Ooooh. Two posts on consecutive days!

Lets see who can pick the afternoons where Euan is having a long sleep? It's great because, not only is the house quiet, but I can waste time doing things like taking photos of wool and blogging. Aren't you all so lucky :-)

Anyhoo, here are some pics of my recent sock yarn purchases. I actually have most of them lined up for projects and I'm just waiting for my stomach to settle down so I can get started.

These two skeins I got from Knitterly Things, which stocks the most gorgeous hand dyed sock yarns.


This one I'm planning to use for a pair of Jaywalkers (and here for all the other relevant stuff). I must be the only person on the planet not to have knitted these but I was waiting for the right yarn to come along. I saw them knitted in this exact yarn and they looked so great that I have to stalk the site until they released some more.


I haven't completely decided on a pattern for these but I'm thinking Monkeys. This site has oodles of Monkeys, in fact I think she is Monkey Mad. But they are great looking socks.

The other two skeins I got from Ecoyarns, which is an Aussie site that does...um...eco yarns :-) They have really nice organic cottons, wools etc.. and I gave in and joined their sock club. It's my first club and I was nervous that I wouldn't like it or it would be to expensive, but so far so good.


This is my special sock club yarn. It came with a pretty funky pattern so I might give that a whirl.


This is some other yarn I bought because I love purple. I was thinking of trying these socks as they look like great summer socks and it would be a novelty to not sub yarn for once.

Part of me is thinking I should make one pair of socks for my Secret Pal as I haven't got my shit together and sent her anything yet. I have lots of ideas but am struggling to sort stuff out. Luckily I have a bit of time but I did want to send her a few different parcels. Hmm..I guess I'd actually have to knit something first though, which may be the sticking point.

There you go. Another update. Aren't you lucky! I feel sick now so I'm going to lie down. Bye.

Frogging Life

Do you ever wish you could rip back a few weeks, months or years and make a few minor adjustments to improve the current WIP (or life as some people call it)? I sometimes look at my son and think "if only I had added this bit or not done this, then things might be a bit easier". I wish I'd inserted a lifeline to I could rip back with impunity. That's not to say he isn't a great kid but he has a few habits that I'd love to change but they seem a little embedded now even though he's only 2. Anyway, just the rambling thoughts of someone without much sleep.

Finally finished the Surprise Socks, which were actually my Dad's birthday present. I started them a few weeks ago and raced through the first sock only to run out of yarn 2 inches before the end of the second. As it was hand dyed yarn I couldn't just order more so I was lazy and ripped back to the start of the gusset and took a few stitches out (my Dad has narrow feet) but that made the yarn pool horribly so I had to face the music and rip back a few inches before the heel flap. I was so upset as I found the heel a pain (these are only my second socks) but I actually found a good mini-tute to pick up the stitches on my heel flap and so they came out better the second time around. Anyway here's one of them with my Dad modelling:


Pattern: Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks from Knitting Vintage Sock by Nancy Bush. My only mod was making them a bit shorter. Used the same amount of rib but less stockingette. I liked the longer look but just didn't have enough yarn.

Needles: Addi 2.5mm 40cm (started on dpns but just couldn't get my fingers around them and found 2 circs much easier and quicker)

Yarn: Hand dyed 100% merino fingering weight. Used the full 100g.

Duration: About 2.5 weeks due the all the problems. I didn't really read the pattern properly. It's written for men's size 8-9 but my Dad has size 12 feet so I needed a lot of extra yarn.

And just for posterity here's a picture of Dad and Euan:

Euan is wearing my first ever FO which was a beanie I made for my Dad's 40th birthday when I was 9. It was an acrylic, garter stitch monstrosity which he still treasures. I hope he likes the socks as much. He seemed a little under whelmed by them but I'm not sure he realised that I'd made them. He did ask if they were machine knitted which I am trying to take as a compliment. I guess someone in the family will let me know what he thinks of them (he's not that good at expressing himself).

And here's a little WIP. It's the argosy scarf from Knitty in Noro Silk Garden. This is after a day and a bit, so I'm hoping to finish it today.

FO - Candy Socks

I know I have a heap of other FOs to post about but they are old and these are new, so these can go first. These are the 3rd pair of socks that I have started but the first that I have actually finished. That may be because they are in DK yarn instead of sock yarn, but they are socks none the less. I did these after a bit of inspiration from this Craftster thread and also because it's the middle of winter here and it's nice to have something a little colourful in all the gloom.

Pattern: just a basic toe up sock using this great cast on tute, which I found on Grumperina's blog. Also a little help from Knitty and a reminder about short row heels.

Needles: Addi 3.5mm 60cm. My first go a the magic loop and I thought it was great although I wish I'd had 80cm needles.

Yarn: My own hand dyed 100% merino. It's superwash, takes dye beautifully and hardly pills at all. It was a large batch that I did for a few other things (see previous post) but had enough left over to make these. It only took about 60g for the pair.

Duration: A weekend. Basically one sock Saturday and one sock Sunday. I was pretty happy with that!

As you can see my short row heel needs work. I think I was just being too loose with my stitches so I will have to try a bit harder. I'm a bit disappointed actually but as I have firmly caught the sock knitting bug I will get a lot more chance to perfect this.

I'm really happy with the way this yarn turned out that I'm thinking I should get back to dyeing. I'm even thinking about opening my little shop back up. I've found a great source for merino and merino/cashmere yarn and I think it would look great in funk bold colours. What do you all think??