Skip to main content

The Rest of the Story -- Sock One and Sock Two

This past summer, The Farmer spun some of the wool from our Polypay sheep into a 3-ply yarn. And won a prize. Full yarn here.

Now, here's the rest of the story. He took the yarn, and knit some socks with it. Near the end of the second sock, at the toe, he ran out of yarn. He finished the second sock's toe with plain cobalt blue, leftover handspun from the same batch (it was navajo plied, for you spinning techies). But the two socks didn't match. Sock One was variegated from head to toe. Sock Two was variegated from head to almost-toe. And then it was solid blue. He thought, "this will not do."

So The Farmer took both socks off the machine and undid the scrap yarn from between them. He then rehung the toe of Sock One back on the machine--one loop on its designated needle at a time. (Yes, he is a patient man.)

He then frogged it (un-knit, for you non-knitters) back a ways, and redid the toe of Sock One in sold blue. So that they'd match.


These socks were entered into a sock-knitting contest (a very small affair) at the Michigan Sheep Breeders Symposium and won The Shepherd's Sock award. The Farmer then donated the socks to the youth auction, where they brought a tidy sum to be put towards college scholarships for young people.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Comments

  1. Beautiful yarn in beautiful socks! Congrats to the farmer on his patience, awards and generosity!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How wonderful!! You did awesome Mr. Farmer!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fantastic!! Farmers are wonderful, inventive folk! ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloggy Giveaway--Now Closed

**This bloggy giveaway is now closed** Thanks to all who participated and gave such great comments. Janette is the winner of the $15 gift certificate to our etsy store . I'm participating in the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival . Click the link to go to the carnival where you can enter to win literally hundreds of things. The good news is that even if you have no time to play on the computer trying to win hundreds of things, you can still enter to win one thing right here. This week, I will be giving away a $15 gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of an item in my etsy shop . This contest is open to residents of the United States or Canada only. The winner will receive free shipping on whatever item they choose. Items in my etsy shop include handwoven rugs, wool yarns and roving from our farm, and the ever-popular cotton dishcloth! To be entered in this wonderful drawing, you must go to the etsy shop and look around a bit. Then come back here and type a comment that

Haying 101

A few posts back, "deep end of the loom" (love that name!) asked me to tell a bit more about the haying process. If you want my version, read on. If you'd like to read the official wikipedia version, click here . Haying happens in three steps: cutting, raking and baling. This process takes several days, as the hay must be dry when baled. Moist hay molds and heats up and has even been known to spontaneously combust, burning down the barn. Gotta have dry hay. This first photo is of our haybine. The haybine not only cuts the hay, it also crimps each piece of long grass in several places, to allow for faster drying. We usually cut hay in the early afternoon, when the dew is gone. When we're done, long row of cut grass lie waiting. The hay is allowed to dry for two to three days, depending on wind and sun conditions. Obviously, the more wind and sun the days hold, the quicker the hay will dry. When we feel like the hay is nearly dry, we go out with the rake. There are diff

This Giveaway Is Now Closed!

Today starts a giveaway at Farming in the Shade! I am happy to contribute this complete hat kit (needles not included) to someone who has a knitting obsession and a small person in their life. Here are the rules (contest open to US or Canada residents only): Giveaway ends May 1 at 9 p.m. EST. Winner will be announced by Sunday, May 3. Enter by posting a comment on this blog post. Tell me something about your knitting--who taught you to knit, your favorite yarn, the coolest thing you ever knitted. Make sure you leave contact information! Earn extra entries by: 1) Following me on twitter. (If you don't know what twitter is, don't worry. It's another way to waste your time on the computer.)  Add a comment here so I will count it as one entry. 2) Tweeting this giveaway (no more than once daily). Add a comment here so I know you did it. 3) Blog about this giveaway. Add a comment (with link) here so I can go visit your blog. 4) Follow or subscribe to this blog (or tell me if have