Monday 31 January 2011

sock business, part two

A little bit of yarn love goes a long way. I've realised that part of the pleasure of knitting these socks is seeing the colours change as the ball unravels, and in turn, the sock grows. The turquoise/grey/brown in the post below is colour 2715 in the Schafpate 1 range by Opal. Of course I fell for the colours first and foremost (on Florrie's blog, I might add) , and then I discovered there was a bonus. The yarn is spun from wool from the Schafpate rare breed german sheep, and its production is a local all-german affair, from the sheep that graze at Nature Preserve BiosphäreAlb in southern Germany, to the processing, spinning, and finally, dyeing. I'm all for supporting local enterprise and rare breed animals, and if I get some beautiful socks in the process, even better. I think colour 2715 is sold out....I've had a good uk online search, and managed to nab what may be the last balls. Maybe try your local yarn shop? Most of the other colours are still available - try here and here. Schafpate 2 is widely available, but doesn't do it for me. All this talk of rare breed sheep made me think of Tracy. Maybe one day we'll be able to get our sock yarn from Scotland!

On the left, colour 2716, and on the right colour 2717
My wee circular needle is a 20cm addi turbo. I have several - 2.5mm, 3mm and 3.25mm. I like to be prepared for anything! They are notoriously difficult to get hold of - Kangaroo has occasional stock (and many other lovely things to tempt you, too. Be patient, they're in the middle of moving to France). My dpns are Knit Pro Symphonies - the strongest needles, with a perfect point to the tips and a just-slippery-enough surface. I get mine here.

Right, back to those toe decreases...

5 comments:

dottycookie said...

Hee, hee, I hope you're on commission!

Unknown said...

Oh Diana those colours are just delicious indeed. It sure is so very important for us all to be supporting our local enterprises and rare breed animals. It just makes it all the more worthwhile when the pieces are finished and enjoyed!!! Ahhh yes how fab would that be to be supplied by Tracy, fantastic. Looking forward to chatting again soon lovely. XXX

Frances said...

Thank you for all this info, in sock biz, part two. I have got to do some research now.

Cheers!

kristina said...

Hopefully they'll restock color 2715 soon. And I love the idea of supporting local enterprise and rare breed animals too.

K x

Julia said...

Ive always got rather excited when people start talking about knitting socks. Knitting is something I can't really do yet, and the thought of actually making your own socks from scrumptious wool has on several occasions tempted me to learn...maybe one day, til then I will drool happily over the pictures of yours!

Love Julia x