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.

All That Yarn Around Abby Scroni

Abby Scroni surrounded by yarn.

I posted this picture at the end of my last entry and promised to tell you what I made of the yarn.

First, let me tell you about how I came into possession of this collection of yarn.

I am participating in a yarn exchange with three friends:  Karla, Karen, and Sue.

The idea is that we each contribute yarn to each other and make socks using the Blender Method.  For a detailed description of the Blender Sock Method please check out Blender Socks on Ravelry.

In short, the Blender Method is a way of combining colors to make the transition between seem natural.  this is done by alternating rows of different yarns in a specified sequence.

We met at a local coffee shop and were suppose to bring four balls of yarn, each of about 100 yards.  Being overachievers and conscious of others opinions, we brought 12 + balls each to the table.  There was no lack of yarn that day.

We each worried about what the others would think.  Would they like our yarns?  What is they didn't like what we each chose to bring?

Such angst was needless.

We were all excited to see and touch the yarn, to talk and explore color and technique, that it didn't matter what we brought.  We found joy in talking with someone who knitted and loved yarn.

Only three of us could meet, as Karen is participating via long distance.  We bundled up our contributions to her and waited for her contributions to us to arrive.  No one wanted to start knitting until they had all their yarn at hand.

Now as for my yarn choices which you can see surrounding Abby Scroni....

I tend to gravitate towards purples, greens and blues.  And I can honestly say that I do not pick solid colors.  I like multi-colored yarn; the more colors, the merrier.

The yarns I chose are not on my usual color palette.

From Sue, I picked the big cake of yarn you see to right of Abby.  It has an autumnal feel, with its reddish browns and beige.  It has a sparkly thread running through it and that is what grabbed my attention at first.  Also from Sue comes the orange and black yarn (to the left of Abby) that is in my high school colors.  Go Bobcats!

From Karla, I just held out my hand and closed my eyes.  "Just put something in my hand," I said.  She placed two mini-skeins in a lovely cashmere blend turquoise.

Karen, our long distant knitter, package up our yarn in little baggies and sent me the blazing orange/red/yellow yarn that's directly in front of Abby.  It's a lace weight yarn, thinner than than fingering weight normally used for socks.  Also, that bluesy ball of yarn sitting behind the orange and black.  This was regular fingering weight.

And believe it or not, all those colors, along with a beige I had in my stash, appeared in my first pair of Blender Socks.

This is more of a sampler sock.
I am working on a second pair of Blender Socks that are different from this one.

Let's get a little technical about this sock.  If this sounds boring to you, just go on about your day.  You really need to learn how to knit.

I started with a star toe in Karen's bluesy yarn.  This was blendered with Sue sparkly autumnal yarn.  Then Sue's orange and black was followed by more of the autumnal mix.  Then for the modified eye of partridge heel I used Karen's bluesy yarn again.  Then the orange and black was blendered in on the leg.  The beige part is an owl cable motif.  On top of that is the turquoise  in a sort of broken ribbing followed by the flaming frill of the yarn we have come to call Flame Thrower.

As any knitter will tell you, that it not a technical explanation of my sock.  And yes, there is a matched mate to it.  If you want something approaching a pattern, please let me know.  I will gladly share with you what I can.

This post is getting long so I will wait until next time to tell you about the trials and tribulations of knitting these socks.