Tofutsies!

Has any one else tried the new yarn Tofutsies with Chitin (crab/shrimp shells) in it? I called my LYS and had them call me when it arrived, went for a crank-in (all by myself, but maybe next time!!) this last weekend.

The yarn comes in 100gram balls, plenty for a pair of socks for almost any size foot, as it is a fine yarn! Possibly finer than, definitely at least as fine as, Opal sock yarn. It's 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% chitin. Not as elastic as wool/nylon, but definitely some spring to it.

I first tried a sock on the 54 cylinder -- nope, much too fine for that, unless I really wanted to crank the tension right down and try for a child's sock. So I frogged (unknit -- ribbit, i.e. rip it out) the sock and did another on the 72 cylinder. This is a 72 I'm still "tuning", as I just cleaned up my "spare" Legare cam this last weekend too and found a "like new" 72 cylinder in my stash along with two clearly used ones (each one had a chip out of one slot near the top). Something's rubbing funny, I think it's a burr on the V cam edge, as I've swapped around the cam screws so it's not them (any more!).

So, to make a short story long, I didn't have the 72 tied town to an extremely tight tension, though I did have it above the 1/2 way mark (my usual starting point with most yarns). It knit along nicely; the final sock had a very nice 1/1 rib, a good 3/1 rib, but the stockinette on the heel and bottom of the foot is still a bit looser than I'd like (even with the tension spring on). I'm thinking a few more turns of the tension nut. I also made one of Roxanna's I-cord socks, for the LYS -- that worked like a charm, and turned out quite cute!

I haven't washed my sock yet as I want to knit its mate; washing the mini I-cord sock does show some promise, that the yarn might fluff a bit upon washing, which would be a _good_ thing!

Anyway, word is still out on whether those with shell-fish allergies should avoid this yarn (please note, chitin is the shell of crabs and shrimps), but it has a nice feel to it, I'm thinking it'll be great in summer socks. It's space-dyed, tends to knit up in a spiral type of pattern. I'll try (no promises!) to get a photo of my sock into the album for folks to see (and the mini!). Though I may wait until
the mate is knit, so I can wash up the new pair to see if I get the fluffing I want (or if the second pair needs to be knit on a tighter tension, as I am currently thinking).

Sooo, have you tried Tofutsies? what do you think?

(posted by me on sockmachinefriends this day)

3 comments:

HomegrownTexan said...

I haven't tried it yet, but I bought a couple of balls of this to knit a pair for myself and a pair for a friend as a birthday present. I'm doing her socks first and have just cast the first one on. I'd really love to see a picture of how the color pattern turns out!

Amelia of Ask The Bellwether said...

See today's posting for the photo of Tofutsies...

Amelia of Ask The Bellwether said...

That posting is here!