Time Warp Fiber

Sock yarn. Not a birthday money purchase. Mea Culpa. I love this yarn, and have two pairs of wonderful socks from it. But it's getting hard to find and the instinct to hoarde runs strongly in my bloodline. 

Just a quick post to show off this gorgeous yarn and send a thank you to the lady who sent it to me. A really dear friend from college, now living in Baltimore, got this at MDSW and sent it to me with a sweet card. I'm very touched. It's a little rough making friends in a brand new place, and this gift was like a hug. Thank you very much.

The yarn is from Kid Hollow farm, and it's a blend of nylon, mohair, and wool. I think it wants to be warm bootsocks for around this house and when I head to the mountains and other colder places.  

A gift from a dear friend who lives in Baltimore these days, she go this for me at MDSW.

Adding to the sock yarn stash, the scope of which I refuse to divulge. I've been more interested in patterned socks lately, so the solid sock yarn is good.

For those whose geography of NorCal is a little foggy, San Francisco is located on the point of the peninsula that defines the bay. Where I live, in San Jose, is in Silicon Valley, a bit south of the bay. The drive is about an hour, not prohibitive, but not quick either. It took us more than a month of living here to finally get up to the city. You may have noticed the background on my sweater shot below. My first trip to one of the coolest cities in the world seemed a good occasion to debut a sweater. Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. Even in March, off season, the place was filled with tourists. I'm sure it's worse in summer. The crowds thinned as we went down into the gardens and onto the trails for a bit of a photo shoot. It was a lovely day, sunny and probably about 60, with a cool wind coming off the bay. I was surprised by how much cooler it was in the city than it's been at home. I handed the camera to Butthead and took in the sights. The bay is so blue. I grew up on one of the Great Lakes, which is a murky green/brown most of the time. We puttered around and climbed about a hundred trail steps, and headed off to the city proper to visit ImagiKnit. I heard about this shop via The Panopticon back when butthead was first applying to jobs out west. I saw the photo of a yarn shop with a rainbow flag located adjacent to Castro and figured if the bay contained such a place, it was a good place to live. I mentioned this to Kim at the shop or Knit Night sometime, and right before we left, she presented me with a card saying there was a gc waiting there for me. Yup, she's awesome. So, we searched for parking for about 2 years and parked approximately 80 miles away. Ok, slight exaggeration, but it was uphill both ways, something I am convinced occurs only in San Francisco. We got there in the end, walking through a park with this view. Pretty impressive huh?

On to the yarn. Imagiknit is a gem. They have two large rooms packed floor to ceiling with an excellent and vast selection of yarn. There's a lot to sink in. Having worked in a shop the past three months, it was strange to be in another shop and to be a customer. I found myself wondering when as the last time I just looked through yarn for the joy of it. I've never been a real frequenter of shops, and when I do go I must make owners crazy, puttering around for a hour and finally purchasing a carefully-chosen few skeins. Minimal disposable income does not an avid shopper make. And working at a shop, I had to exercise tremendous restrain to stave off the yarn fumes that assailed me every day. But on this occasion, I had the opportunity to take it all in and relax. The staff were courteous ad not pushy. There were enough of them that I didn't have to hunt for one or wait a long time. The selection was tremendous, as I've said, and I had a hard time choosing. Butthead was very patient and entertain himself, petting a variety of cotton yarns in elephant colors. (you can tell what he's angling for in my next project.) With some help from the generous Miss Kim, here were my selections. First, a skein of Claudia Handpainted Silk lace yarn. It really looks like silver, with that soft mellow glow. And heaven to touch. I don't have much silk in my stash, but this was a treasure to good to pass up. I'll have to be a much better lace knitter before I work with this. Yarn this good demands a great deal of skill and an exceptional shawl pattern. My second purchase, egged on by one Butthead, was this gorgeous sock yarn. Panda Silk is a brand new line; I hadn't even heard of it yet. I'm working with some panda wool now (more on that later) and I have some panda cotton in the stash, earmarked for the MIL. The silk is good to round out the collection, and the color totally seduced me. Who doesn't need socks that are on fire?

Also, I wanted to thank everyone who's left comments in the past month or so. I was woefully unresponsive, due to my computer issues. But I very much appreciate your kind thoughts, and miss you all very much. 

The other stash addition from the trip to Imagiknit. Panda Silk is a brand new line, and I've liked working with Panda Wool, but it was the color that drew me to this. It's so gorgeous. I think my life needs fiery socks.

Bought from Imagiknit in San Fancisco, in March 2008, with some help from a gift certificate from the lovely Kim . I will need to be a much better lace knitter before I use this heavenly yarn, but I've heard it whispering about Victorian Lace Today. 

Dyed as roving on a field trip to Laura's studio, this was spun woolen relatively fine (my S17 doesn't do really fine at all). I made no attempt to pattern-ize the color, in neither dyeing nor spinning. Two-plied somewhat tightly. Finished by shock and strike. This yarn bloomed incredibly with finishing, about doubling in size. 

Dyed as roving in Laura's studio, I spun this into a thick and thin single and wet finished vigorously with some felting. The yarn was balanced, hanging totally straight when it was dry. 

I finished a pair of socks this week. Yesterday, in fact. But I can't show you because they're a Christmas (Solstice/Yule/Festivus) present. In fact, I believe they may be the only holiday gift made this year. I don't feel compelled to do anything more. I firmly believe knitting should be fun, and knitting into the wee hours to try to finish a project that you now regard with loathing is not so fun. Anyway, I've got commission work for that. Yes, it's going slowly. Yes, it's due very soon. No, I haven't been working on it the past few days.

I finished another sock though, and this one I can show you. This is the one I cast on for last saturday. Basic sock, round heel, my foot-shaped toes. Eye of the partridge heel, reinforcing thread to make it sturdy. But it also made the heel far less fun to knit.  I've been motivated to work on this because I've borrow the needles from Kim, and I'd like to show my appreciation by returning them in a timely fashion. I should borrow needles for all my projects, get things done and save a fortune too. 

Lots of socks, no?  I'm rather fond of knitting socks, good portability and rather quick. I can knit the basic ones while I read, which is what I've been doing a lot lately as Butthead works on his master's thesis. And I love wearing handknit socks. I realized not too long ago that I only have four pairs of my own, far too few. I had five but I seem to have lost my first pair.Long story short, I've been on a sock knitting jag. Which leads me to some recent purchases. I work at a yarn shop. I live in a vat of temptation, surrounded by yarn and various knitterly accessories. Moreover, I have a not-so-secret paranoia. I know many knitters who began in the eighties, when there was (gasp) no good sock yarn. I fear this. Socks wear out. I can't just knit a dozen pairs now and keep them forever. I'll need more. What if sock knitting gets uncool again and I can't find any sock yarn? I'll be condemned to a life of trolling ebay and store-bought socks. So I buy sock yarn. Not as much, I have recently discovered, as some, but I can't help it. It's reasonably priced as yarn goes, and has a ready made, functional purpose. And, should the dark days of no good sock yarn come again, I shall be prepared. (visual relief from ranting monotony provided by Trekking Pro Natura, C*eye*ber Fiber in Bar Harbour, and Laura 's Unique Sheep Sushi Socks in Autumn in the City.)