I couldn't decide which of two yarny glamour shots was the most fetching, so you're getting two very similar ones in this post:
And now, an explanation. As part of my long weekend celebration negotiations I traded a visit to a tank museum for a visit to a yarn store. The tank museum came first and ended up being SUPER interesting, go figure, so I tossed the yarn store idea as being impractical and unnecessary since I still have loads of yarn stash despite having Stopped Buying Yarn (except for project-specific emergencies, ahem) some years ago.
Of course as soon as I got home, I realized that sock yarn shopping is very, very necessary as I still have not found a substitute for my beloved 100% merino wool Vesper Sock, which stopped shipping to Canada years ago because our postal service kept misplacing parcels.
(If you are reading this from the US, I highly recommend buying a great deal of this yarn. Like, more than you think you'll need. There's no nylon in it, so you may have to darn the heels and toes over time, but it will be worth it. Because there's no nylon to interfere with your enjoyment of knitting and then wearing 100% merino wool.)
Ready for the second glamour shot?
This. This Malabrigo Sock is the *only* yarn I could find, after nosing around online on returning from the tank museum, which is 100% merino wool, an equivalent weight (more on that in a moment) and reviewed well per our friends at Ravelry.
These reviews all complained that the ensuing socks all wore out in the heels and toes because they have no nylon in them, but honestly, the twist looks a bit tighter even than this purple strand of Vesper, don't you think?
Or maybe it's just a bit thinner. I can't tell. The yardage runs a tiny bit longer over the length, I do know that.
You also need to know that I did my sock yarn hunting online and ending up buying all three of these skeins from Granny Bird's Wool Shoppe, which has one of the most wonderful yarn store names I can imagine, and also, a great selection of yarn on top of fast shipping. Highly recommended!
Today's Hug includes a pop quiz.
Question One: which yarny glamour shot did you prefer, the neatly lined up one or the scattering?
Question Two: which bridge view do you like best, the quiet one or the rapids?
I can never get over how different these two sides of the bridge are, even if they're both 'water running between green stuff'. So brown, the day I took these... we've had lots of rain and it's stirred things up.
Okay this pretty much concludes today's discussion of Sock Yarn Auditions. In the absence of any other contenders, and please feel free to advise me of others available to this Canadian knitter if you know them, we're competing between colourways here.
I'm betting heavily on the denimy blue Playa to be the yarn most likely to result in differently patterned socks, and Myths to be the yarn most likely to match the fall walking shoes I've got my eye on, and Pearl to be the yarn that looks even less like purple in sock form.
Which of these three categories will win my heart the hardest is what we're watching for, basically, and I doubt you'll wait long to find out because with fast dwindling supplies I'm scared to knit any more Vesper until I have a backup in view... while simultaneously re-hooked on sock knitting.
Thanks again for dropping by and also, for indulging me on my vacation weekend away looking at tanks. Please have a wonderful rest of the weekend! and I'll see you next Saturday.
Oh, and here's a picture I took post-tanks of a beautiful garden. Disclaimer: it's part of a cemetery. But it came out so bright and cheery, I just had to share and extend a hope that your day is as technicolour!
