Road to Rhinebeck 2022 Socks

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday afternoon I finished up my pair of “Road to Rhinebeck 2022” socks, two days after Rhinebeck ended, not that I got to go anyway.

This was the second year I ordered the “Road to Rhinebeck” sock set from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm.

The finished product

The main colorway is “Road to Rhinebeck 2022” and the accent colorway was called “All the Wine”. They came as a set and are no longer available to order. The yarn base is the Coquette base.

The Coquette base my favorite yarn base to order colorways on from Bumblebee Acres Fiber Farm. I like this base because it is a 3 ply fingering weight so it knits up the thickest, cosiest socks without being too thick.

This morning, just before sitting down to write this post, I washed up this pair of socks as well as the pair of Crackling Fire socks I finished recently. I used the Wool and Cashmere Shampoo by The Laundress New York to wash these socks. The scent is called Cedar, but I don’t know exactly how cedar specific it is, but it has an amazing woodsy scent to it that I love. I love this wash for new socks. For socks I have worn and need to wash I prefer using the original Kookaburra wash that has and smells like tea tree oil or Outback Gold wool wash that also has tea tree oil. I prefer either of these two for socks I have worn because Tea Tree Oil is an antiseptic / anti bacterial / anti fungal properties to help kill any funk that might be in my socks and want to grow and cause problems for my feet.

Monday evening, I hadn’t really felt like finishing up the Road to Rhinebeck socks so I cast on the first of many Christmas socks. I decided to start with the yarn called “little drummer boy” it is the darkest of all then Christmas yarn I recently ordered, so I decided I would tackle it first before our weather and days get much darker and dreamer, leaving the brighter colorways to work as the days get even shorter and rainy.

With the socks I just cast on, I went back to my good ole’ trusty wooden needles that I prefer. I definitely do not like metal needles.

Drying Washed Knits Outside

Hey Everyone!

Now that the warm weather is upon us, whenever I get a pair of socks done, I wait until there is going to be a sunny day with a high temperature above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and preferably below 30% humidity, to wash and dry them. I like to pin my just washed socks to sock blockers and hang them outside on the clothes line to dry. It’s not as easy and takes longer to dry them in the winter, and I have to find an alternative way to hang them to dry. I have yet to really wash a lot of socks in the colder months, though I have a few ideas of how to dry them during that period of time, which if I resort to, I will have to write about and post pictures of. Beings that the weather is more ideal for hanging washed socks outside to dry, I am able to do so.

I love being able to hang my socks out side to dry on hot summer days, because they dry a lot faster, and there is something about hanging outside that helps decrease the amount of wool wash scent that is left in the socks when I bring them in. While I love the scent of Eucalan Wrapture Woolwash, but sometimes it can still be very strong and over powering. I have noticed that when I am able to let whatever I have washed with it, dry outside, the scent that is left behind is not as strong as tends to be when I have to let it dry indoors.

While I personally detest the heat, and am currently camping out in a nice cool, air conditioned house (because it is 95 degrees outside), it has been a perfect day to wash and then hang socks out to dry. While I would typically say I would rather be at the beach, the beach is as bad as it is here in the valley, which is weird. It shouldn’t be 95 degrees on the Oregon Coast, 75 maybe, but 95 is just down right nuts. It’s crazy when the coast is hotter than Eastern Oregon, which was the case in some places today.