My First Handspun Yarn

Tra la la! This is my first handspun yarn, spun on my new ladybug spinning wheel which arrived last Monday. I have named my wheel Charlotte, and I love her. My yarn may not be perfect, but it does resemble yarn, so I'm happy. I haven't any idea how much there is or what to do with it, but right now I just want to look at it and pet it. I can see this is going to be a new obsession, and I can't wait to go to The Black Sheep Gathering next weekend to soak in the fibery goodness, watch experienced spinners at work, and stock up on fiber to spin! This is spun from some inexpensive corriedale roving I bought at a LYS. I can't wait to get more practice in!

Perhaps a little forethought next time...

This is my first "non-vanilla" sock. I'm trying 3 new things with this one: broken rib stitch pattern, knit on 2 circs (previously I have used dpns), and an afterthought heel.

We won't even talk about the first frogging incident, which was due to thinking I was too cool to knit a gauge swatch.

Anyhoo, after realizing I was getting 8 stitches per inch, I cast on 68 and happily knit away, the cuff and the leg were without incident. I knit in my waste yarn where I would insert my afterthought heel, and then consulted my beginner sock book to see what was next. "Continue in pattern straight to the toe" it said. Awesome. Feeling quite smug about how neat and non-stripe-disruptive my afterthought heel was going to look and how clever I am for thinking of doing it this way, I knit 8" from the waste yarn and started decreasing for the toe. I have to admit, it looked a bit long, but I didn't dwell on it. Something told me not to close the toe until after I completed the heel. In fact, the more that I thought about it, that heel was probably going to add some length to the foot... yes, it seems so obvious now. Sure enough, after finishing my smug little stripey heel, I tried on my sock and it was a good 2" too long for even my size 10 feet...Suddenly not feeling like quite as much of a sock rock star I practiced my unknitting skills for what I'm sure will not be the last time.

The good news is it fits like a dream, I love it, and I can't wait to show that second sock who is boss!