100 miles and a swatch

I walked 100 miles! Keeper and I completed this feat on Friday morning but with posting the poem I forgot to mention it. I still have 82 miles to go since my goal is 300 km by April 1.

I started the Spey Valley socks for Ali a couple of weeks ago. There has not been much progress so I haven't blogged about them. I just added them to the side bar where they started to languish. Ali then mentioned that he wants his next pair of socks to be a thick "Like the sockwars socks." I was not fully honest when I received the killer socks as I never divulged here that they don't fit me - they fit Ali. I figure if someone knits size 11 mens socks instead of womens 7.5 then that is fine and I shouldn't complain. It is just a game.

Knitting thick socks is not a problem, however I needed appropriate yarn. I dove through my stash - it didn't take very long and I soon realized I had nothing suitable. I went to look at yarn. I came across Patons SWS (soy wool stripes). This loosely spun yarn is 70% wool and 30% soy fiber is seemed to be a good weight. I swatched and I washed the swatch



The upper portion is knit with 3.25mm, the bottom 3.5 mm. Very little difference in gauge 5.75 sts/inch and 5.5 sts/inch. I then threw this swatch in the washing machine. This is the first time that I ever washed a swatched that I wasn't going to felt the finished item. The ball band says to hand wash, however with the recent success with machine washing koigu and that these were socks for the husband and not for me* I wanted to see if they were machine washable. The swatch after washing was not discernibly different than before the trip through the washer.

I am hoping the soy fiber will help these sock hold up. I'll let you know.

*I can keep track of my handwash socks knowing when they are in the laundry and remembering that they need to be washed by hand but I would prefer it if all of Ali's socks were machine washable.

From Comments:
Thanks Julie for your comment on Pagan Brigid and St. Brigid

Knitting Bandit thought greyhounds were serious. They would like you to think that they are serious (when they are not sleeping) but they can be quite the goofballs when they are playing. In many ways they are like cats - they pretend that they are serious but give them a new stuffed animal and watch them prance around.