The Hawthorne Challenge


Knit Picks and Valley Yarns both make superb yarns for extremely reasonable prices, and I'm a huge fan of both - particularly when a color is discontinued or there is otherwise a great sale going on.  Hawthorne is a beautiful, hand-dyed Knit Picks sock yarn, but it has stymied me once again.  It's a bit denser and more tightly wound than the fingering weight yarns I usually work with, but I grabbed my go-to size 0 double points for some reason thinking it would work itself into place magically.

No such luck.

I didn't take a photo, but I just ripped out about 1/4 of a completed sock that was the wrong gauge.  Why did I keep thinking it might loosen up with blocking??  I also selected a pattern (new to me) that didn't make sense either, so the whole thing called for a complete do-over.

I remain inspired by Yarn Harlot's recurring self-imposed sock club (see her 1/1/19 blog entry for the latest iteration).  I just finished a pair of ankle-height socks (toe-up as well!) so technically I'm good for January.  But it might just take me the rest of the month to find a sock pattern and a gauge that will do justice to this beautiful Hawthorne yarn!


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