Early Winter?

Here's what it looked like coming home from church this morning:

It's still dark when I do my morning barn chores now, so the sheep content themselves with hay from the summer harvest until I get home, and then they are happy to head out to pasture:

There is still a lot of grass left in all the paddocks so I hope I can keep the flock grazing for quite a while yet. If not, no never mind as the hay crop this year was more than generous.

But what to do with the rest of a wet, cold, blustery, muddy Sunday?

I knit myself a new pair of light weight work socks that I'll wear til the really cold weather sets in.

I used my Columbia lambs wool (75% blended with 25% nylon) for this project. Its a single ply that runs about 400 yards/ 120g. The coloured yarn is a light variegate grey on my monitor it shows a bit of a reddish tinge which is inaccurate - its like a mouse grey. For the topper, heels and toes I used natural of the same blend.

The single ply has virtually no twist in it, since its not plied. Twist provides strength, but in this case the nylon content takes care of that. The non twist makes this a lofy yarn - so it has a good insulating value, and a softness under foot.

I've got two pair of these in natural that I've been wearing for several years farming. They are getting pilled from the felt liners in my barn boots, and the heels are starting to thin a little. Mostly they are starting to look like skanky man socks, so this first breath of winter inspired me to make myself a new pair.

They are size Large (for my 11 EEE foot). Knit with the 72 needle cylinder and 36 needle ribber on my Verdun 47; a reverse e-wrap selvedge on 1 x 1 ribbed top, and the rest of the sock in stockinette.

I expect the snow will be gone in the next day or so, and I'll be left with ....mud.

I hate mud!