In Which the Pirate Knits With Handspun.

During my brief hiatus from vacation, I cast on for a plain toe-up sock with my handspun BFL yarn. Mostly for my own reference, but just in case any of you are interested, I started with a figure-eight cast on that had twenty loops, and knit each side twice before starting M1 increases every other round. After a few rounds I tightened up the toe and took a preliminary measurement of ten stitches to the inch on size 0 needles, which is exactly what I’d been aiming for.

This is the first time I’m knitting anything larger than a little swatch with my own handspun yarn, and I am loving every stitch. The fabric is knitting up to have a nice softness and feel; Pirate-Husband said that it felt as if it had some silk content in it. I am really looking forward to seeing how the colors show. At ten stitches to the inch, I am knitting a 72-stitch sock. The benefit to knitting toe-up is that the toe is the gauge swatch; I just keep trying it on and increasing until it’s the right size! I’ll do a short-row heel, probably over 60% of the stitches, and keep on knitting plain all the way up to a ribbed cuff.