I picked up a few skeins of Regia Hand-Dye Effect yarn in Germany last year, and this week I finally sat down and cranked out a few pairs of socks.
All I can say is I wish my suitcase were larger, my wallet bigger, and my foresight better.
The yarn is lightly spun and plied with a thin, black thread I thought the CSM would not like. Was I ever wrong.
This stuff went through the CSM like a hot knife through butter. And the colours?
They are beyond beautiful. This yarn is super-soft and fluffy on the skein, and when it's knit up, the fabric takes on a surprisingly coarse, almost scruffy feel. I soaked the socks in
Eucalan, dried them near the wood stove, and once dry, they soften up
immensely. The socks are very fluid and mold nicely to the foot.
Surprisingly, each skein weighed in at about 100g. I started each sock with a 3:1 mock-rib on the 72 needle cylinder, knit 38 rows, replaced the missing needles and hung the purl bump from the neighbouring needle on each empty one to prevent the little hole that would result, and knit 2 rows before hanging my hem. Then I knit 75 rows, turned my heel, knit 70 rows for the foot, and turned my toe. I have about 4g of wool left from each skein, so I probably could have eked out a few more rows, but I don't live that dangerously...
Speaking of living dangerously, little Popina does:
Here she is in the kitchen, sitting serenely beneath Victoria whose innards are about to receive a bit of a tune-up. I am going to have her cams brazed and reshaped, because she's a bit clunky. Without needles, she's as smooth as can be, but once I have needles in and start to knit, she feels a bit...well...
clunky. I oiled her liberally, cranked out tube after tube, yet I don't feel she's at her best. Since I took her apart, cleaned her, and put her back together again, I observed the uneven wear on her cams first-hand and think the extra work and expense will be worth the trouble. So we'll be taking a trip to the machinist's workshop in the next few weeks, and I'll report back if my impressions are correct.
In the interim, I leave you with another view of Sockhenge:
