Swatch

Pictured above is one of my examples of doing the bare minimum of swatching. (It is being held down by two knitting calendars because of it's tendency to curl up!) I knit this little swatch last night from Tofutsies yarn on US 0 (zero) needles. I received this sample of yarn from my awesome wee tiny sock swap partner (back in March - I didn't have a blog then to post about it) from the blog Knitting Adventures. Be sure to check out her blog, because she just took a trip to Paris and posted great pictures! My favorite post was of the Parisian dogs - so cute! She sent me a beautiful mini sock knit from this yarn and also included chocolates and some extra Tofutsies yarn for me to try (swatched above)! She displayed the wee sock on the front of the card she sent, and it looked so pretty that way, I just had to put it in a frame:
It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but there are pretty little cables on the leg of the sock. This picture may show it better:

I love the colors in this yarn and really think I want to buy a skein. It is making me less than excited to knit the tan Tofutsies yarn I currently have (which will probably make more practical socks - but not as fun!) I got 9 stitches to an inch so I will look for a pattern that meets this criteria. Either that or try something from Sensational Knitted Socks.

So, I may try to knit at least two pairs of Tofutsies socks during the Summer of Socks. They will probably be slow-going on the size zero needles though! The yarn seems "stringy" when you hold it in your hand, but it seems to knit up into a nice, soft fabric. I am looking forward to wearing a completed pair of socks! Also, there is some wool in these socks, so maybe that will help me break my aversion to wool sock yarns! (The aversion does help me save money though, it is much tougher to find non-wool sock yarns; thus my relatively small sock yarn stash!) I am not allergic to wool, but I just seem to find most wools scratchy. I know the Yarn Harlot would be so upset with me... ;-)

Tofutsies is an interesting yarn. It is made of:
50% superwash wool
25% SOYSILK brand fiber
22.5% cotton
2.5% Chitin (from shrimp & crab shells)

I love finding sock yarns with unique "ingredients". I am looking forward to trying Panda Soy when it comes out this fall. It is 49% bamboo, 33% soy and 18% elastic nylon. I really like the "evening blues" colorway.

I never know how to end my blog posts...