So this is what no car payment looks like.

I used to drive a black and white Mini Cooper. It was cute, it was zippy, and it was perfect for city living. But I don’t live in the city any more. And I always said I wouldn’t have that car if there was’t a service center nearby, so it was time to move on.*

So, last week, I sold the Coop’ and set out to buy a Jeep Cherokee. I’ve wanted a Jeep Cherokee since I was in high school, and it just so happens that you can pick one up (a Jeep Cherokee from when I was in high school, that is) for about the same price as I had positive equity in my car.

As of this weekend, this is my ride:

It met all of our criteria but one: the color. Now, before you tell me it’s not that bad and you actually kind of like it, bear in mind two things. One, I have always always always had black cars, so this is extremely bright to my eyes. Two, that’s easy for you to say; you don’t have to drive it.

I think it’s already seeping into my subconscious, though.

* And, honestly, I found the service center was a pain to deal with even when it was nearby. My last visit was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

ISO the perfect handspun sock yarn

I learned to knit socks about a year ago, and in that year I've managed to knit over 25 pairs of socks. So, naturally, when I picket out and received a spinning wheel, my first priority was to learn to spin yarn for socks.

My first attempt was a Navajo-ply. I split the roving in two, and by the second half, I was really cooking with gas. It resulted in some nice stripy socks.

For my next pair, I did a traditional 3-ply. I tried to spin strips at random to break up any striping. The result was a tweedy-looking sock with subtle stripes.

Both successes. But then I got to thinking, a lot of my favorite commercial sock yarns are 2-ply, so why am I focusing so much on 3-ply sock yarns?

Next up, 2-ply merino sock. The roving was merino from Enchanted Knoll Farms on Etsy, in the Fortune Teller colorway. The roving was slightly felted, which made it difficult to draft in places, resulting in a less uniform yarn than I would like, but it is so bouncy and squishy; I love it.

Then the Yarn Harlot wrote about a 4-ply cabled sock yarn, and of course I had to try that, too. I pulled out some superwash merino I had dyed, and I think it came out looking a lot like denim.

The difference between the finished 2-ply and the 4-ply cabled yarns is night and day.

For one thing, the 2-ply was much quicker and easier to make. Two singles, plied once. The 4-ply cabled yarn was much more involved. Four laceweight singles, plied three times.

The color interplay is also worth noting. The 2-ply should look somewhat stripy when knit up, whereas the 4-ply is all tweedy and marled.

The yardage also came out drastically different. I don't remember the yardage for my 3-ply yarns, but it was at least 350+. Enough for plain socks with some left over. The 2-ply yielded about 400 yards. The 4-ply cabled yarn? 278 yards. And you can see in the photo it's a little thinner overall than the 2-ply, too. I was *so* disappointed.

I agonized over what to do about this. Normally, if I thought I would run short of sock yarn, I'd do contrasting heels and toes. But the whole point of a cabled sock yarn is strength, so it would be pretty pointless to spend all that time spinning a super sock yarn and then use a commercial yarn for the places that would see the most wear. I had just about decided to dye up a couple of ounces in a contrasting color when my husband suggested that I just knit as much as I can with what I have (the yarn is intended for socks for him). I guess that's what I'll do.

I'll continue this discussion once I have socks knit out of these last two yarns, and probably again after a while when we've had a chance to see how they're all wearing.

In the meantime, I think I'll stick to the 2- and 3-plies. I haven't had a pair of socks wear through yet, so I think I will avoid the extra work and extra fiber required for the 4-ply cabled for the near future.

Surprised?

Bet you didn't expect to see this:

I started it back in November, but had gauge issues and had to start over after knitting the body and one sleeve, and then the dog ate my yarn, but I've been slowly persevering since then. It just turns out that plain stockinette doesn't make good blog fodder, and then when I got to the yoke, it was like reading the last 100 pages of a good book and I couldn't put it down until it was done.

Specs:
Elizabeth Zimmermann's Fair Isle Yoke Sweater (Henley Neck Variation) from Knitting Around
Jamieson & Smith Shetland 2-ply Jumper Weight yarn
US 4 needles (US3s for the hem facings, which, by the way, are orange)

I followed the pattern almost exactly, no added waist shaping or anything. I don't think the sweater needs it at this gauge, and I didn't want it to hug my curves too snugly. The only thing I did a little differently was to use the updated, more subtle, decreases from the non-Henley variation to avoid puckering at the decrease rounds.

The yoke background would have been all in brown, as per the charts, but I was afraid of running out of the brown yarn. I considered trying to get another skein in the same dye lot from Schoolhouse Press, but then realized that that's not what EZ would do. In fact, one of her listed benefits of starting a pattern from the bottom is that, should you run out of yarn, you can insert some color patterning into the yoke. So I opted instead for the dark orange as the background, and I'm so glad I did, even though I probably would have had enough brown yarn to squeak by. I think it really adds something.

The only thing I would do differently would be to drop to a size 3 needle for the garter stitch placket and neckband. It doesn't bother me enough to re-knit it, but I think it would have looked just a little neater if it had been knitted a little more tightly.

It's my new favorite sweater. I love the lightweight warmth, the color, and the way the yoke pulls the eye up and away from 'problem areas.' I see more yoked sweaters in my future. In fact, if I had enough yarn, I'd knit this one all over again.

Baby, baby

The February-ish baby sweater is complete, except for, you know, weaving in the ends and sewing on buttons, but since this was purely a process knit, I'm not too concerned with that.

When I told my mom that I was knitting a baby sweater for no reason, she said she'd buy it from me to send to a friend of hers. Only problem, her friend is having a boy, and this sweater is decidedly girly. So I spun up some roving I had dyed and knit this for her:

I'll be taking it by the post office today, since Mama wants to bring Baby home from the hospital in it. Which is so gratifying, but also a little scary. I just kind of made up the pattern based on EZ's baby proportions in Knitter's Almanac, so hopefully it won't be too far off. My husband swears that it's too small to fit anything, but I think it's a 0-3 mo size.

Thanks for all the comments about the roving in my previous post -- it really meant a lot, since I dyed that myself. As you can tell, I've got the bright colors down pat! I haven't been able to dye much lately, though, because I'm sick yet again. I usually never get winter colds, but this year I seem to catch everything that's going around. I think the next time my husband asks me to cuddle him because he's cold from a fever, I'll give him an extra blanket and go sleep on the sofa!

As a little matter of housekeeping, I've switched to Haloscan for comments since Blogger makes it really hard to reply sometimes, and that's hidden all of my old comments, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Love y'all.

Special thanks to Kristy and Peggy for saying that I make their day. To anyone who reads this blog, leaves a comment, or posts something about knitting or spinning out there for me to read, thank you for making my day.