Off season - again

Who knits wool knee socks with temps in the 90s?  Me, apparently!  I finally got past the colorwork section on those knee socks – see?They look awfully big to me, but they appear to stay up.  The top part is 104 stitches in circumference.  It seems to take me forever to knit 104 stitches over 4 dpns.  You can see that I switched back to 2 circulars when I hit the green ribbing again.  My leg doesn’t look quite so colossal in this photo: The decreases are happening quickly at this point in the sock, 2 stitches every other round.  Eventually the circumference will be 64. 

When I knit the next sock, I will use a smaller needle for the very top.  I used a 2.5 mm for the rubbed cuff and the colorwork section, then moved to a 2.25 mm for the first few rounds of green ribbing, and then to a 2.0 mm needle.  I think 2.5 mm is the right size for the colorwork, but everything else should be tighter.

Also, I’m contemplating casting on fewer stitches for the second sock.  Of course, they wouldn’t match (sizewise) but I’m considering it anyway.  I’m sort of letting go of the idea of actually wearing these.  I could always hang them up in my room like art.  They’re awfully pretty! In other news, I did tune up the spinning wheel and get her whirring again.  I’ve just spun 1/3 of this wool/silk/bamboo fiber that I got at MDSW this year: At first I was going to spin the singles all on one bobbin and then Navajo ply them (which makes a chained 3-ply yarn).  Then I saw how contrast-y the gray and green colors are, and decided that I didn’t want to preserve those color shifts.  So I divided my fiber into 3 equal-ish sections (which took some doing, since some of it was already spun) and plan to make a 3-ply the regular way.  The resulting yarn should have a barberpole look to it. Tomorrow is the annual Spinning Seminar at The Mannings!  As long as it’s not too wet (scattered thunderstorms are predicted), I’ll take my wheel.  Otherwise, I’ll knit a bit.