The Yarn Speaks

I was going to write a long blog entry about my road trip across Wyoming, snow storms (yes, even at the end of April), wonderful yarn shops and a chance to be a test knitter for one of the said yarn shops.  But instead, my entire last couple of days have been learning to listen to my yarn and what it’s trying to tell me.  And for something so silent, it is speaking volumes.  Mostly what it doesn’t want to be.

I’m not use to my yarn talking back at me in such a tone.  Almost always, when I pick a yarn out and a pattern; they work.  Maybe not perfectly, but they make it work and usually turn out some pretty darn good socks   Occasionally I get socks that will knock the socks off your feet.

Las spun me up 8 oz Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe in My Blue Heaven.  It’s gorgeous, it’s got fantastic twist, great sheen and is perfect for my collection of Sock Summit Socks!  What better than handspun socks out of some fabulous roving after all for the sock summit of sock summits?  I had the perfect pattern all picked out for it: Mystic Sea by Cass White.  The stitch pattern was lovely and yarn color would be appropriate for the sock, being all blues and greens with the sea theme going on.

I casted on happily after wrapping up the Titania’s Revenge socks on the road across Wyoming.  The pattern calls for Socks That Rock Mediumweight on size 1 needles.  I’ve found in the past I prefer a size 2 needle with mediumweight.  64 stitches completely filled my dpn even with me squeezing the stitches on.  By the time I finished joining in the round, I realized size 2 needles were too small.  I frogged my stitches, switched to a size 2.5.  Casted on again, still cramming 64 stitches on the needle.  Frogged my stitches again when I realized 2.5 were too small for the yarn.  Dug out my rarely used size 3 needles and casted on again.  This time I got done with all ten rounds of the ribbing before I realized the ribbed section was big enough to get around my thighs.  I studied the pattern, could I possibly trim some of the pattern’s extra columns to reduce the stitch count?  I’ll just trim a few columns of the purls.  

I frogged again, casted back on, got through the ribbing and began my modifications.  Within 3 rounds of my supposed brilliance, I realized the stitch pattern didn’t even look like a stitch pattern in the same way a hairball doesn’t like a kitten.  This pattern and this yarn were not ment to be.  I grumbled, I cursed, I told then yarn how perfect they would be together.  It said nope in no uncertain terms.  I frogged again.  I was going to use this yarn for socks if it killed me.

I vaguely remembered a leaf lace pattern I kilted off a shawl pattern a couple years back for a pair of socks for Mom.  Normally, I don’t repeat stitch or sock patterns because there is so many great stitch patterns out there and so little time to knit.  But the pattern had a 9-stitch repeat that could easily accommodate  sock yarns of all different weights by subtracting or adding a repeat.  I casted on 54 stitches as I sat on the phone Saturday night talking to hubby.  I got through the ribbing, through the first 2 rounds of the pattern before I realized while the sock would no longer fit around my thigh, it would certainly get past my fair size calf easily.  

I frogged again, poured myself a drink and got out the calculator to subtract 9 from 54.  You know it’s bad if I can’t do basic math off the top of my head.  Casted on 45-stitches, held my breath as I had to figure out a good ribbing repeat for 45 stitches.  (I always do 2×2 ribbing.)  Finally figured 3×2 would actually work, then had to pay attention to each stitch to make sure I remembered I was doing 3×2 ribbing instead of 2×2 because I tend to go into auto-pilot on the ribbing section.  I only made 3 mistakes with the ribbing.

At the moment, it’s working.  The yarn is finally playing nicely, says it likes the pattern and it’s not large enough to fit around a lighthouse.  Okay, so I’m a point slow listening to my yarn.  However, I did go into the yarn room and tell the skein of sock yarn for the next pair of Sock Summit socks that it better shut up, play nicely or I was feeding it to the moths.  It’s not saying anything at the moment.