My friend Stephanie recently pinned a lovely photo of half-finished socks knit with handspun and added a note saying, “I really want to knit socks with my handspun. What is stopping me?”

I am still a baby sock knitter. As in new to it, not a knitter of socks for babies, although Owlet found a bag of pink Corriedale at “the knitting”, which is what she calls the spinning and weaving studio we go to, and decided she wanted socks made from it. “Socks, and mittens!” she added enthusiastically. There was another nice icy lavender beside it, so I think we will make a striped yarn and go that route.

But yes, I am still new to socks, having knit only seven of them. (Yes, that’s an odd number, I know. There was that lone Gryffindor striped sock for Sparky that was a just-fit, so I knit two of a bigger size.) And while I love the idea of using my handspun for socks, I’m moderately terrified. What if I don’t have enough? (That’s pretty much a given, actually, unless I plan to do heels and toes in a contrast yarn, which, having written it out, sounds perfectly reasonable.) Handspun is precious, right? It’s handmade, and something you want to keep and use for an item that will last a long time, like scarves or shawls or mittens. And socks wear out quickly, especially ones made with soft handspun with no nylon or bamboo or Tencel in it to provide some resistance to abrasion. And then there’s the fact that tightly plied handspun is best for socks, again to better withstand abrasion. My handspun is rarely plied tightly enough for ideal sock yarn. Finally, a three-ply structure, either traditional or chain-plied, is best, and most of my handspun is two-ply.

Oh, so many reasons to not use my handspun. So I should spin yarn especially for socks, right? With the ideal fibre blend and ideal plying structure.

I’ll start by blending Owlet’s pink and lavender fibre with some Tencel I have in my stash, and knit those for her. Baby steps, right?