Beth Smith

beth@bethsmithtextiles.com

Progress…

I have a sock problem. I used to knit them. I made them for a few people who loved them. I made a few pairs for myself but they wore out. Fast. I am talking aobut a hole under the ball of my foot within 6 wearings. That is too fast for the amount of knitting that is involved. I am not a fast knitter. Socks take me at least 3 weeks to make a pair and then I get to wear them for a month or so and they are broken. I had made socks with a tight enough gauge that they would stand up on their own and they still got holes fast. I never have spun for a pair because that would make me even more crabby if they wore out that fast. I decided to just give it up.

When I taught at Stringtopia in April one of my students…I have no idea who (I’m so sorry)…told me that the reason my socks wear out so fast and in the area that they do is that I don’t make them wide enough to fit my wide foot. That I should put increases starting at the arch of my foot where it begins to widen. It sounded like a reasonable thing to do. When I left for North Carolina at the end of May I started a pair from some Blue Moon Fiber Arts,  Socks That Rock Lightweight. I seem to have a lot of StR because when I was in the sock club I didn’t knit any of them and I was in it for 3 years.  Anyway, I have finished the socks and am ready to begin the testing.

Wanna see a couple of pictures?

Cute right?

I just used the pattern I remember from before when I used to make socks.

Except I added 6 stitches in the middle of the bottom of the foot. I probably could have spread the increases over 10 rows instead of 5 to avoid the crazy bump but it’s not there when I put them on.

So now I will wear these socks and see how they last and I will report back.

Also, making progress on the Jacob sweater. I have spun all of the black and know I am going to run out so I washed another fleece. I am also going to spin some of the processed black Jacob and see what happens.

The 3 black balls of yarn is all I have left from the first fleece. The fleece after washing was just about 18 ounces so I expect this sweater is going to weigh about 24 ounces when it is finished. (Yes, that’s my bed. i work a lot in my bed.)

I’ve also been weaving. Yep. Lots of things are happening around here. Weaving info to come.

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