The Problem with Homespun

These are some of the wool socks I've knit over the years. Knitting with homespun has challenges apart from those normally associated with socks. Apart from SSO, second sock syndrome, of which I am a big sufferer, homespun is never the size called for in a pattern. This causes adjustments and recalculations galore. For the mathematically challenged (moi) this is a problem. So I have my husband calculate the required number of stitches to reach gauge. Then there's the matter of color. I have to dye each color, not necessarily to an exact match but to a similar color or whichever pleases my fancy and goes with the pattern. In the case of the nautical socks or the socks from hell as I've been known to call them, I had to dye two colors of blue. The white is a natural angora blend. For the rest of the socks, I sort of guessed by looking at how big the space between the DPN's was. It worked! I'd like to point out that the yellow color in the very dark brown socks is from the goldenrod that grows here in an adjacent field, and the brown is the natural color from the sheep.

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