfolk

Topsy Turvey

Here are two pair of socks I knit today by special request.

This pair of beaded socks is size XL, knit on the 72 needle cylinder with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock colour Winona. (These are full legged socks vs the typical ankle length I do for beads.)

That was my last two skeins of Winona ;o(

The beads are 6mm wood pony beads, coloured fuschia.

And this pair of beaded socks are size Medium, knit on the 54 needle cylinder with my own 75/25 wool nylon fingering weight, colour Chestnut.

The beads are 6mm wood pony beads, coloured, um, brown.

Often, requests for His n Hers socks want a bright M and the plain XL. So it's great to be able to step outside the box ;o)

My Riddle

The yarn in this pic is Paton's Kroy Sock yarn. Colour #55616 Mulberry Stripes. It is 75/25 wool/nylon, 152m/50g, and a recommended needle size of 3.25 mm (US #3). There are 116 balls of yarn in the photo.

The yarn in this pic is Qiviut Sock Yarn. It is 70% Qiviut (muskox down) 20% wool and 10% nylon. 350m/100g; 3-4mm needle recommended. There is 1 skein in the photo.

Those of you who guessed that the total yarn in each photo cost the same total amount are correct.

So.

The Kroy was an amazing deal.

The Qiviut, blush, um, well... I know I'm among kindred spirits here... was, um, amazing...

I don't know what I'll knit with the Qiviut. I do know it will never be on a Monday ;o)

Riddle

Here is a riddle.

Below are two pictures of some Sock Yarn in my stash.

What is the same about the yarn in the two pictures.

Closing the Deal

Oops - I just found this post that was supposed to be uploaded Aug 12. Don't know how that happened!

Closing the Toes.

Here are the Regia Cotton socks, sized Large, I knit last week, now with toes closed, washed and blocked.

And some more....

This batch is sized Medium +. You will recognise the two pair on the right as being from the same Regia Cotton as the sized Large.

The pair on the left is an Opal Cotton, colour #1340. The Opal blend is 5% higher in cotton content, 4% lower in wool and 1% lower in nylon than the Regia blend. It has the same feel and the knitting was comparable to the Regia Cotton, ie. a little stiffer on the knit than the wool/nylon blends.

And here is another pair of Fingerless Gloves. This pair done with my own 100% lamb wool, sport weight.

That's a baker's dozen pair of these gloves finished up. And I must say, they don't take such a lot longer to knit but they sure take (me) a lot longer to close.

So I was glad to get back to 'regular' sock knitting.

This morning I knit these:

This isn't an Olympic Marathon. More of a 100 m Dash.

From 8:45 to 11:15 a.m., or 2 1/2 hours: 4 pairs of sized Medium socks, and 2 Set Up Bonnets on the 54 cylinder, plus 1 Set Up Bonnet on the 72 cylinder (not in photo).

For you DPN folks, the Set Up Bonnet is a fake sock that you set on the needles to initiate the knitting process - to feed the machine/get it going.

Oh yeah,

I knit these myself. No lip syncing on this farm.....

At the Drawing Board

I don't know why I'm trying something new, the day before a big three day craft show, (instead of, like, packing the truck) but what the heck.

Recall the other day I made 2 new Set Up Bonnets for my 54 needle cylinder.

Hands up if you wondered why I made 2 and not just 1.

This is my latest insane idea....using 2 Set Ups for one sock.

Here, looking down into the sock machine, I have just finished the toe on my 'sock'.

For you DPNers, the 2 large red tubes are the Set Up Bonnets, and the blue/white/etc patterned yarn is the 'sock'. The heel is at the right.

ADMITTEDLY, this design needs some work. But you have to start somewhere!

I'm trying to come up with an Invisible Sock that wouldn't show at all inside a pump type shoe; just worn for comfort.

The reason for setting up as two sets of work - so I could knit an incomplete tube (open top) for the section between the heel and the toe.

As it is, I don't think this sock would stay put on a foot - that the heel would slide down. Will have to wait fora girly type foot to try this on.

Any ideas? (besides, "Go pack your truck")

Dyed in the Fleece

Until now, any of my own yarn that I've dyed, I've dyed in the skein.

Most often that's either by hand painting, or by dyeing batches of skeins in a large pot (vat dyed).

This year I decided to experiment with Dyed in the Fleece Yarn. So I asked one of the mills that spins for me to dye my raw wool AFTER it was washed, but BEFORE it was spun.

When the dyed raw wool is carded and spun, any variations in colour are blended together.

What held me back?

For a mill to dye in the fleece, requires a fairly substantial quantity and I've always been afraid of picking 'the wrong' colour.

But I've forged forward with this project, albeit with some caution in colour selection.

My first two colours arrived yesterday - navy and black (I said I used caution!).

Here's 32 skeins of Navy that I've washed up.

I'm very pleased.

The navy is dark enough to be a 'good' navy, but not so dark that you have to run to a window and make sure it isn't black.

As usual, I soak the yarn in VERY HOT water and Eucalan for about half an hour to remove the spinning oils from the yarn. Then I spin it out in the washing machine, air dry it on racks, pick out bits of chaff that may have come back to the farm, and reform the skeins.

The yarn is my own 2 ply Mule Spun Columbia Sheep 100% wool, ~ 225m/112g. 4 - 5 mm needles - a light worsted weight.

And a little more Cotton

This pair is Regia Cotton India Colour, #4304. This is sized Medium.

I had two 100 gram balls of this colour.

With a wool/nylon blend I can usually get 3 pair of socks out of two balls, as long as both balls start around the same place in the colour pattern (or if I don't colour match the socks.)

But with the cotton blends the yardage never goes as far. After two pair of socks I had 28 grams left on each ball, and the socks were ~ 35 grams each.

I'll have to root through my cotton left overs and see if I've got something I can use for heels and toes so I can milk out a third pair!

Them Ol' Cotton Fields

Today was a Cotton Pickin' day.

Not actually pickin' in the fields, but on the sock machine with my pickin' tool.

From stash, these are all Regia Cotton. The far left is Regia Java, colour # 1183. The others, from left to right, are Regia India Color, #'s 4303, 4308, and 4307.

All are 45% cotton, 43% wool and 14% nylon.

You can see that my homework for tonight is to close toes, wash and block.

All these are sized Large using my standard pattern on the 72 needle cylinder: 40 rows in mock rib; missing needles replaced; 2 rows; hang hem, 85 rows for leg; heel; 75 rows for foot; toe.

In the Regia Java pair, I just barely squeaked the large pair out of one 100g ball. I think I had about 6" left over.

On all three pair of Regia India Color I RAN OUT, either just before or midway through the second toe.

(Fortunately I have lots!)

The cotton blends knit stiffer on the sock machine. Even though they are very soft they lack the elasticity of the higher % wool blends, so its a harder crank to get the stitches happening, and the yardage doesn't go quite as far. I set my tension 1/4 turn looser than regular 4 ply wool blend fingering weight.

I knit myself a with Regia cotton pair several years ago. I washed and dryed them routinely on permanent press cycle. Over time the cotton became less and less elastic. Every once in a while I dried them on stretchers to ease that cuff out a little but by this year it was getting to be fight to clear my old ankles and I gave the socks to Jesse.

I should note that there was virtually no wear on the socks and I did use them with great regularity, and they still fit - just the elasticity problem.

(I got some samples of Paton's Cotton Stretch from E, which I haven't tried yet. I have a feeling it will be just the ticket for those of us that need a little more stretch....)

Dry Run

These are samples of the Patons Kroy sock yarn E picked up for me at Spinrite. With the exception of the heather (brown with pale blue grey fleck) on the left, the others are all striping.

Real stripes.

Sight-un-knit, I think I like the pinks/chocolate browns that are reminiscent of Lorna's Vera with a splash of grey added for contrast. There are about 150 balls of this in my load, so its just as well I like it!

Dry Run

Today I sorted through the bits and pieces of my new artisan tent, and put the beast together. Or at least mostly together.

I didn't quite finish putting it together and snugging things up. I saw a storm moving in and its supposed to rain for the next 5 days, so I back pedalled and struck the set, satisfied that I've got things figured out.

(Famous last words!)

Things I like about the new tent:

Every thing is heavy duty and hopefully it will stand up to the abusing weather that grows more frequent.

Two 30" deep awnings (about 6'6" high) that give folks a place to stand out of the sun while browsing, and also keeping the direct sun or a gentle rain off the goods.

A large vent on front and back of the canopy, which can be closed from the inside or outside. This keeps the tent cooler than it would otherwise be, and it gives the wind a way to pass through without tearing the thing to bits.

A 'light bar' on which I can mount up to 16 goose neck lamps.

A back door, which can be set up either left or right and on any side. This allows the full frontage to be used for display instead of 'saving' a space to squeeze in and out of the booth.

For overnight stays the awnings can be dropped and the four walls zipped up tight. And during the days the walls don't have to be taken down - they can be rolled up and secured with built in ties/snaps.

The tent will get its inaugural event a week from this Friday.

Fingers crossed.

Civic Holiday

This is a 'Caravan" Tent. I've been using one like this for several years. They are relatively inexpensive and quite easy for one person to put up in short order. Total weight is 68 lbs. The entire frame is a single unit that raises up like an umbrella.

It comes with 4 walls, one of which has a zippered entrance in the middle. You can configure the walls as backdrops or shades for craft shows, and zip up the four walls to close up for the overnights.

The downside - I've never met anyone who could get the four walls zipped to each other to close in at night. It is too tight on the frame to the point of tearing the zippers. So, everyone I know 'makes due' with assorted strings, Velcro straps, and bubble gum.

Downside #2 - these aren't waterproof, and aren't sold as such. A light sprinkle is OK but an actual rainfall = disaster.

If you've been with me for a while, you'll recall that setting up in a windstorm at Summerfolk last summer was a nightmare!

The boxes that came by UPS on Friday?

Weighing in at ~220 lb, this collection of parts is the new Soxophone Player artisan tent for outdoor shows. The frame is most decidedly NOT 1 piece. The frame is 1.5" heavy gauge galvanized steel, and the cover is heavy duty vinyl with serious looking zippers. The cover is water proof AND non-flammable.

The next big craft show is in two weeks, so hopefully I can practise putting this puzzle together once or twice before showtime.

Road Trip

Jesse and I hit the road this morning to visit E in Southampton.

Southampton is on the opposite side to me of the Bruce Peninsula that separates Lake Huron from Georgian Bay.

We drove over to pick up the bags (and bags) of yarn that E got for me at the Spinrite factory.

It must be about 600 balls of Paton's Kroy sock yarn and that should keep me busy for a week or two.

E's lovely home reminded me a tad of my own before the Studio went up. Sock machines peppered throughout and sub-stashes of sock yarn within easy grasp from any point!

E's husband W didn't lay me flat for teaching her how to use a sock machine. Nor did he even fill the back of my truck with knitting stuff, while I wasn't looking, to reclaim lost portions of his house. What a nice guy!

(To my own credit - I did help out by carting away 4 large garbage bags full.)

Friday Musing

One of the things I love about living near Georgian Bay is the beautiful sunsets we get.

This shot is actually pre-sunset, but the sun caught my attention as it seemed a huge red ball dropping quickly behind the trees.

I grew up listening to. "Red sky at night - sailors' delight; red sky at morn - sailors take warn."

This year, the rules are all out the window and this particular red sky heralded yet another short duration high intensity thunder storm.

It's difficult to get a sense of depth from this pic, but this is one of the many ruts forming on my driveway from the intensive blasts of rain these storms impose. The ruts are as deep as 8 inches. (Other than spring runoff I don't usually get any other driveway damage during the year.)

And its difficult to mow the mushrooms.....er...lawn.... when it doesn't dry out between showers!

It's a farmer's prerogative to b*tch about the weather ;o)

And it's a knitter's prerogative to rattle on about nothing when he has no new knitting to show!

What's this!

Old Muther Hubbard's (DH's) knitting cupboard?

Yeah. In my dreams I knit those cubbies all empty.

I'm actually trying to re-organize my stash and (insert Homer Simpson type noise) clean the workspace up a tad.

Tough to work on that when the UPS guy shows up on a Friday afternoon!