I have been knitting a lot of socks recently.
I have been knitting the stash of 6-strand cable yarns, and yes I like it better than most of what is in the LYS.
I like long wool for socks and that is simply non-negotiable. (Except maybe sleep socks for my wife.)
For some uses, I like 6- strand cable construction. For some uses I like 6- ply construction. It is no longer worth my time to knit socks from 2 and 3-ply yarns. Let me restate that: It is no longer worth my time to knit most objects from 2 and 3-ply yarns. It better for me to spend a little more time doing it better the first time, than spinning and knitting twice. It is a better use of my time to just spin the right yarn the first time.
These days, my sock needles are 8" hollow stainless steel with blunt tips. These are very flexible and range from 1.5 mm to 2.1mm roughly corresponding to UK sizes 13, 14, 15, and 16.
The other side of that is that yarns with finer plies and strands are more flexible and can be knit on finer needles with less effort. Hiking socks are being knit from worsted-weight, 6-strand cable on 2.1 mm, blunt tipped, hollow, 8" stainless steel needles. These needles are more flexible than the spring steel needles that I made in the past. The bluntness works with the rather loose cable ply to reduce the problems of splitty yarn, but bluntness does make fancy stitches and reductions more difficult.
Some here question the quality of my fabrics. However, the other day I was sitting, knitting, and waiting for my wife in a Neiman Marcus store, and one the clerks told the Head of Alterations that I was there. The Manager had her entire alterations team come upstairs to meet me, and see the kind of knitting that I was doing and the tools I was using -- and that was just a portable sock project -- nothing special.
I have been knitting the stash of 6-strand cable yarns, and yes I like it better than most of what is in the LYS.
I like long wool for socks and that is simply non-negotiable. (Except maybe sleep socks for my wife.)
For some uses, I like 6- strand cable construction. For some uses I like 6- ply construction. It is no longer worth my time to knit socks from 2 and 3-ply yarns. Let me restate that: It is no longer worth my time to knit most objects from 2 and 3-ply yarns. It better for me to spend a little more time doing it better the first time, than spinning and knitting twice. It is a better use of my time to just spin the right yarn the first time.
These days, my sock needles are 8" hollow stainless steel with blunt tips. These are very flexible and range from 1.5 mm to 2.1mm roughly corresponding to UK sizes 13, 14, 15, and 16.
The other side of that is that yarns with finer plies and strands are more flexible and can be knit on finer needles with less effort. Hiking socks are being knit from worsted-weight, 6-strand cable on 2.1 mm, blunt tipped, hollow, 8" stainless steel needles. These needles are more flexible than the spring steel needles that I made in the past. The bluntness works with the rather loose cable ply to reduce the problems of splitty yarn, but bluntness does make fancy stitches and reductions more difficult.
Some here question the quality of my fabrics. However, the other day I was sitting, knitting, and waiting for my wife in a Neiman Marcus store, and one the clerks told the Head of Alterations that I was there. The Manager had her entire alterations team come upstairs to meet me, and see the kind of knitting that I was doing and the tools I was using -- and that was just a portable sock project -- nothing special.
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1 comment:
You're the greatest, Aaron. Ignore the haters.
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