Sunday, March 30, 2008

Dems ma calves

Last time, I hinted at the question to which the answer is, about 15 inches.

This is a question that has been haunting me for a while:

How much basic sock can you get out of your average amount of sock yarn? Sock yarn generally comes in 100g skeins of approximately, or slightly more than, 400 yards. Sometimes you have to buy it in 50g skeins of approximately, or slightly more than, 200 yards. The notable exceptions being rebels such as Colinette Jitterbug and Koigu, who shortchange you on the yardage, but we forgive them, especially the Koigu.

So, I set out to knit a pair of toe-up stockinette socks with 1 skein each of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and I knit until I couldna knit nae more (that's my fake scottish for ya).

DSC00910.jpg

Turns out, 215 yards of fingering weight yarn will get you quite a lot of sock, even on a tallish, big calfish gal such as myself. For someone short or with skinny legs, I'm betting you could get a good pair of knee socks out of two skeins of this stuff no problem.

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See? It's about 15 inches from ankle to cuff (of course, your mileage will vary based on gauge, pattern, and yarn). Now that's alotta sock!

Pattern: Basically following Ann Budd's On your Toes socks from IK Summer 2007
Mods: Used magic cast-on instead of Eastern, and stockinette instead of ribbing
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Happy Stripe (happy indeed!)
Needles: US 1.5 DPNs
Verdict: I love lorna's laces. This yarn is so squishy and nice, and a pleasure to knit with. My other lorna's laces socks have also held up remarkably well.
Drawbacks: They end at the fattest part of my calf, so they don't stay up so good. If I ever get around to it, I might put some elastic in there.

More pics:
Feet:
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Toes:
DSC00912.jpg

I'll spare you a close-up of my calves.

Cuff:
DSC00917.jpg

Thursday, March 27, 2008

For reals this time

I think I'm feeling intimidated by the fact that I have such a backlog of FOs to photograph. But instead of being all wishy washy, I should just get off my ass and show y'all something, right?
Right.

Knucks!
Two knucks

Yarn: Alpaca/silk, handspun by J's mom.
Needles: size 3
Made: in like, January I think.
Usage: tons
Pleasure at having warm hands but usable fingers: loads
Times a pen got wrapped in the gloves' fuzz when trying to write with Knucks on: about a million.

Me hand:
Knucks

Twisty ribby:
Ribbed cuff

These are my knuckles:
Knucks knuckles

Next time, the age old question to which the answer is, about 15 inches (no pervvies, I'm not THAT lucky a young bride! Actually, that sounds pretty unlucky)
15" mystery