In The Navy

And I am off on a mission, I need to turn these lovely Socks That Rock skeins

into a pair of men's socks for DB's birthday, my original idea of doing a toe-up sock and continuing with the cuff until the skein runs out, so not to waste any has had to be changed, as the two skeins although the same shade On the Navy are quite different, one skein is a lighter shade than the other, now I myself don't really mind having odd coloured socks, to me it adds to the uniqueness, but DB was not too keen, so after scouring the Internet, books and magazines etc I came across this lovely pattern for Hearty Man's Plaid Sock this is a lovely pattern and works by alternating rows with the two skeins into a stripe, and where on row one is worked by knit four, slip one; row 2 is plain knit all the way round to give the plaid effect, obviously has my two skeins only vary slightly, the plaid look shall be very subtle, but I bet this would look fantastic with black and a brighter shade, maybe one day I'll make him another pair, if all goes well with these! Thank you Kathleen for the pattern, it really is just what I have been looking for. Now DB's birthday is less than a month away, three weeks. six days to be precise, so I really have got to get cracking on with these, not much of a tall order I know for most knitters, but it is me we're talking about, not exactly a fast worker and easily distracted.... gosh that sounds too familiar to my old school reports.

So I wound the skeins into balls last night and casted on, this is my progress so far

I am only just past the ribbed cuff, so you can't see the plaid effect as yet as I really need to do some more rows first, but will give a progress picture next week.

Thinking of DB Birthday though, has made me realise that we shall be almost half way through the year, crikey where has the time gone, I have not got no where near as many FO's as I would have liked. I have done a few more rows on Flirt, and am now just up to the armhole shaping on the back, but Caister hasn't been touched for weeks, and Chamomile is still hiding behind the sofa untouched, it keeps glaring at me, every time I move it to vacuum, which is not very often believe me.

I have this week however, finished the Monsoon Inside Out Sock, this if you remember is the first kit of the Socks That Rock Club

And here they are being worn (you have to milk these FO's you know, you don't see too many of them on this blog)

I did enjoy making these, although the pattern had a lot of firsts for me, I did find the pattern well written and easy to follow, although I am not too sorry that I do not have to do any more of those tight cable twists. but all in all, a great pattern and lovely yarn of course, and lots of help on the KAL I am so glad I joined in the fun of the club.

Did anyone watch Miss Marple on Friday night, it did make me laugh at the bit, whilst sleuthing to solve these murders, that she reminded herself that she needed to buy some more wool from the yarn shop, good to see her top priorites ;-) you see it is a proven fact that knitting helps the concentration.

Well, hopefully next time I will have a better progress picture with the sock and maybe get a bit more done with the other WIPS. Enjoy your week!

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

Eeek it looks like I've been tagged by Kat. This is my first time of being tagged, but here is how it works. Each player starts with seven random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog the seven things as well as these rules. You are also suppose to tag seven others and list their names, but I'm breaking that rule, I couldn't possibly put anyone under pressure, but if anyone reading, would like to join in please do so and consider yourself tagged! So here goes the seven random facts:

1, I have a wonderful family, my mum is my greatest friend, I have an older sister and brother, who are absolutely fabulous and I have four fantastic beautiful nieces, who I love to bits!

2, I lived with my ex-husband for five years, before being married for ten years, of which the last year steadily became a living hell :-( to the point where I just had to walk away leaving my home and everything that I had built, but also on that day I made a vow that I would not let no-one treat me like rubbish again :-)

3, I have always been quite shy and felt socially awkward, but over the last four years my confidence has gradually got better

4, I have been with DB for three years, he is the most fantastic man and makes me really happy he is my soul-mate and best companion, I wish I had met him years ago and one day I would like to marry him (and yes DB that is a hint)

5, I have worked for the same company for 21 years as a secretary, office administrator, book-keeper, wages clerk, stock-taker, packer and driver all rolled into one.

6, I do not own or wear a skirt, bizarre I know, but it is true, I spent most of my childhood being a bit of a tomboy, running around, playing football and stuff, and the majority of my hobbies now apart from knitting are Country walks with climbing over fences, camping, and riding pillion on a motorbike, all of which wearing a skirt is practically impossible, my entire wardrobe consists of jeans, trousers,shorts, jumpers, cardigans and T-shirts oh and knitted socks of course ;-)

7, It took me four times to pass my driving test, of which afterwards, I didn't drive a car for nine years, but now I drive everyday and love it!

So there is my seven facts, once again, anyone reading and would like to join in please do so, after listing all those bits of information i'm off to have a cup of coffee now and do a few more rows on the monsoon sock!

KNITTING PROGRESS

This shall be a bit of a shorter post than usual, due to the simple fact that I do not have much to show for the past fortnight on the knitting front!


Have you ever been there, where despite being surrounded by tons of patterns and yarn, you just can't decide what to make, maybe it is a case of being just to spoilt for choice! I have been wanting to make a summery top for a while now, something that is quick and simple that will be made hopefully before the summer is in full swing. The trouble is all the summer patterns that I do like, tend to be just that little bit too revealing for me, they certainly would look better with a tan, and not the milky white skin that I have been blessed with ;-) and fake tans don't really work for me either as I usually end up looking like a streaky tango person! And DB suggestion that you can always wear a cardigan over the top is not very helpful either! Err does that not defeat the object of making something summery!


I had ordered some lovely Jaegar Aqua cotton yarn in a light purple heather shade and at the same time ordered the Jaegar summer pattern booklet, feeling sure that there would be something that I could make, but when it arrived, although I love the yarn, the booklet did not contain one pattern that I wanted to make, let alone wear!


So over this past fortnight, I have been starting and frogging several tops, and almost feeling in a panic that I may have lost the knitting mojo! But then I came across this pattern



It is Flirt from a rather old issue of Rowan, Book no 27, that is the great thing with Rowan patterns, they never really date and can be used time and time again.

This is a great pattern for TV watching too, there are only two eyelet rows in a 24 row pattern the rest in between apart from the usual shaping is good old plain stocking stitch, The Jaegar Aqua is a lovely yarn to knit with too, almost a cross between cotton glace and 4 ply! This is my progress so far on the back!
















I would have probably got quite a bit further, but have been interrupted by the arrival of these!



These books are written by Yarn Harlot and are absolutely fabulous, I just can't put them down, I think every knitter at some point can relate to the quotes and stories in this book and at least makes you feel that the love of yarn is not really so insane!

DB's black socks are no more, Yup they've been frogged, I was making them from Debbie Bliss Merino DK yarn and I have been worrying about the durability of them for a while and then on the last ball I was using the yarn itself was just full of knotted ends, not at all what you want with sock yarn and I has had not purchased any spare, thought I would be best to order some more rather than run out at the end, to then find out that the yarn has been discontinued, can you believe it. I looked on ebay and found some. but then dropped out when three balls went up to sixteen pounds, as much I wanted to knit him these socks, paying in excess of £5.25 a ball, when the yarn cost only £3.50 in the first place, cannot be justified! So instead I have used the money and ordered from Blue Moon Fibers, two skeins of their medium weight yarn in the shade called In the Navy for him instead, at least I will be making them in a lovely yarn that I like and will hopefully look much nicer than plain black! I am hoping the skeins will arrive soon so I can get started, it's his birthday in June also, so fingers crossed that I will get them finished for then!


Talking of Blue Moon Fibers, the second sock kit has arrived and is a pattern called grasshopper, the yarn is absolutely gorgeous and soft and also contains silk, The grasshopper pattern is a lace pattern, something which I never done before, and is a toe-up sock again with a windershin heel, which is also new to me. I am looking forward to starting them, but must get other WIPs finished first.


I have started the second Monsoon sock and that is coming on well, as I am about half way up the foot, I am looking forward to having these finished so I can wear them ;-)




So that's it til next time Enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday and fingers crossed for the sunshine to come back!