Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, color "Jeans"
Grandma asked me to make the cuffs extra loose so I aimed for 8.5" cuffs for her 8" ankles and then decreased on the leg so they wouldn't be too loose for her foot. I included instructions on how to block the hell out of the cuffs if they were still too tight: wet the cuffs and place them over a drinking glass or plastic bottle until dry. I recommended she look for a glass or plastic bottle that is about 9" around. That should do the trick.
I love working with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock but I think it should be washed by hand if you want to keep it looking nice, even though the label says it's machine washable. I throw all my socks in the washing machine and the LLSS has pilled badly (and doesn't look that great in general, even if you ignore the pills) while my Regia socks from 5 years ago look almost as good as new. That's my experience, I can't explain why some people don't have any problems machine washing their LLSS.
When I bought the yarn for grandma's socks I had this conversation with the LYS worker:
Her: Have you used this Shepherd Sock before?
Me: Yeah
Her: How did it hold up after washing?
Me: Well I wish I didn't machine wash it, it doesn't look very good but they're just socks so I don't care that much. If I used it for a sweater or gloves, something more visible, I'd be upset that the label says it's machine washable.
Her: OK, we had a customer who was upset with us because she machine washed her socks and she felt they were ruined after one washing.
Me: Yeah, if I were you I'd recommend people handwash this yarn.
Right now I'm working on a pair of gloves for my mom's friend, as a favor to my mom. She selected a silky alpaca fingering yarn, black with light blue for contrast around the wrists. I should have known during the swatching process it wouldn't work but I stubbornly knit to the end of the thumb gusset before giving up on the yarn.
Bad glove
Problems: it was too itchy (even though it felt fantastic in the skein) and alpaca yarn doesn't have the kind of spring I want in a glove yarn. Duh. Lesson learned. There's some black sock yarn in the stash so I'll start over with that this weekend. I'll probably do something different around the wrist, depends on the stitch count.
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