The sock harvest of 2020

I just found this picture in my phone... Obviously made with the intention of showing you, whixh I never did... until now.

It does seems I did knit my share of socks... Its not an inordinately large amount, but still.. considering that we travelled a lot less than we used to...

Most of them are made either from yarns leftover from projects, or with bits and pieces of sockyarns I picked up in second hand shops...
 

Silk and linen... black and red

For the last few days I was thinking to show you pictures of our weekend walks and talk a little about what I think about our current situation... But then work happened, and when I finished it (no, not really, but now at least I can breath), and then I finally had a good night sleep, the sun came out, so I thought I would push and chew on those thoughts a little more, and rather show you another shawl I wove at Ágis Workhop a few weeks ago.

I spun these yarns some years ago. 

The darker one was a Specialty Blend from World of Wool, I might have mentioned that I am such a sucker for linen. I love linen clothes, I love sewing linen, I love to weave with linen, and if some yarn has linen fiber in it I want it. Don't know why, probably something got caught up in my mind, from when I lived in Miami, who knows. 

So there was this fiber blend that had merino and linen, and black, white and RED in it, so it was pretty obvious, I want to spin it. Originally I had the idea of weaving it in a black warp, which I had the idea of weaving it in a black warp, which I thought would take it toward the darker side, and will look good with a bit thicker, more rustic red silk contrast yarn.

However I never got around to do that, Teri's workshop (that had the loom with the black warp) closed, things happened, and I wasn't thinking about weaving that much...

But while working on rearranging the flat (no, it is still not done), from time to time it found its way into my hands. I started wanting to weave again, but the the Plague came, workshops closed, opened, then closed again, and I did not managed to weave it.... 

Until Ági opened her workshop and there was that RED warp. I did weave a red shawl in it pretty soon after opening, just as a warm up (if weaving 3,5 meters of linen twill wasn't warming up enough), but I felt it was not enough. (Can a silverheaded woman has enough red shawls?)

And the package with the two hanks of handspun yarn somehow found its way to my hands again, and I though, what if intsead of taking it toward the black I would tip it toward the red? 

Thoughts were followed by action, and there I was at the "Squirrel" again throwing the shuttle from left to right, from right to left. 

Technically it wasn't challenging, once again, the handpsun yarn, that is mostly so thin like a thread was left to speak for itself. 

The mix of the three colors, the two very differently structured fiber kept me entertained and then throwing the extra lines from silk, just the rythm, and order I so need from weaving. 

I do love this shawl and will wear it happily. 

But in retrospect, in all honesty I am not sure, the red warp did not overwhelmed the yarn. Wouldn't have a black warp emphasize more the contast between the red and the black?

This is something I can only know, if I could weave the same yarn again, in a black warp... Which I might just do. Sometimes. 

The fiber is still available from the WoW (though they do not ship to the EU at the moment), so nothing keeps me spinning another hank and try it in a black warp, once that will be available in some of the workshops that keep popping up in the city. 

And here is the place for the same obligatory swooning about weaving from handspun yarn, but I did that in my last weaving post, go and read that, LOL. Let's just say, I am afraid there will be some time before I got bored of it. 

I did the "contrast" (umm, or is it "only" the decorating?) lines of real red silk yarn in differenty rythm, they followed each other more closely at the edges of the shawl, and further away in the middle of it, which I would keep, would I be weaving the same thing in a black warp. 

When I was talking about my plans for this shawl with Ági, she mentioned (okay, was trying to convince me), thet I could (should???) do some small picked pattern on the decorating stripes, but I ended up not doing it.

Partly because of time restraints (this one of the reasons I want my own loom), I wanted to finish the shawl in one day, and I still wasn't feeling confident enough.

Also, because I had the feeling that there is something about the simplity of it, that aside letting the handspun yarn shine, also will be enchanting for me. 

And it was. NOT that I do not want to try it, or will not go back and ask Ági to teach me, but for now, I needed this simple thing.

And let me just say, no, I am no way finished with that red warp... Not by a long shot. 

Workshop: MintaMókus

Yarn: my own handspun

Fiber: World of Wool

Workshop photos: my phone

Photo: Norbert Varga

Oopsie

OOpsie, when two years ago I just managed to finish my new year's sweater right before March, I thought, how slow I am, if  I'd knit it any slower it would be frogging (the fastest one I made in like three days or so), and now we are getting close to the end of March, and I am nowhere newar finishing it. At the moment I am not even sure its going to fit, but then nobody ever told me to try to knit a bottom up design top down. At least it is fair isle, and at least made of sock yarn. 

Rainbow

Back in december, in the darkest days of the winter, I needed light and color...

For the longest time, I wante dto make rainbow colored socks... And then, Lana Grossa's rainbow colored wool/ soja sock yarn popped up in Müller...

As usual, I wanted the colors take a lead, so the sock itself is rather plain, toe up, the only change from my usual one, was that instead of short row toes, I started at the very end, in order not to break teh color sequence. 

I have not even finished I finished the socks, when I decided I need mittens, maybe even more than socks, so I went back for more yarn.

And these are also my standard top down mittens, starting from the fingers, and going from there. 

 Yarn: Lana Grossa Soya

Needles: Knit Pro Zing, 2 mm

Photos: Noebert Varga

Turqoise stripes

Do you remember when I spun these yarns in January? 

Not long after, I went to Ági's workshop, and wove them. 

As I said in the post about the yarn, the plan was to weave some fabric, from which I want to sew something. 

Ági usually says that the loom that had the petrol warp is for persons, who are taller than 165 cm, and I am only between somewhwere 163 and 164, so I only scratch the limit from under, even so officially 164, but probably because that seemed like a "standard" height, most Burda patterns are made for that height too).

Anyhow, I am somewhat smaller than suggested it does take an effort for me to weave on that loom, I do have to pull the loom on me, and admittedly, by the end of the day my back hurt like hell. 

I did managed to weave a piece that is somewhat longer than 3 meters of about 60 cm wide,  so it could be enough for a lot of things. 

I have not really decided what to make out of it. I do have a couple of things in my mind, something modern, lagenlook-ish, or something historically inspired, like an 18th century jacket or caracao, that cut on the bias to play with the stripes. 

At the very end I tried to use up all my yarn and added a some length with a slightly different rythm, thinking it would look good as a collar, maybe a pocket, or something. 

The stripe sequence pretty simple, as I had just about the same amount from the two corriedale, and a lot less from the silk, so there was a dark stripe, a thin one, and then only a narrow line (two "rows") from the silk. 

I think, this is the time, where I usually way poetic about weaving with handspun yarn... And this time will be no different. 

Just look at it closely. Click in the picture and enlarge it. 

I mean LOOK at it. If you do, you will see, that no two line of thread is exactly the same. 

One could be every so slightly thicker, the other might have ever so slightly more twist. Or I turned the roving / top while spinning in a way that more shiny fiber got into the yarn. Or...or... these tiny-tiny differences never cease to enchant me.

Still, the woven fabric is even and somehow unified, not to mention absolutely unique. Since the yarns were spun from corriedale fiber, it is not as soft as a merino could be, but, one, I am not *that* sensitive to wool, and second I did not mean to use it next to the skin.

 The loose threads were fixed... now, for this I whined about three weeks that even though I spent the last year rearranging my flat in order to have a sewing room, I still cannot get close to my sewing machines, then spent half a day or so putting things aways, taking stuff out -including a couple of rounds to the redcross containers-, etc, to get to the sewing machine, spent a couple of hours to get my industrial double needle into woeking order (at the moment it is uttrely hopeless to get that close to my trusty Neumann), then I spent about two minutes running through those ends with a zig-zag stich.

 I washed and ironed, and the wool softened a little bit...never mind the creases, It spent a day in a bag, while we took to have the photos shot, I will iron them again, before cutting it... if I ever figure out what to make out... It may take the while, but when I do, I will be back to pull yet another skin, umm post of this project. 

If you would like to spead up this process and / or you have any idea or suggestion about what t make out of it, well, don't jold back. The owner of the best idea may even get a small present from me. 

Workshop photos: Ágnes Dénes

Other photos: Norbert Varga. 

Fiber: World of Wool