Yeah! Only 77 Yards for a Pair of Socks -- Playing with Rowan Tumble

Lately I've been really challenging myself to come up with One-Skein Wonders.  You see, Rowan sends me samples of its new seasonal yarns to try out, but I refuse to knit something with no purpose.  This tends to be easier with thinner yarns, which have some yardage to work with.

Enter Rowan Tumble, a super-duper-über-bulky yarn with only *77 yards* per ball! 

/head scratch/

This is an extremely strange yarn, in my opinion.  It's like a rope of wool that was thrown to felt in the wash, run thorough a ringer, then dried under that mysterious "permanent press" setting for extra extra long.  I guess the word 'tumble' makes sense, then!

Compared to Rowan Big Wool (center) and Rowan Felted Tweed DK (bottom):

Honestly, there was no way I could guess the fiber content.  I even brought it to my knitting group (hi, Rogues!) and had them guess... acrylic was the number one choice, I must say, but the softness didn't match.  Guess what?  

90% alpaca. 10% cotton. totally. natural.

It's very soft and hairy, but with no obvious shedding, because the long alpaca hairs are matted inside... I imagine it's a bit like a Rasta alpaca might look (do they farm alpacas in jamaica?).  

(and here I was thinking I'd have to Photoshop something, but what don't you find on the internet?!)

The real plus of this yarn is it's warmth.  This stuff should be used for cold cold weather projects.  As I am one of those crazy must-wear-socks-to-bed people, AND I live in Montréal, I thought I'd try to make a pair of winter bed socks.

Imagine my delight at finding a free super-bulky socks pattern by Liat Gat of KNITfreedom that only needed 80-90 yards of yarn.

She uses Malabrigo Rasta (speak of the devil)... nice, huh?

I split the ball into two by weight.  But you can see that I reversed the direction of striping for one of the balls.  Oops!

Also, one sock is much longer than the other.  Double oops!

But who cares.  :)  Well.  Actually, my husband does.  He hates that I wear socks to bed.  The first thing he said when he saw my modeled sock was,

"Nice cast."

So I had to find a fan elsewhere (random neighborhood cat who comes by).

And... ouch.

Hey, by the way, if you've never knit a sock before, go buy a ball of Tumble and try this pattern.  You'll get everything you need to understand basic sock construction, and you'll get a killer warm pair of cozy socks.

Here's something else I found for 1 ball of Tumble... cute!

If you feel like you want to own more than one ball, :p, you have some pattern support options.  My picks: this "coatigan" (my new favorite ridiculous word), Pitch, from the book Tumble.

The Crispin Snood from the book Warm and Toasty...

... and Enthral from the Kim Hargreaves book, Enchanted.

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My Tumble Socks on Ravelry

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