Will Knit For Stuff (part 2)

Yet another trade this spring!

In exchange for handmade salted caramels (oh wow oh wow I hoarded these)

I knit a pair of Firestarters.

She sent me the yarn, which was Wollmeise in Poison #5.

And I admit that I ate most of the pound and a half of the caramels all by myself (but only one or two at a time). I only shared with the kidlets if they performed significant tasks for me. My logic was--these socks took my time to knit up, so do something that frees up more of my time to knit.

Another fun exchange!

Knitting with Wollmeise

I have recently been knitting with a skein of Wollmeise. I've owned some of this rare and highly-sought-after yarn for nearly a year, and just recently began actually knitting some. This skein is not actually my skein. I'm knitting the socks as trade.

I soon discovered a problem with the yarn. It's overtwisted. Way overtwisted. Twisted enough that the stitches won't sit straight, causing the socks to twist diagonally. It was unsightly and unacceptable. To solve this, I wound up letting the sock dangle every half row and spin out the overtwist. Consequently, I can't knit the socks two at a time, because they can't untwist when they're joined. And even worse, the knitting takes a lot longer because you're stopping every half row.

To test the twist of the yarn, I hold two spots on the yarn, and bring the dangling strands together. If they twist around themselves, they have too much twist. I pay attention to the direction the strands spin, and that's the direction I spin the sock.

If you hold the dangling strands close to each other and they just hang there, not twisting around each other, then the yarn is fine for knitting.

Perhaps the overtwist is a defining characteristic of this expensive yarn, but I couldn't knit with it that way. The knitted product was sloppy and twisty.  It's been a long process, knitting these socks while untwisting the yarn, but I'm nearly there.

Gothify (Photo heavy post)

Goth-i-fy--verb--to make gothy. To imbue an item with gothy properties. To make yarn like Gothsocks. To take a variegated, solid, or semi-solid skein of yarn, and overdye part of it to create stripes. Origin 2010. Variations gothy, goth, gothing, gothed, gothification.

Sample sentences:

"She is quite the gothify-enthusiast."
"Dude! I would totally gothify my pistazie for your feuerwanze!"
"Love this gothed-up yarn!"
"This would be awesome gothified."

Before/after of WM Frosch, gothing by thestarsandseas on ravelry.

Before/after of WM Pistazie, gothing and before-pic by jakey on ravelry

(These greens look similar in photos, but the upper is a bright green, and the next is a darker, khaki green)


And before/after of a gothhoard, gothed up by theotheramylee on ravelry, The Amy Lee Show on etsy.

Look at these pretties!

Acquisitions! Spoiler alert for Loopy and Gothsocks

Dude, like the topic above says. There are spoiler pictures in this post for the Loopy Groupie package and the June Gothsocks. In case any readers care.

First of all, I have acquired my first Wollmeise! I have been aware of its insane popularity on Ravelry for a long time now. Only recently have I paid enough attention to be able to successfully navigate an update at The Loopy Ewe and actually purchase some for myself. I also got some more Hiya Hiya 9" needles, as I still do enjoy knitting with them. I had also added the pattern "book" Balloon Tying Creations to my cart, but in an incredible stroke of bad luck for me, Sheri blogged about the book on the very day that I was stalking for the WM, and the book sold out instantly, and I didn't get to buy it.

Need another look at that Wollmeise?

As a bonus, this was my sixth order at the Loopy Ewe. (And it's taken me years to get to six orders.) Loopy has a loyalty program called Loopy Groupies. When you place your sixth order, you are inducted into the Loopy Groupie club. As a welcome, they send you an awesome package.  This purchase was made using my mother's day and birthday gift certificates, so getting a bonus gift in my package made it extra special!  They sent a really cute see-through tote bag, a pattern, a sheep calendar, treats, plus a skein of yarn!  My yarn was Brooklyn Handspun in the colourway "renew".

Oooh la la!

But wait, that's not all!  Today I received a birthday package from Ember.  And she sent me the Balloon Tying Creations book!  Thanks Ember!!

Plus! Today I also received my June Gothsocks club package. It's my final club package, and I struggled a long time while I decided whether to renew or not. By saving my yarn money, I was able to buy the Wollmeise, which isn't exactly buying yarn as it's needed, but I've definitely slowed down on the gratuitous yarn-stashing. Anyway, back on topic, my final yarn is GORGEOUS. DO WANT.

The yarn is based on the TV show Big Bang Theory. The photo above shows the yarn with a disc of Big Bang Theory, which also arrived in the mail today. Good mail day!