I'm in the middle of knitting my first pair of socks ever. What makes it doubly challenging/frustrating/rewarding is that I am making it from yarn that I hand spun (not with a wheel) with wool from our sheep (although I didn't shear the sheep myself). The progress thus far:
I turned the heel last night, which as any knitter knows, is probably one of the most feared of all knitting techniques. This is why, after 15 years of knitting, I have not yet knit a pair of socks...until now. With the advent of YouTube, where one can actually watch a video of someone turning a heel (and rewatch over and over again), it becomes a little bit easier. I am not working from a pattern for these socks as I couldn't easily determine the weight of the wool, and it's not really consistent in size either. So I'm using a general guideline that I found here and I'm supplementing with other information I find on the web. It's also taking a considerable amount of problem solving and looking at how socks are actually put together (yes,my darling husband, I really am being productive when I stare down at the woolies on my feet for five minutes at a time).
In other news, I am working on my hand-spinning technique and can actually create yarns with different weights. I also went to my first spinners meeting this past week. This is not the bicycle, exercise kind of spinning, although that would also be a good use of my time, but the old-fashioned wool spinning. About 20 women of all ages and background came together with their wheels and shared what they had made in the course of the past month. Some of the creations were truly fantastic including felted hats and cabled throws. I brought my broken-down $40 garage sale salvaged wheel which looked pretty funny compared to all of the newer wheels. Below is a picture of my wheel.
This is basically considered a "clunker" now, as the newer models looks something like this. Oh well. The woman who runs the spinning group took a look at the wheel and determined that it may actually have been made for decorative purposes only as the tensioner at the left end isn't actually functional. Now, who would go through all the trouble to reproduce a wheel with all the working parts except one? She offered to take it home and try to fix it, and for that I am grateful. So I continue to hand-spin and knit away, and the snowflakes continue to fall.
We haven't been hit nearly as hard as the folks on the East Coast. But we are all preparing for another storm (or two) this upcoming week. Along that vein, my darling husband, Bud and I have moved all of our wood inside and had the oil company fill our backup oil tank. We also have taken stock of our freezer. We have no shortage of meat, but the green vegetables from the summer garden are dwindling quickly. We may have 5 quarts of green beans left, and a smattering of corn, carrots and peas. Bud ate the last of the apple sauce last night. As usual, we have a plethora of potatoes and there is still some winter squash, although it's certainly not in prime condition. If we get desperate, we could try the beets I froze two years ago, or the frozen kale. We also have several quarts of homemade chili that my darling husband made a couple weeks ago. 100 days until the asparagus comes up, and possibly sooner for the lettuce (depending on if I get the coldframe up in time).
Stay warm this week!
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