Polar Opposite Socks Project – Step 5
by Pegg Thomas

It is time for more decisions.  I know I want this project to be a pair of Christmas socks, so I also want them warm and toasty.  Where we live, Christmas means plenty of cold and snowy days!  I’ll spin a sport weight yarn.  There are many sock patterns out there that use sport weight yarn.  I’ve decided to use one of my own patterns, Toes First Socks, for this project.  I may even knit up the cable front variation.  It would add a little bit of ‘fancy’ to my new socks.  (For anyone following along with this project, use any sock pattern you like.  I like the idea of a short row heel, but any heel technique should be fine.)
9
When it comes to socks, I spin and ply for a 2 ply yarn.  I’ve done 3 ply as well, but have found that 2 ply works just fine.  I’ve never knitted a sock with a single ply yarn.  With the tough wear and tear socks take, I’m just not comfortable with it.  I’m very hard on my socks, both homemade and store bought, and I don’t want to put this much time and energy into making socks that wear out quickly.

With that decided, it’s time to start spinning!  I’m using that “nasty old Hamp” wool so I’ll need to spin it very fine.  Hamp wool, being a down breed, likes to puff up after spinning.  So I’ll need to spin it finer than I would a different type of wool.  Because this wool is also rather short stapled, I’m going to spin it a little tighter and ply it a little tighter to increase the strength of the yarn.

After humming and hawing a bit about how to spin up these beautiful balls of roving, I decided to spin each one completely separate and ply the resulting single back on itself.  This will allow each individual color change to be controlled in the knitting stage.  My Majacraft Suzie spinning wheel and six bobbins are all I needed to complete this step.  

10 And don’t the resulting skeins of yarn look grand?!  Each skein is 1 oz and the average length is 63 yards pre-washing.  From right to left the skeins are:
100% red
20% green
40% green
60% green
80% green
100% green.
Because there is no 50/50 skein, there shouldn’t be any place on the socks where they exactly match in the end.  It’s time to warm up the knitting needles and see how these socks turn out.

On to step 6!

All articles are copyright protected and may not be copied for any use without the author's written permission.

Home Page
Cross Stitch Page
Knitting Patterns Page
The Sheep
The Article Library