Last week I talked about the start of my adventure into knitting with
100% British wool and the #breedsswatchalong project. On a recent visit to my
LYS - the wonderful and charming Sheep Shop, Cambridge - a selection of 4ply
Blacker Yarns caught my eye.
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| Gotland 4ply from Blacker Yarns |
The Gotland 4ply from Blacker Yarns came in a wonderful range of muted greys, from pale to
dark and I knew immediately that 2 balls were destined to come home with me to
make a pair of 100% British wool socks.
Here I departed slightly from the KnitBritish recommendation to knit an
8" swatch. Sorry Louise, but an 8" square on a yarn worked at 32st
per inch is not going to happen in my lifetime :)
I decided to do the next best thing and knit a sock toe. Let's face it,
I'm sure a lot of sock knitters work out their gauge by doing this. I for one,
very rarely try to convert a gauge knit flat into one knit in the round and the
various methods for working around this have never really struck a cord with
me. If I'm going to see what gauge I get with a sock yarn I find it a lot easier
and more relevant to just start knitting a sock. It could explain why I have so
many abandoned sock toes on needles strewn around my house but anyway, I
digress.
I knit a sock toe (on 2.25mm needles) and was very taken with the
resulting fabric. Firm and dense yet with a great halo and a definite warmth -
this yarn would make totally fabulous warm socks. I can't speak to their
durability, although I'm sure the firm gauge will help with that, but I'm going
to carry on and see what I come up with.
In this fabulous article on using breed specific yarns for socks, Sue
Blacker suggests that there may be some felting on the inside of 100% Gotland
socks due to the nature of the wool, but I'm game to give it a go. I will report back...
