RIP Cashmere Socks

Well, this is a milestone. I've never had to throw away a pair of handknit socks before. Can't say I like this feeling.

I can't remember exactly when I finished them, but I want to say it was about last fall. So they're babies compared to some of my other socks, which are going on three years old and show virtually no signs of wear. Regia. Swear to God, that stuff is fortified with iron.

So here's the story. I knit those socks out of Jojoland cashmere blend picked up for a song at Stitches Midwest last year. Cashmere socks? Love it! The first time I washed them (in the machine, then in the dryer, while in a lingerie bag, which is about as much babying as I ever give my socks), they felted ever so slightly. Not enough to interfere with the stretch in the fabric, but enough so that I thought I ought to be more careful with these.

They're among my favorite socks for comfort and warmth, right up there with the Dale Baby Ull and the Cherry Tree Hill. I tended to wear them as soon as they were washed and dried. My only concession to their tenderness was to let them dry flat -- I still put them through the washer in the lingerie bag, and there was no further felting, and I bet I washed them like that three times a month for probably eight months. I thought they would be fine.

Until....

I washed them yesterday and pulled them out of the lingerie bag to dry, and felt my heart turn to lead. They had felted, this time for real. While they were still wet, I pulled and tugged on them to try to break up the felting. I put them on my feet -- still wet -- thinking they could block around my feet and loosen up some. It was a struggle to get them on. It hurt my toes to walk in them. They seemed to tighten up as they dried.

I literally had to cut them off.

(cry)

Bye-bye, cashmere socks! Oh, how I loved you! You were too young to die!

Something Old, Something Blue

Here's the Jojoland Merino-Cashmere sock in progress. This yarn was purchased at Stitches Midwest for the insane bargain price of $6 a ball. At that price, I figured I should buy enough in every colorway to make a pair of socks (or anklets, in the case of the lone ball of pink-red-fuschia). And if the colorway doesn't satisfy, I can always dye them black.

I'm kind of wishing I'd bought enough to make a sweater. A nice, close-to-the-skin, cloudsoft turtleneck. I don't know how this stuff will hold up as socks, but I can tell you it feels like a dream when you're knitting it.

This is my carry-around sock right now. I'm not doing a whole lot of sock knitting right now this week because I am sick of socks. I am so sick of socks after knitting nothing but socks for two months that I literally can't stand to work the double points anymore. Even at stitch and bitch Wednesday, with my much-beloved STR -- a yarn which has the power to instantly drain my wallet and max out my credit cards -- I kept setting the needles down and just looking around.

I never put my needles down at SnB. Things have reached a pretty pass if I'm not knitting at knitting group!

So I started something new to try to counteract the sock doldrums. It started off innocently enough. I'll just make a gauge swatch, sez I, so I'm ready to hit the ground running when the Persuasion KAL starts.

Of course, once you get gauge, who can resist the urge to cast on?















This is the beginning of Butterfly, a Katie Himmelberg pattern out of the Spring 2007 Knitscene. I belong to the Jane Austen readers group on Ravelry, and we've decided to read Persuasion together and knit something a lady or an officer might wear. My first thought was to knit a red horseshoe lace duster with a sailor collar -- red coat, get it? I've had the yarn stashed for a year now and haven't even swatched it yet.

But then I realized...Fulmar. I've already got one very large knitting project on the calendar for this fall. Everything else should be simple, a pressure valve when I need mindless knitting and a break from the complexity of that very complex Starmore pattern.

So, Butterfly it is.

Butterfly is a simple short-sleeved shirt with an empire waist, a V-neck with a small 3-button placket, and sleeves that look like cap sleeves but are actually just the drops from the wide shoulders. It's a clean, simple, easy piece with Regency-inspired shaping. I think Jane would like it very much indeed.

This pattern has made me do math -- ick! ptooey! -- including calculating square inches and redrawing pattern lines to accommodate the yarn I have. The pattern calls for an amount of yarn which is clearly hypothetical. grumble, grumble....

Details on my adventures with the calculater will follow.