Dear Kay,
We head to Norway today, for a visit with everybody’s favorite Scandinavian duo, Arne and Carlos. They knit. They crochet. They garden. They are up to all manner of stuff making, and there’s something irresistible about their attitude toward it all.
(Fun fact: “Arne and Carlos” is actually “Ann and Kay” in Norwegian. It’s true. I would like us to rig up a Sister Cities relationship with Arne and Carlos. Maybe we can do a student exchange program, or make time capsules about our respective homelands to open fifty years from now. Or whatever. Come to Nashville, y’all. Or New York. It’ll be great.)
Our One-Sock Knitalong kicks off tomorrow, May 16 (details here), and maybe you’re thinking about joining in, but you’ve never knit a sock. I’d like to share Arne and Carlos’s great 8-minute introduction to sock making. They make it look awfully easy. (It actually is.) Their recipe: sit yourself down in a garden, get a pile of sock yarn, and start knitting.
Meanwhile, I’m soddenly pregaming the One-Sock Knitalong. Can’t help it; can’t stop.
The yarn is from Bellingham, Washingtonians Rachel and Kate, who have been creating Spincycle Yarns since 2004. (Fun fact: “Rachel and Kate” is “Ann and Kay” in Washingtonese.) It’s worth taking a look at the colorways available in this particular yarn, Dyed in the Wool. Glorious shifting colors, so fun to knit.
Mill made, but it has the look of handspun. This 100% superwash American wool knits up into a dense, flat mat. I can’t think of another yarn that feels like this. I’m crazy for it, that’s for sure.
Wishing everyone a peaceful Sunday.
Love,
Ann
that was :
🙂 🙂 🙂 :))))
(cuter in emoji)
We’ll be in Norway this week too! Maybe we’ll run into you. Safe travels.
Loved Arne and Carlos!
For the KAL, I actually found a child’s sock in my stash already started, and am going with that. If time allows, I actually have 2 more socks started (for two different pairs) which I can move over to work on. So no new yarn purchase, which I initially anticipated. I’m going cold sheep.
LoveDiane
Ann, what size needles are you using? Beautifully even stockinette stitch!
Arne’s dexterity in casting on to four needles is amazing!
Arne and Carlos are great to follow on instagram too, because they knit in the most besutiful spots.
Yes Arne wins cast onto 4 needles sprint!
I’m ready. Do we have a hash tag?
Arne and Carlos! They somehow fell off my blog radar a while ago – I don’t know how that happens, unless it’s during a laptop implosion and replacement/reconstruction. I am very happy to see them again 🙂
I have two toes to knit later today, then a stash-dive. Wheee!
I’m thrilled to see someone else casting on the way I do for four needles – my knitting groups laughs when they watch me cast on that way with needles just dangling, but it works! But their almost casual disregard for a pattern is hilarious. “Just cast on and knit to the ankle and make a heel. It’s all good.”
Hi Ann,
As a faithful MDK reader, I immediately visited Spincycle. Is one 200 yd skein enough to make a pair of women’s size 7-8 socks?
Thanks!
Barbara
You can check out sock projects made with this yarn on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/spincycle-yarns-dyed-in-the-wool/projects?view=cards&search=&categories%5B%5D=socks
Several of them are shorter-than-normal socks completed with less than a skein, but for the mid-calf socks people tend to knit, you’ll probably want a second skein. You’re unlikely to need ALL of 400 yards, though. Many of the projects combine the Spincycle with a sock yarn that has nylon for the cuffs, toes, and heels, and they get by with one skein.
You need about 400 yds to make a pair of women’s socks!
I Just ordered two skeins of dyed in the wool from spin cycle just in case one is not enough for a pair! Cannot wait to get it.
Love Arne and Carlos. They make fun stuff!
I have two single sad socks on the needles but I may cast on a third pair. Currently making the Arne and Carlos 96 stitch hat for Mr. Bilski.
Good idea and oh my gosh that video, now I’d really love some of Arne and Carlos sock yarn. (Resisting, still working from the stash!)
Arne & Carlos’ sock yarn is so much fun! I’ll be joining the knitalong with my third pair already on the needles – two at a time on two sets of circs to avoid dreaded second sock syndrome!!
I’m afraid to ask what else translates into “Ann & Kay…”
I would like to BE either Arne or Carlos!
I’ve knit one toe up (out of the whooping 3 completed pairs I’ve kinit since 2007) and it seemed so much easier their way.
I am thrilled about this KAL. Thrilled! I Can’t wait to see how long it will take me to finish off the few inches left on each sock. Although I’m not sure I’ll have ant time to knit them Monday or Tuesday. Obviously that’s not a concern with these 9 year-old tweens.
P.S. Not to fret, I’m certain I would love to be either Kay or Ann too! Even though Norway is far more alluring to me than the UWS of Manhattan since that’s where I was born, bred and moved back to in 2006 (although I know Kay’s apt is beautiful and mine is in “estate” condition — in NYC real estate parlance that is the absolute lowest rung on the ladder); and I’m scared of Tennessee humidity, having lived in Washington, DC for many many years.
P.P.S. Years ago I was at Knitty City at the same time as Kay! But being a NYer I just looked in a series of shifty glances at the celebrity and did not make a scene. Even though I really wanted to.
Re: PPS: Marilyn, you lived the dream. You handled it exactly right. 😉
Hey I live in Bellingham! Love that yarn and their store…
Welcome to Norway! Hope you will have a terrific stay here 😉 The boys will be right up your alley, I totally agree on them being the male counterpart of Ann&Kay, and am seconding the Sisterhood Cities plan, a brilliant idea.
I need to search through my stash and dig out the ball of Arne&Carlos sock yarn I know is hiding in there somewhere. Thanks for the much needed kick-in-the-behind to hopefully snap out of this temporary hiatus/ period of non-knitting I’m currently in! There might be a pair of socks emerging from my needles this summer after all (am not the fastest knitter, and it will be my third finished pair).
C of Southern Norway