The Second Stash Exchange & The Color Yellow

I participated in another sock yarn exchange.  

This time we did a blind exchange.  As we entered we placed our donated yarn into a brown paper bag.  That was set aside as we had a wonderful lunch that Sue had prepared.  Karla brought dessert, a plum cake.

We adjourned to the living room and discussed our first blender project.  Socks were displayed.  Socks were touched.  Socks were tried on.

We are not all at the same place in our blended sock journey.  Karla had one sock completed.  Sue shared her pair.  And I showed both of mine.  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of all of them.

After a while, Sue retrieved the brown bag from hiding and we reached into the mystery.

I pulled a lovely ball of dark purples, greens and browns with a sparkle first.  It was right in my favorite palette of colors.  My next pull was purples and blues, still in my color palette.  The third ball was greens and blues, a yarn of spring colors.

Abby surrounded by the yarn from our second stash exchange.

 I stared at my stash for a long time.  This included the gifted mini-skeins from Karla.  Something seemed to be missing and I could not find it in my stash.  I messaged Karla with my plea for help.  She arrived at my door bearing more yarn gifts.  This time a bright yellow and a lighter purple and green yarn.

The improved second stash.  Note the big ball of yellow and the purple with no sparkle.  And take a look at Abby!  She has new "clothes."

I am still working on the socks from this stash.  

Start of the sock from the second stash exchange.

I am waiting until I am done before deciding whether or not I like them.  The lighting in my knitting den is not the best for color.   I did take them near a window and saw that they did not look as bad as I thought.

 While I travel this journey of color, I find myself working with colors I am not comfortable with, colors I have avoided for one reason or another.  Yellow is that color which is in this pair of socks.

Yellow is not one of my favorite colors.  Which is strange because my bedrooms curtains are flowers on a yellow background.  My quilt is yellow.

You have a favorite color, we all do.  But have you ever thought about that color, or colors, you do not care for, may even dislike?  What is it?  Leave a brief comment.

Thank you!

The Blender Sock Experiment Continues

Did you notice that my sock look a bit, well, um, big?  

At least, for my feet they are.  Then there is the problem of the owl cable.  Like any knitted cable there is not much stretch.  Let's just say it as it is, it narrows the leg.  You can see it in the photograph.

So left with the idea that no one would be able to wear the socks, I made a drastic decision to remove the owl cable.  So here's what I did:

First, I threaded in some lifelines.  The lifelines (I used crochet cotton thread for mine) keep the yarn from completely unraveling.  It acts as "stop raveling here" device.

 Next, I took the scissors to my owl cables.

Then, I carefully unraveled the beige yarn and threw it away.  It was on sale cheap when I bought it, so no worries there.  I grabbed the neutral autumnal yarn I had used in the foot and blendered it in.  That was followed by Flame thrower, the same yarn as the very top.

And after I grafted the new leg body to the cuff this is what I had:

You might be able to tell that they are a little long for my feet.  But now, when I find someone with longer feet, they will be able to get their foot into the sock.

I finally decided to declare the socks done.  Recently, while looking at them, I realized that one cuff was inside out.  I decided I could live with it.

This is not the end of the blender sock adventure.  I blended another sock, this time using yarns from my own stash and a pattern I knew fit my feet.  But that's a tale for another time.