Remember the socks I was talking about in my last post? Well, as you can see, the pair is complete.

These are kind of on the thick side; much thicker socks than I typically make. But on the positive side, I do like how the yarn turned out, other than the weight – the colors are great, and the yarn is squishy and springy.

I think my spinning goal for the year is to work towards spinning the perfect fingering weight yarn. Right now, I’m waiting to get this – ar superwash merino top – from Zarzuela’s Fibers – that’s going to be my next attempt.

Here’s what I’ve been knitting the past couple of evenings:

It’s the first sock of a pair I’m knitting for my husband from some yarn that I spun on my wheel, from a ‘Sheep to Shoe’ kit I got from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I’m going with a very basic pattern here – just a 1 x 1 rib, with a short row heel. It’s going really quickly because the yarn is quite a bit thicker than I would normally use for socks. I’d say it’s on the heavy side of DK, whereas I’d typically use fingering weight. They’re going to be too heavy to wear in shoes, so I told him that they be his ‘around the house’ socks. No matter – he seems to like them so far anyway.

For those of you who have tried the Socks that Rock® yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts®, you know how wonderful it is – fabulous colorways in a beautiful, squishy yarn. Well, because I wanted to see what it would take to spin a yarn like that, I bought their “Sheep 2 Shoe” kit a few weeks ago when they were having their year end sale. It came in the mail yesterday, and here’s what it looks like.

It’s 8.5 oz of superwash merino in the ‘Alina’ colorway. It reminds me of a tie-dyed t-shirt from the 60s!

The instructions that come with the fiber tell you to divide the fiber lengthwise into three continuous strips. The goal – if you want your yarn to turn out like the Socks that Rock yarn – is to spin three fine singles, about 22-24 wraps per inch using a worsted method, and then ply them together.

I don’t usually try to hit a particular wpi when I spin, but I’m going to this time. It should be a fun challenge. I’ll let you know how it turns out!