_the socks I promised when it was still foggy outside

Hmmm...where to begin.  First, let me say that the socks are done and have been for a few months now.  The delay in posting was a decision made to avoid a public rant online.   The Yarn..the yarn.  Oh, the frustration I wanted to rant on and on about.  But I waited and now here's the story a bit calmer and much re-edited than the original because I waited to hit "Publish". 

Hank vs. skein.  Which is better?  After this, I'm thinking hank.  Yarn that comes in hanks require extra work before you start.  It needs to be wound into a ball.  A skein comes ready to knit...just pull out the loose end and go.   So, when I saw that sock yarn in a skein, I thought quick knit socks.  But they weren't.  I spent just as much time piecing it together as it would have taken to wind a ball from a hank.  Maybe even more.   Hanks have another advantage over skeins.  You can check the yarn as you are winding it into a ball.

The skein had such promise.  I couldn't wait to have the socks knitted so I can wear them on my feet.  But, alas, the skein hid a secret that could only be seen after I had knitted halfway through sock number two.  Splice after splice.   Knots were used to tie two ends together throughout the skein.  Even a few that were no longer tied.  Ugh!  To add to the frustration, the ends didn't match up in the colorway.  I wasted a lot of yarn to match the colorway and in the end there wasn't enough yarn in the one skein to knit both socks.  A point for using this pattern design. 

If that wasn't enough, the yarn was hanging by one ply in many places so that I was forced to make my own splices!  I don't know if this was an issue with just this particular skein or a regular occurrence with all of the Deborah Norville Serenity yarn.  But, I'm so upset with it that the few skeins waiting in the wings to be knitted will most likely stay there for a lot longer.   I don't have the time to unravel an entire skein to check for the splices before I knit...what knitter does?  Understand that this yarn is labeled as a sock yarn and is for the most part used to knit socks.   So splices are NEVER a good thing especially if the yarn is a colorway and not a solid.  The company making the skeins should have realized this and not bothered trying to make a skein out of leftover bits and hide it inside the skein so that I wouldn't have to find out what they did after I was already into the project.  

So, NO.   I can't in good faith recommend this yarn to knit socks.  Too bad the yarn itself has promise but I  expect to knit socks from a colorway from start to finish with OUT having loose ends to worry about when done.   It's the point of colorway.   Stripes and multiple colors without having to piece it together from multiple skeins.  Yep, I'm going to leave the other skeins in the corner and buy a different yarn for the next pair.    Most likely the yarn will be wraped in a hank so that I can check for splices before I start. 


Inside the sock.



Cast iron pans: a pizza’s best friend | King Arthur Flour – Baking Banter

Cast iron pans: a pizza’s best friend King Arthur Flour – Baking Banter

I'm telling you this is probably my favorite blog posted by another. I'm obsessed with this pizza technique. I thought I had upgraded when I went to a pizza stone but this by far supersedes it. It's like having a pizza oven in your kitchen. I use an 8" cast-iron skillet I got at the grocery store for about $10. The same grocery store sells the pizza dough in 1-pound packages for $1.49. I divide the dough in half and follow the directions in the blog post. It comes out perfect every time. I mean EVERY time. Thick crust nice and crunchy on the bottom and tender in the middle. Perfect! The reason I had the 8" in the first place was that it fits in my KitchenAid Toaster/Convection oven. No more pizza out of the freezer for me. This is a perfect personal pizza and oh so good! Not to mention alot cheaper. $1.49 for the dough and leftovers from the fridge for TWO personal pizzas...hmmm..gotta head to Winco need more dough.

One of My cast-iron Pizzas! Yummy!