Yarn for socks

Hi Marie,

I've not used it for socks, but I have made a sweater out of it. It's REALLY warm. It pills a lot though, and feels pretty heavy. I don't know how it would work with socks.

Hesira

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com. . . Marie, I HAVE, but wouldn't recommend it.. the alpaca tends to 'grow/stretch' and really, it's, unless you've GOT an alpaca, too expensive for socks that will wear out.... JM2C, Noreen

I've made wool/alpaca blend socks, they get baggy over time and wear pretty fast. If you're making bedsocks for somebody who won't actually be walking around alpaca should be OK.

Hmm. I had a lot of alpaca left over from sweaters, so I made socks with it. At the time, I didn't have the patience to knit on #1 or #2 US needles, so I doubled the yarn and knitted them up on #6s. THey are very sturdy, and very warm, and do not stretch too much or grow (like the legwarmers I made, undoubled, on #4s--ooh, that was a sad story. It took me so long to finish them that they had moth holes in them by the time I was done.) Anyway, the only thing I would warn you about if you double the yarn is be careful you don't felt them when you wash them, because then they will be too small and too warm!

Georgia

hi, I personally wouldn't use 100% alpaca for socks, as it lacks wool's 'memory' and they would probably stretch and sag. I'd blend it with something else if I was spinning for socks. My sister on the other hand has a pair of socks that she says are alpaca (no idea if they're 100% or what) and she loves them, doesn't care that they sag.

taueret

I made a wonderful pair of socks with alpaca -- leftovers from a sweater. However, I made them with a same-size strand of a wool blend, so they are soft and thick and warm but still hold their shape. Also, rather than traditional socks I made a pair of two- needle socks to wear with Birkenstocks. I purposely made them too large so I could toss them into the washer and dryer, and they shrunk down to fit me very nicely. I love being able to wear my Birks in the winter!

I didn't know that alpaca stretched, thanks for that.

Mary

Thanks everybody! I learned a lot from all of your input. I was curious about the alpaca because the Super Joanns out here has a new line of alpaca yarn that is on sale, and living in the desert, it is hard to find pure wool. Didn't have time to order anything on line. But I did get lucky and found some Galway at the LYS so I bought a couple of balls of that to use. Making my big son a pair of socks for his size 14 feet! Did NOT want to use fine fingering weight yarn and size 2 needles for that! He wants pure wool socks. Sigh....I also bought a spool of the reinforcement thread that I used on the heel and toes of the first sock which I almost finished today. That was actually pretty easy to combine with the yarn and knit with. And it blends in so well, you wouldn't even know it was there. Thanks again everyone! Happy knitting! Marie and the cats

On Oct 12, 3:20 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

What's the reinforcement thread?

Mary

Hi Mary, well, the reinforcement thread I got says *wooly nylon* on the outside. It looks like a big spool of hand sewing thread and is added to the sock yarn to give it added strength. Just knit with both of the yarns held together.I used it on the heels and toes of my sons socks and will start using it on the toes of my socks because thats where I wear mine out the most! Marie and the cats

What an excellent idea!

One day I might get round to wearing socks :-)

Mary and the hens

Marie

You live in the Phoenix area, right? If so, I think we might frequent some of the same yarn stores, at least I went to them before I got more stores in my neck of the woods and internet!

Anyway, I don't remember seeing any all wool sock yarns in my local stores or in the valley stores I've visited. They all have some percentage of polyamid or nylon in them.

But, the last time I was in Fiber Factory in Mesa, they had a wall of Brown Sheep Naturespun yarn, which I think their worsted is in between a DK and worsted for the cheap acrylic you find in stores. It's 100% wool. It isn't superwash, so it will felt if not carefully washed, but if you need 100% wool, FF may be your closest source without getting it online, and it's not fingering weight, either.

HTH

Leah

Anyway, I don't remember seeing any all wool sock yarns in my local

Marie

It sounds like you're talking about Sally Knits. I went there a few times a few years back, and they were very helpful when I was looking for specialty items. If not, it's a newer store I need to find for the next time I'm on a shopping trip to the valley :-)

I know what you mean by valley traffic, even with the new freeways, it's still awful. I remember the one woman who had hundreds of speeding tickets she never bothered to pay because she didn't think she had to, and how many other people got nailed by the cameras who didn't think it was fair they couldn't do 90 or faster in a 65 zone. Sheesh, makes me want to put one of those "Pray for me, I drive in the Valley" stickers on my car!

More in your neck of the desert is a store I discovered when we were down visiting a friend and happened to drive by: Cotton Fields Quilt And Knit. They actually had quite a bit of yarn packed into their tiny store when I was there, and though all their sock yarns were fingering, they did have other kinds/weights that might work for socks. I have a bag of yarns in the stash they tucked their card into. They are at:

12409 W. Indian School Rd. A105 Avondale. Phone 623-535-1200. If you are driving west on Indian School, they will be to your left, on the south side of the road in a small strip mall a ways west of Garden Lakes, but not all the way out to Litchfield Park. I remember they were lovely ladies to talk to.

Leah

Mary Fisher spun a FINE 'yarn':

Thanks Leah. They must be fairly new, as this is the first time I've heard of them. Will have to check it out sometime. That shop wouldn't be too far for me, I'm about 10 miles from Luke here. Well, in a couple of days my dad and I are driving up to Flagstaff to see my older son - he just got deployed again and is leaving very soon, so we going to see him. I hear there's a couple of good yarn shops up there so I will check those out while I'm in the area. Hehe. There's a really good set of shops in Sun City at 121st Ave and Bell Road too called Needlers Nest. The yarn shop is upstairs and the needlepoint/cross stitch shop is downstairs. My sister and I drove over there Saturday afternoon and boy did we get a surprise. They had rented almost the entire top level of the building and spread out

5 tons (it looked to me) of yarn and it was all on clearance! Most of it was specialty yarns including mohairs, Mango Moon, silks, Starlights, Dive, anything and everything you could imagine! My eyeballs were popping and I could feel the waves of greed trying to overcome me. By the time we were finished digging around, the shop was near closing time and at the end of it all- I saved roughly 75% off the purchase price. We giggled all the way home. It was so much fun! And we got some great stuff! Too bad I didn't have any way of letting you know about it, you would have loved it too. Marie and the cats

...

Wearing socks

There are lots of socks in my drawer, I just wear them very rarely.

I've made lots of socks in my life, from when I was seven and had to turn a heel in the Brownies. I suppose I used to wear them but for years I've preferred just wearing sandals. Right now I'm wearing sheepskin boots because we've just been out on the scooter and it's a trifle chilly for riding in sandals.

The hens reference was an attempt to liken my sig to Marie's :-)

Mary

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Congrats on the S.E.X.! It sounds like you had fun and made out like a bandit at that sale. I hadn't heard of Needlers Nest, so I'll have to check it out the next time I'm down there.

If you've heard of Unravel in Flagstaff, they closed down last year. A new store in Prescott called A Good Yarn bought out a lot of their stock, and just had a 50% off on remaining items marked with Unravel's price labels for their 1st anniversary. I heard about the sale after the fact :-( I don't know any other Flagstaff yarn shop names, but then we don't get up there that often, and with A Good Yarn, Studio Three, and The Fiber Shop in Prescott and Knit 1 Bead 2 in Jerome, and all the nice stores in Phoenix I don't feel a need to go looking for more yarn stores in Flag LOL. BTW, if you're familiar with The Fiber Shop, the nice older lady who used to own and run it passed away, and the shop moved from her house/shop. It's still on McCormick, but up the hill around the corner in the strip mall just before the traffic light on Grove.

Leah