This week I have two new sock-weight yarn bases to show you. Technically one is completely new, and the other is a yarn base I carried long ago.
Twinkle Sock
Remember a couple weeks ago when I mentioned that the mill was out of Sparkly Merino Sock? Well, I found a lovely new sparkly yarn base that I’m calling Twinkle Sock. I had originally planned to just use Twinkle Sock for the clubs until Sparkly Merino Sock was back in stock. However, it’s so lovely that I’m considering making it a permanent switch, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Don’t get me wrong. Sparkly Merino Sock is great, but Twinkle Sock is a little softer, a little sparklier, and a lot squishier. Let’s compare the two.
Here is a closeup of Northern Lights on Sparkly Merino Sock:
- Is a 4-ply yarn
- with 409 yards per 4 ounce skein
- has 92% superwash merino and 8% lurex
- has a good tight twist
Here is a closeup of the same colorway, Northern Lights, on Twinkle Sock:
- Is a 2-ply yarn
- with 411 yards per 3.5 ounce skein
- has 90% superwash merino and 10% lurex
- is squishier and a little softer
- is a little bit thicker
As you can see, the main difference is the number of plies. Twinkle Sock is a little bit of a heavier sock weight too, and it’s squishier due to the fact that it’s a 2-ply.
Like I said, I had originally planned to just use Twinkle Sock for the sparkly sock club until the mill got Sparkly Merino Sock back in stock, but once I started dyeing it up, I fell in love with it. I haven’t made a final decision to replace Sparkly Merino Sock with Twinkle Sock yet, but I’m leaning in that direction. If you have thoughts and preferences, I would love to hear them, so please email me.
This week I dyed Twinkle Sock in Northern Lights shown above as well as Lilac, Monet’s Water Lilies, and Blue and Green Music by Georgia O’Keeffe. Here that one is:
You can see all four colorways on Twinkle Sock right here.
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Dream Sock
The other new yarn base I have to share with you is one that I have been waiting all summer to add. It’s called Dream Sock, and it’s one I carried a long time ago. It is incredibly soft–maybe even softer than So Silky Sock. It’s made of 70% baby alpaca, 20% mulberry silk, and 10% cashmere. When you stroke it, it feels like your stroking a kitten.
Not only is it incredibly soft and luxurious, but it also has the advantage of being good for those with sensitivities to sheep’s wool. I suspect that some people who say they can’t wear wool have only ever used high micron itchy wool and not lovely soft merino wool. However, for those who do have a true sensitivity or allergy to wool, it can be a sensitivity to the lanolin in sheep’s wool. Alpaca and cashmere don’t have lanolin, so some people who can’t wear sheep’s wool are still able to enjoy items made from alpaca and cashmere and of course silk.
Dream Sock is great for shawls and anything where drape is what you want. The fibers in it don’t have as much memory as sheep’s wool, so I wouldn’t use it for socks. Memory is the ability for a fiber to bounce back, and drape is the opposite of memory.
Just like Buttery Soft DK, the colors on Dream Sock are a little more muted, and Dream Sock can felt, so it should definitely be washed by hand. It’s worth the extra trouble though to make something special from this wonderfully soft luxurious yarn!
I have dyed up several colorways on it, and I’ll be dyeing more as the weeks go by this fall. Here is Monet’s Water Lilies on Dream Sock:
I also dyed Northern Lights, Monet’s Cathedral, and Blue and Green Music on Dream Sock this week. You can see them all right here. I just wish you could put your hand through the screen to touch them!
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September Club Colorway
For the September club colorway, we are moving into the beginning of Gothic art and architecture, which started in France with the great Chartres Cathedral. The invention of flying buttresses made it possible to increase the sizes of windows in churches, making them much brighter and more beautiful. I actually had a really difficult time deciding which beautiful stained glass window from the Chartres Cathedral to use as the inspiration for this month’s club colorway. I chose this window known as Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière, which just means Our Lady of the Beautiful Window.
This was made in 1180 and was one of the only windows to survive a terrible fire in 1195, making it one of the oldest surviving windows from the cathedral. You can learn more about it in this youtube video right here.
I can’t wait to create yarn and art batts using this as inspiration! The deadline to join the club or change your subscription is the last day of the month.
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Advent Calendars
You still have a few more weeks to order an Advent calendar if you would like one. I’m using this artistic rendering of the Cassiopeia Constellation as the inspiration for both the Yarn Advent calendar and the Fiber one:
You can learn more about them right here. Thank you so much to everyone who has already ordered one!
Have a wonderful weekend. See you next Friday.