In my previous post, I wrote about an absolutely beautiful yarn that I thought was too pretty to knit with, only to discover that knitting with it was a sweet pain in the rump! Motivated by this revelation, I went deep into my stash to call out the next unicorn, and I found it. This is a skein of Artyarns Ensemble Light
From the Artyarns website:
“A delectable combination of 1 ply silk and 1 ply cashmere with a slight twist where each of the two side-by-side strands take to the dye differently, and is ideal for a variety of knitted garments. DK weight.”
Good grief…another double-stranded yarn. I would have never had reservations about this had I not knit that dang beaded silk. And after reading the article from Tin Can Knits on knitting with two strands held together, I am not feeling confident. Will this be another case of two yarns jockeying for attention at different gauges? Am I a glutton for punishment? For me, the process of knitting is as important as (if not more important than) the final product. Is the juice really worth the squeeze? I am about to find out. Stay tuned intrepid reader.
I wrote about The Yarn Harlot’s Self-Imposed Sock Club over here. Shortly after I published that post, I heard from Patti @ Knitting In Flashes who enthusiastically jumped on my one-woman bandwagon. Together, beginning in January 2027, we will host our own Sock Club. I was so energized by this. I went right to the stash, pulled out all my sock yarn-full skeins and bits, and began making my kits. This was no stroll.
Here are my take-aways:.
Organize my yarn. Finding sock yarn is easier when it is with other sock yarn. Duh.
Record my stash. In Ravelry or some other database. I think I will remember the name, colorway and composition of that partial skein until the end of time, but I don’t
Organize my patterns. Would it kill ya, girl, to have some method to your madness? Would it?
Let go! They don’t make brown bags like they used to! ::Spoken with authority, whilst wagging my finger at the air:: Srrsly…every bag was glued to itself leaving holes when I tried to open them. What’s this world coming to?
Here is what hours of sorting and packing resulted in:
There are 14 bags with yarn and a pattern inside.
If you have an abundance of sock yarn in your stash, consider joining me and Patti. This is gonna be fun, y’all!
While we are on the topic of socks…
Here’s a “Oh Regina…did that really happen” moment.
I named these socks Shawshank after my little brown dog. Does that surprise you? I didn’t think so.
(Fear not, they have been washed, eliminating all the drool)
The contrasting heel and toes are knit with the leftovers from Carmela’s mismatched socks.
Within hours of bringing this yarn home, Melody found it and eviscerated it. She is a guarder so by the time I had her distracted with treats, it went from a beautiful cake of wool to tangled soggy mess. Took me an hour to sort things out and wind it up into four balls.
I know what you’re thinking. The socks look alright after such an unfortunate start. Indeed they do, but the drama continued right to the end. It was late at night. The lighting was poor. I was tired. But I was determined to finish these socks and in my haste, I made a big mistake. As I was snipping the yarn after weaving in the final ends, I accidentally cut right into the sock itself. I had to rip out 40 rows of knitting-that’s half of the foot, excluding the toe. I just sat there with my eyes closed, unable to believe it. Thankfully I love to knit and this was an enjoyable project. I took a deep breath, and started picking up stitches. Once again, those bulb shaped stitch markers saved my hide. I was able to finish them the next day and was sure to make the final cut in a well lit room.
I was chatting with Linda over at Queen Bee Knits about how important it is to share our wins and losses equally. For me, it counters the inner voice that says “it has to be perfect, Regina.” It is refreshing to see real content rather than AI enhanced images, and it provides an opportunity for us to share and learn from one another. It has been my experience with the people I meet here on Cosmicknitter that you all have a great capacity for caring and I have never, in the 20 years here, read a single critical comment. A loss only remains a loss if we don’t learn from it, right? There is tremendous personal growth involved when we patiently navigate our journey’s twists and turn-arounds and come out the other side intact!
Thank you all for stopping by! Be sure to share your latest mishaps in the comments.
Look at this beautiful tea cup. It was given to me by my aunt who is 103 years old. My sister and I went down for a visit and she wanted us to have something of hers. Tea tastes particularly special in this cup. xoxo
In my ears: Sunday football! Go Steelers and Packers!
Saint of the Day: The Four Crowned Martyrs (Saints Claudius, Castorius, Symphorian, Nicostratus, and Simplicius, alongside a group of Roman soldiers): They were 4th-century stonemasons and sculptors martyred under Emperor Diocletian for refusing to carve pagan idols; St. Castorius is recognized as the patron saint of sculptors.
