In Which the Pirate’s Yarn is Beautiful.

I’m swatching this yarn from Ellen’s Half Pint Farm for the sock class I’ll be taking this month, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The color shades in very subtle ways, which I think will be perfect for the lacy pattern I’d like to use. It’s a twisty bouncy squooshy delight at nine stitches to the inch on US 1 needles, and I’m excited to be designing socks with it!

I’m testing out a stitch pattern that my mom used to make an afghan over thirty years ago. I’m only six rows into the pattern so far, but I have greater respect for her as a knitter, knowing that she made an entire afghan like this. I’m only working the pattern over 25 stitches; she had a couple of hundred! Her “Big Blue Afghan” is still in good shape, and I still curl up underneath it when I visit my parents in the winter.

I made sure to split the yarn into two equal balls (thank goodness for having a kitchen scale) before I even got started. Wouldn’t want to run out of yarn before the second toe again!