In Which the Pirate Has Finished Yarn.

That BFL top which Pirate-Husband bought me has become the first completed yarn off the Kromski Sonata. I had a slow start with some concerns about making the colors line up, and then the bobbins sat for a few days while I tried to find time to ply in one go.

But here it is, finally: 410 yards from 4.4 ounces of Blue-Faced Leicester top. That measurement is from before the wash, so it might have shrunk a little bit. Still, that’s enough for a pair of socks! I will definitely be weighing out the yarn into two sections and then knitting toe-up. Given how hard I tried to make the colors in the singles line up for the plying, I expect that they will be somewhat stripy socks. I am tempted to cast on for them *right now* – if it weren’t still a little damp. And there are the other works in progress, too. Okay, so I won’t cast on right now, even if I do want to. I’ll finish the Stripey Striped Socks first, so I can see if I’ve got the fit of the 60% short-row heel right. Yeah, that’s a good reason to wait!

Here’s a closeup, with a penny for scale. I am pleased with the tight twists of the plies. The singles only drifted apart in one section when I was plying, so I might have gotten the hang of putting enough twist into them. Some parts of the yarn do feel a little hard, but I have faith that they will soften up in the knitting and in the final wash.

Socks with my own handspun yarn: does it get any better than that?