Some time ago I had come across a repurposed cashmere yarn from "Thoughtful Rose Supply" a shop on Etsy. It was a white lace weight pure cashmere and I paired it with a beautiful lace weight Baby Alpaca yarn Silver Gray in color from Alpaca Direct. The beautiful color that appeared was a variegated pale silver blue and white. I love the feed of this combination and the warmth and softness was made for socks. 

Alpaca Cable Socks

And today sold the Alpaca Cable Socks easy.com to a woman in CA. I really love the feel of this yarn and the very fine weight. HandsomeFibers.com is the shop and Jo March Lace  is the yarn. Really a perfect fine yarn for intricate patterns. Working on an eyelet lace pattern that would be great with this yarn...we will see. A bit pricey yarn but worth it.

Fair Isle Men's Socks

And so after doing those polka dot socks I thought I would try these.  These were knitted with Berroco Ultra Fine Alpaca yarn (Peruvian Wool, Fine Alpaca and nylon). I have found that using a finer yarn weight than sock yarns when knitting Fair Isle is less bulky and much more smooth on your foot. These are in combination of Grey, Black and White.   

Had gotten the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch from my daughter and loved the way she laid out the various patterns used in socks in the book. This pattern #2 was an example of taking the pattern and just using portions of it for these socks. I also did not do the heel in short rows but used a flat flap heel. The book has many various cable and stitch patterns A good book for your library. 
I love this yarn…very easy to work with and soft and warm and will probably work with this yarn again. 

Cable Double Twist

Really nice to see this sock pattern sell on Etsy. I love this pattern and next will knit it in white...but first finishing up a black and white Fair Isle pattern sock that is really looking pretty good. I know I said I wouldn't do another of these Fair Isle patterns but had the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca yarns and just had to try using them again. This is becoming my favorite yarn for softness and warmth!


http://www.etsy.com/transaction/44884252

Polka Dot Socks Finally Finished

The pattern base was from Patons but never again...Finally finished this pair of socks and took much too much time…but probably because i had knitted them and took them apart 4 times. The pattern is not great for many reasons but first and foremost it really doesn’t really have size changes. You really have to figure it out for yourself. Instead of casting on 64 stitches i had casted on 72 for the cuff and then added 5 more stitches for the leg to accommodate for the pattern…which was crazy too. Not enough room here to tell you why but I really did the pattern differently because my first attempts following the pattern ended with a not so perfect placement of the polka dots. They were not evenly dispersed in the pattern. Adjustments and more followed as the heel was really not written well and went to another source to do the short row heel!! Would love to try this again but not for a long while as was not fun to do…but for what it is worth I don’t like to not finish a project before I start a new one and I did finally finish this one. Would not recommend this pattern to a novice knitter! Well I guess my husband's happy he has another pair of socks. At lease they are warm and I can recommend the Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn...beautiful to knit with and so soft and warm.   Can't wait to start my next pair...back to cables for me I think.

In Need for a Hugh Yarn Shop!

I have for a while been looking at Berroco Sock Yarn (Ultra Alpaca Fine, actually Fingering weight) and purchase a couple of skeins from a shop on Ebay akyrn
kathleen@yarn-shop.com. I haven't a clue as to how this yarn is but hope it is what I have done research on and that I will be happy with the choice.

I have bought yarns from eBay shops before and have had good luck with prices and quality of the products. I live in an area that doesn't have local yarn shops and the one shop nearby really caters to the lessons given, not exactly a hugh array of yarns to feel and touch. We use to have a great yarn shop with every type of yarn and fiber manufactured, along with all the needle crafts, including needle point, tapestry and volumes of books and magazines. It was one of those big grand yarn shops that you could immerse yourself into for hours and not realize how the time just flew by, because you were having so much fun! I did visit my daughter in Seattle last year and we went to a wonderful yarn shop close to her home...it was great with selections of yarns and books and so much inspiration. You need to just walk into a "yarn" shop to get the feeling and the creative juices flowing so that you can make beautiful projects. So I try to just remember how it was when I got lost in my now gone yarn shop and hope that someone will open another like it in my area.