notes from the weekend.

I sat in the garden in the morning sun with some knitting and a book,

I cast on for new sock,

and I cooked a roast dinner and baked some yummy pumpkin muffins.

These things are seriously good I enjoyed one this morning for breakfast, along with a mug of apple cinnamon tea. Oh how I love autumn.

The only thing I changed from the recipe was reduce the sugar slightly (I used 1/2 a cup rather than 3/4), but the next time I make them I think they’d be lovely with a handful of chopped nuts or some chocolate chips. It’s a testament to how yummy they are that 21 muffins came out of the oven yesterday afternoon, and only 14 remain today….

Back to the socks, I really can’t decide how I feel about them. I cast them on wanting something plain, and although I like the subtle variegation part of me feels like it’s missing a bit of texture. I’m half tempted to rip back to the cuff and start again with Hermione’s Everyday Socks, but I’m almost at the heel and I’d hate for all of my weekend to have to go to waste!

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back to business

Well hello there, I seem to have unintentionally taken my annual summer hiatus from the blog! The last few months have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Not long after my last blog post I was called back in to my ex-workplace to help out with a project that was close to deadline for a few weeks. And then I got some incredibly tragic news about a friend which just pushed everything out of focus while friends and family tried to wrap our heads around it.

Things are starting to get back on track though, and I’m kicking off my return with a sock for Socktoberfest!

Pattern: plain top down vanilla socks with a short row heel (notes on Ravelry)

Yarn: Rico Design Superba Poems and Regia Stretch Color for contrasting cuffs, heels and toes

Ravelled here.

These socks were an emergency cast on as the Boy was dragging me to the cinema to see Looper (great film, by the way. I thought it was going to be one of those stressful, difficult to watch films but it was brilliant and I enjoyed it so much more than I was expecting to!) and I had… *shock horror*…. no vanilla socks to take with me! I kept the cuffs short so that I wouldn’t be knitting ribbing when the film started. I’ve been caught out with that one before; I always get so engrossed in the film that I lose track of what I’m doing, can’t remember if I’m supposed to be knitting or purling and end up with a couple of mistaken yarn overs and a mess of rib. Not good.

Once I got started, these socks zoomed by and were off the needles in a little over a week. I even don’t mind the fact that they’re not matchy matchy. I initially thought I was going to get a little twitchy about not being able to match the gradients because I forgot to make a note of where I joined the colour on the first sock, but then I decided to embrace the idea of fraternal gradient socks. If these were striped or patterned I would definitely be getting a little bit of twitchy rage at them not being identical, but I quite like it in the gradient, there’s something softer about the mismatch that almost works.

This yarn seems to provoke quite a vitriolic response in the Ravelry comments, but I quite honestly can’t see what the fuss is about. I actually quite like it. It has an almost handspun look when it’s knit up that to my mind translates to something cosy and comforting, and until I get around to spinning my own sock yarn these will do quite nicely. I did want to offer my counter to a lot of the negative comments I’ve seen surrounding this yarn though, so here goes:

• It is on the hairy side for sock yarn, but it’s not scratchy or itchy.

• It’s not soft either so personally I think it’s best for socks, but unless you have particularly sensitive skin it would be fine for a shawl or a scarf.

• It is not plied, it is a single. Because of this I’m not sure how hardwearing it’ll be as a sock yarn, but I’ve used my favourite workhorse Regia yarn for the heels and toes so hopefully it won’t fare too badly. We’ll see…

• It is a little splitty, but not too bad. I’ve knit with a lot worse before. I managed to knit this in the dark at the cinema and worked quite a few inches without working any split stitches, so it can’t be that bad :)

The needles have not been idle this past few months so I have quite a few things to share with you, but I’m going to ease back into things. I know I promised a couple of recipes in my last post, and I will get round to doing them! The pictures are all done, so I just need to sit down and write them up. In the mean time, I’ve got a lot of blog feeds to be catching up on….

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ennui

Sorry for the extended absence this past month, but I have been suffering from some major ennui lately. I think it was possibly sparked off by how crazy things got towards the end of May when my godson decided to put in a very sudden and unexpected appearance a whole two weeks early! This was immediately followed by the Queen’s Jubilee, I had to go on a course for some volunteer work I’m doing, and then there’s my new found motivation to get fit and finally lose the pounds that I’ve been packing on over the past six years, and amongst all that the needles have been strangely silent. Even my reading slowed down; I’m still on the fifth Game of Thrones book!

I’m slowly finding my feet again though. I started a new pair of vanilla socks for some cinema knitting, and after an agonising yarn stash deliberation I settled on a predictable grey but thought I’d spice it up with some bright yellow heels and toes. Of course I didn’t have quite the right shade of yellow, so out came the dyes…

… and whilst I was at it, why not stick some roving in as well?!

And this is what I pulled out of the dyepot in the first picture. I love it so much that I’m dyeing up some more to stick in the shop, as it’s looking shamefully bare in there at the moment.

I’ve got a couple of recipe posts lined up, but here’s a little sneak peek for now!

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inconceivable!

I found myself without any active WIPs on the go yesterday. Since I found the idea of not having any socks on the needles inconceivable (anyone out there who can say that word without thinking of the Princess Bride needs to go and watch that film NOW!) so I cast on for these Cheery Littlebottom socks. It’s the April/May mystery KAL pattern for the SolidSocks group, and I thought of this Regia yarn from my stash as soon as I saw it. I’ve been meaning to cast on since halfway through April but never quite got around to it so I’m glad to finally have it on the needles at last. I think it’s safe to say that I’m not going to get these finished by the end of May!

My Baby Surprise Jacket has been off the needles for well over a week, but it’s still lingering as a WIP since I still have all the ends to weave in and all the buttons to attach. I better get a move on though, the baby is due in a couple of weeks and I still have soakers to knit and onesies to embroider!

I used an applied i-cord to bind off, and I love how it turned out. I always thought that i-cord borders involved knitting yards of i-cord, followed by painstakingly sewing on said i-cord, which sounds like an incredibly tedious thing to do. Not so with an applied i-cord! You’re knitting an i-cord, attaching it, and binding off in one fell swoop, and it gives a lovely polished edge. I’m a definite convert.

There was also a bit of spinning action that went on this weekend. I hand-dyed this fibre a few months ago, and perhaps it’s a touch of Jubilee fever but I thought it looked a tad patriotic (if you squint, and imagine that the purple is actually blue….).

It was a quick spin, started on the Saturday night as a Champions League football avoidance measure, and finished on Saturday afternoon. I didn’t have an exact picture of how I thought the colours would look spun up, but I suppose I thought there would more prominent sections of the undyed white so I was initially a little surprised by the levels of pink. Of course, if I’d bothered to apply any common sense at all I might possibly have realised that white and red obviously blend to make pink, which is why the finished skein has such an overwhelming pinkish hue!

It’s about a 4ply weight, and I was quite pleased that I managed to keep my singles fairly consistent, especially since I was balancing my kindle on one knee and reading at the same time! What can I say, I just can’t put down the whole Game of Thrones saga. I’m not typically a fan of this sort of epic fantasy genre, but this stuff is engrossing! I read the first book out of sheer curiosity from all the hype, and I was completely hooked. I’ve been devouring them all in quick succession and I’m now on the fifth book of the series. Not looking forward to finishing it and having to wait such a long time for the last two books to be published!

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Sunday Best

I’ve just realised that I never really got around to blogging about my Coopknits mystery socks! They got a little glimpse in my Colour Lovers post, but I think they deserve a little more attention because I LOVE them!

Pattern: UK Sock Knitters March Mystery by Rachel Coopey

Yarn: elephantjuice Super Sock 4ply

Ravelled here.

Coopknits is a sock genius. I’ve admired her gorgeous patterns for a while but this is the first one I’ve knit, and now I just want to cast on for all of her designs. I just can’t get enough of those crisp textures and twisted stitches!

I will admit that when I first saw the charts for these socks I was a little overwhelmed, but the actual knitting of it is very simple, and once I figured out what was going on it became very intuitive. Although there were a more than a few little lapses where I didn’t pay enough attention, or became too engrossed in my book and to do a little bit of tinking!

The only change I made to the pattern was to the toe, where I carried out my usual practice of decreasing every other row until about half the stitches remain, and then switching to decreasing every row before grafting the remaining stitches. It just gives me a toe which is ever so slightly more rounded than a standard “decrease every other row” toe.

On the whole, I really couldn’t be happier with how these came out. I’m so pleased with the yarn too. It was a bit of an experiment so I had no idea how it was going to knit up, and was really curious about how the little splashes of orange would look in a finished knit. It turned out nicer than I could have hoped, and the orange adds a bit of lively interest to the grey.

For a long time while during the knitting of the first sock I worried that I was going to run out of yarn. I was using a slightly underweight skein that I’d decided to keep for myself, so I was keeping a very close eye on the scales to check whether I’d hit the halfway mark before the end of Sock 1. I panicked in a moment of weakness and dyed a backup skein, but I needn’t have bothered because I ended up with a fairly healthy 10g leftover. The practical side of my is telling me to pop it into my pile of scraps for future darnings, but I’m very tempted to use it for a little hexipuff!

I’m not entirely sure that these socks will ever need darning though, because I’m being strangely precious with them! I’m usually so eager to pull on a pair of freshly knit socks and go trampling about outdoors in them, because there’s something so undeniably cosy about feet wrapped in all those little handmade stitches. But for some reason I’m shying away from wearing these lovelies inside of any shoes or boots, and instead am quite content to pad about the house in them, and admire them sitting on the radiator. I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now they’re my Sunday Best.

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shades of grey

I cast on for a Stripe Study shawl. I’ve been wanting to knit one for so long! I bought the yarn for it at the tail end of last year but for some reason I’ve been putting off casting on. I’m still working on the twisty socks, but I just couldn’t wait any longer for a Stripe Study!

I’ve worked about three inches further along the foot with the sock since I took this photo. I always find working on the foot the most enjoyable part of a sock. I love doing the heel flap and picking up the gusset stitches, but once you’re onto the foot it feels like the home stretch. Of course it doesn’t hurt that by the time you’ve made it this far you’re already pretty familiar with the pattern, and being able to knit plain stocking stitch for half of the round feels like a lovely welcome treat!

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done, done, done at last!

I finally did it! After finishing my Galileo socks I felt bad that I still hadn’t gotten around to sewing in all those ends for the Boy’s socks, so I grit my teeth, stuck some Lewis on and hunkered down with my tapestry needle. By the end of it I was thoroughly fed up with ends and finishing, but I’m glad it’s all done now. And the Boy is glad that he’s got another pair of socks to keep his toes toasty. Happy campers all around.

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twisted stitches

This sock is full of them. It’s taking a while, partly because I keep getting too engrossed in Catching Fire, and this isn’t exactly the best reading knit out there! More than once I’ve missed a mini cable out and had to drop down a few rows to fix it. I’m definitely getting some cable fixing practice in with this sock.

Still, I love how crisp the twisted stitches look, and I am absolutely loving how this yarn is knitting up. I was really unsure of how it would look after I’d dyed it, but I’m finding the little flecks of orange that pop up against the grey so much fun!

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nothing quite like…

… a freshly caked skein of yarn.

Now that I’ve finally finished the Galileo mystery socks I can finally cast on for the March mystery socks in the UK Sock Knitters group!

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i see a little silhouetto of a man

My Galileo socks are done!

Pattern: Solid Socks February Mystery KAL by Laura Jenkins

Yarn: Zettl Valbella

Ravelled here.

This pattern called for beads, but not being a bead-y type person I left them out and just did purl stitches in their place. I did see a few projects which used nupps or bobbles in place of the beads, and for a long time I wished I’d seen that idea earlier so that I could have incorporated it. In hindsight, I’m glad that I didn’t. It’s a nice idea in theory, but it wouldn’t have worked for me. The beads/nupps/bobbles are supposed to be placed on the front and back of the leg, and since my whole wardrobe is made up of leggings/jeggings/skinny jeans and boots, bobbley things on the leg would probably a) be rather uncomfortable, and b) give a rather strange silhouette!

Two pattern repeats along the foot was almost but not quite enough length for me. I didn’t want to break into another pattern repeat just to leave it half finished, so in the end I knit the first row of the toe section followed by five rows of plain stocking stitch, and then carried on with the toe decreases.

I was really unsure about these socks at first. The colour seemed too dark, the fit seemed too large, but I’m glad I carried on with them because I love them now. The first sock of the pair took me almost a month to complete because of all my dithering, but the second only took a week, which I think is a pretty good indicator of how much I enjoyed knitting them!

It’s an easy pattern to follow, just a little fiddly at times because of all the twisted stitches which form the “moons” along the sides. There’s enough repetition in the pattern to make it easy to read your knitting and not feel tied to the pattern the whole time, but it’s interesting and varied enough to not feel boring.

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oh no, she’s not a secret now

Last night my new found love, my bamboo 9inch Hiya Hiyas, snapped.

There it is, the crime scene photo, all it’s gory detail captured on my phone. And ever since, this song has been stuck in my head.

It’s the first pair of needles I’ve ever broken, and in true sod’s law fashion the breakage didn’t occur where the swathes of stocking stitch were, but right where my column of yarn overs lay... Thankfully I only lost a couple of stitches, and it wasn’t too difficult pick them up, but I still swore enough to make a sailor blush. Dark yarn + bad lighting does not make for a particularly easy stitch rescue. Still, at least they didn’t break over the cables!

More cursing followed my frantic search for the steel tipped needles I’d bought in the same order as the bamboo (so that I could see which tips I preferred. Pack rat mentality comes in handy sometimes!) but the crisis was eventually averted, and I’m now 1.5 pattern repeats and a toe away from the finish time.

If I’d had these needles for a few months longer and if they’d been well used I would have just sucked it up and forked out the cash for a new (steel!) pair, but I’ve only had these since the end of January/beginning of February and this is only the second time I’ve used them, so I emailed the vendor I bought them from straight away at about 9pm, certainly not expecting to get a reply until at least the next day. A little over 2 and a half hours later at almost midnight(!) a reply landed in my inbox apologising for the breakage and offering a replacement. How’s that for customer service?! So thank you Linda at Tall Yarns ‘n Tales for such wonderful customer service!

She did say that this is only the second time she’s been informed about a broken needle, so I certainly don’t want to put anyone off buying the bamboo Hiya Hiyas. They’re fabulous little needles, and bamboo will always remain my first love in terms of needle material. However, the steel ones do feel a little sturdier, so when I stock up (and I will be stocking up on a few more of these 9inchers, I’m head over heels with them!) I’ll probably stick with the steel.

In other news, the Boy and I are off to see Doug Stanhope tonight. I don’t find him quite as amusing as the Boy does, so my plans for this afternoon include sorting out a sock project to bring along so that I can clickety click the night away…

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if the sock fits

It’s been a hectic week round these parts. I had a volunteer job interview, my Mum booked a very last minute trip back to Singapore, there was baby sitting, and there was a long overdue catch up with friends, but at long last sock 1 of my mystery socks is finally off the needles! It turns out that all that fretting was for nothing. Although I think I could probably have gotten away with making the medium size, the large still fits nicely, and the cables really pop along the foot. I did have a bit of a toe issue – the two pattern repeats I did of the foot pattern didn’t quite give me the length I needed, and as I just wanted to get them off the needles I thought I could just work an extra few decrease rows. Er, not quite. Three extra decrease rows did give me a sock that fit, but it came at the cost of  a ridiculously pointy toe. I decided that there was no way I could live with a toe that stupid looking so I unpicked the kitchener, ripped back the toe and knit five plain rows before starting the decreases. Perfect.

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lazy days

I’m having a super lazy Saturday. I spent some time catching up on some Playful Day podcasts whilst I painted my nails, and I LOVE how my nails turned out! They’re gold scribbles on a baby blue base.

I have a heel for my mystery sock.

And I’m thinking of casting on for another mystery sock, despite being so woefully behind in the other one, in some of my hand dyed yarn. This skein is a complete experiment. I was dyeing a semi solid grey when I accidently tipped a whole pot of grey dye stock all over the yarn. Luckily the darker section doesn’t look too bad, I dunked it in water immediately so it’s blended out somewhat.

I did then decide to dot some orange dye around to see what it would look like, but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s going to knit up too well! I’ve a feeling this would have looked better with yellow instead of orange, but I won’t know until I try. The pattern I have in mind for this has quite a few cables and travelling stitches, but now I’m in two minds about whether to knit this up as plain vanilla sock instead. I probably shouldn’t because I’ve already got a vanilla sock on the go, but I’m just so indecisive!

And just because I love my nails so much right now, and I really like the way the gold looks in the sunlight!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

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