Socks, Socks, Socks

At last, they are done, the man's socks, I have being promising DB for the last six months, eight days later than my final agreed deadline of being completed for his birthday, but hey they done and they fit OK too...

I will try and get him to model them for next post, but at the moment, he says they are too hot to wear, can you believe it, after all the work I put in to getting them done, there's gratitude for you ;-)

But now that's out of the way, I can cast on another pair, for myself this time though ;-)

Can you remember last post, I purchased the STR skein colourway Knitty Rocks, yeah that one, so bright it leaps out to you from the monitor. Here's a few pictures of it, unravelled from its skein, wound into balls and a sample of it knitted up

Here is the skein, unravelled and ready to be wound in to a ball, the hank hanger incidentally is a device which DB made for me, after seeing the complete tangle and frustrated mess I made once trying to wind a skein into a ball on my lap! he thought of and made this, the idea with this, is so I can clamp it to the shelf at the side of my chair and to be able to adjust the height, length and angle according to my seated position and hand wind into a ball, while the weight of the skein with gravity untangles itself as you go, once hand wound into balls, I then rewind with a ball winder into centre pull balls, this is probably not as quick as using a swift, but it does work well and the good thing, is it uses very little space and all can be done from my chair. DB has been bugging me to put this on the blog, just to prove that after the last post of putting his socks on upside down, he is not a complete gonk really, lol!

Here the skein wound into balls, at this point, I'm beginning to feel a little uneasy about the colourway, a good part of the skein, has some fluorescent lime green pieces, which I'm not keen on, when I originally ordered the skein, those didn't seem as electric as they do in real life.

I decided to knit a pair of Jaywalkers with this, after seeing the pattern tons of times on other people's blog, I quite fancied a pair, typical of me, following the trend, a year of so behind everyone else. This is them knitted so far, I am not usually this adventurous with colour and these certainly are technicolour. I am really not sure what to think of them, they turning out most unusual don't you think?

The third STR Kit has now arrived too, blimey the year is certainly rushing by, I have still not thought about what to make with the second kit, yarn yet, the pattern for that one was called grasshopper, a rather lacy pattern, which I think may be beyond my reach, and I am not all that keen on holey socks either, maybe a few lacy holes but not as much as in the grasshopper pattern. Anyway sorry, I digress, here's is the picture of the June Kit, a lovely pattern with a lovely skein called Firebird, perfect for the summer I think! This pattern is called The Solstice Slip, This is my favourite kit so far...

I'm feeling a lot less stressed now than I was last post, especially as I have this week off work, lots of knitting in order I think, we were going to go camping, but all the rain we have had lately, our campsite is water logged, so we shall have to wait towards the end of the week and see if we can get on then. We are hoping to go to Whitby, I've not been there since I was a child and the quick break will be a nice change. I am also hoping to find a yarn shop or two to browse in and of course I will be taking the jaywalkers to knit whilst I am there. Fingers crossed for the sunshine ;-)

Cars, Knitting and British Weather

Well, it's been a strange fortnight, were things just have not gone quite how they should, It starts of with about four weeks ago, the lock on the boot of my car got stuck and stayed locked, impossible to open manually with the key and the only way to open it was to climb through the hole with the back seat down, and open it from the inside and then of course as soon as you locked the car with the central locking, it locked and stuck again, talk about inconvenient, so we took it the local garage and was told that a complete new boot lock would be needed and as it is a fairly old car, the part would need to be ordered specially and would take approx a couple of weeks, now at the end of June, the car was ready for its MOT, so rather than take two days holiday off work, I asked them to bring the MOT forward and put the new lock in at the same time. So in the morning of the day the car was booked in I dropped the car off and was told it would be ready mid-afternoon, but when I went back to collect it. I was told it had failed its MOT, due to a bad earth on the back lights, so in effect, when the lights are on and you apply the break, the lights flash alternately, a bit like a disco! and then they said they couldn't fix it, as they couldn't open the boot, and they were still waiting for the boot lock to arrive, as it was in back order and they couldn't say how long it was going to take, days or weeks! I was not at all happy ;-( not only had I wasted a day's holiday, I was left with a car with no MOT and still with a boot that couldn't open. I really need the car to travel to work, as work is approx ten miles from where I live and I would need to catch two buses, which never run on time. So then DB got home and managed to sort the boot lock, as he discovered it was the central locking bit that had ceased, so removed that bit all together and now the boot can be locked and unlocked manually with the key, he also sorted the bad earth on the lights too, so the following day I left work early, and took it back to the garage and all is well as it passed, we tried to cancel the new lock, but was told we couldn't as surprise, surprise it had finally arrived that day . So I've ended up paying for a lock, that no longer needed, eh That's life! Talk about if you want something doing, do it yourself!

Then, last Wednesday, when driving to work, I was giving way at a junction, when another car went into the back of me, luckily for me when I got out, she had hit my tow bar and hadn't caused any real damage, just slightly bent it, but the other car had a cracked number plate and bent the sill underneath, the girl was very apologetic though and said her flip flop had got stuck on the clutch and had made the car surge forward into mine, she was upset, as she had only got the car the day before, I did suggest to swap details, but she was very reluctant and when I went to my car for my pad and pen, she just drove off, I did manage to note her registration and have informed my insurance company, just in case she should change her story and try to blame me!

I did not make my knitting deadline with the socks for DB's birthday, and even now, they are still not finished, SSS definitely set in, but I'm getting there slowly and am now about half way on the foot, so another couple of evenings should do it! DB had a lovely birthday though, I bought him a new pair of motorcycle boots, hence the hope for the socks to go with them, but never mind, he got to try the boots, as we went to Sutton on Sea on the Harley for Fish and Chips. We waited practically all day for the rain clear and then set off and had a fantastic meal at a little restaurant there called Waldo's! Then when we got back, we shared a bottle of wine and watched the film Apocalypto, DB's choice, as I honestly thought it would be too violent for me, true it did have a lot of brutal gory violence, and some bits I did look away, but all in all a fantastic action adventure film about a young tribal Indian's escape and fight to save his wife and son and his way of life! Well worth watching if you haven't seen it already, even I sat through start to finish without getting bored!

My sock knitting did get spurred on by the arrival of these little beauties

Yes, you guessed it more STR yarn, another skein of In the Navy, which I ordered in case I ran out for the Hearty Plaid Socks, not really needed now, but will come in useful when in the distant future I make another pair of socks for DB. and the other skein is Knitty Rocks, it really is gorgeous as there as so many different colours in this skein, can't wait to see it knitted up and just because I like it so much here is another picture on it's own

I have finished the back on Flirt and now started the left front, although something very strange has happened with my tension, it seems to be tighter than usual, and I'm not sure why, as I have not changed the way I hold the needles or anything, I pleased as it looks a lot neater than before and the stitches do look more even with each other, but I worried that the fronts are going to be smaller than the back, and to frog the back and re-knit it daunts me, but I can't see any other choice, I am trying to loosen the tension a bit, but it feels awkward and slow and I practised with other yarns too and the same thing's happening with them, the work is definitely a lot tighter and smaller, has anyone else experienced this to happen, or is this unusual? I'm not sure whether it because I'm knitting more or whether it down to the tighter gauge I have been doing lately, with the Monsoon sock and the Hearty Man socks. I don't mind as my stitches do look better, but I am bit concerned if its not consistent and I go back to the old way and then have very odd looking garments, I'd really appreciate any advice!

Well that's all my happenings of the last fortnight and I shall leave you with a picture of Tess, waiting patiently for the rain to stop, so she can have a good run around the local fields, this look, is pretty much how she's been all week, Fed Up!

I personally quite like the rain, what better excuse than on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, settling down with some knitting and a cup of tea, listening to rain patting on the window, whilst your back turned on the pile of washing that you should really be doing instead, but can't because it just too wet and miserable to dry outside ;-)

In the Navy Progress

Well I am half way there with the Hearty Man's Plaid socks, and have managed to complete one sock,



The pattern itself is superb, and I am very pleased with the result that I am getting, the combining of two skeins is working really well and I just love the lighter brighter random stripes. the pattern is easy to follow with enough interest with the slip stich rib to prevent boredom setting in.

Crikey though the heel is so strong, not much chance of these wearing out quickly, it is worked by alternating rows of one row being knitted with the two skeins together and the purl row alternating each skein, like a check board effect, the result super strong and perfect for men's heavy feet. especially as it is the heel which seems to get the most wear, The toe is worked the same with the check board effect making these super strong too.




Just before I got to the toe-shaping I did ask DB to try the sock on, just to check the length was right. so I left him briefly with the sock whilst I went into the kitchen, to be interrupted by cries of "this is a bit tight, I'm struggling to get it past the heel" my heart sank; the thought of ripping it out and starting again just did not appeal, and certainly would dash any hopes of them being finished for his birthday, so I plucked up the courage to take a look, and when I saw horror of horrors to see he was pulling and stretching the sock on upside down and he had the ribbed cuff covering his toes, I had to laugh at the look on his face though, whatever next, maybe I will need to resort to writing the letters L and R on his boots too ;-) lol. So we managed to pull the sock off and tried again properly and it fits, maybe still a little too tight getting it past the heel but it does go on and DB is very impressed with the thickness and warmth, will be excellent in the winter with wellies or make great winter house socks. DB has even asked me what colour will I be making his next pair in, Steady now....

Apart from the sock I have not really done much other knitting, just a few more rows on Flirt. I, however ordered yet more STR, one skein again In the Navy, as I was at first a bit unsure if I would have enough to complete both socks, looking at it now, I maybe was being a bit too cautious, but I think every knitter's nightmare is running out of yarn at the crucial moment of finishing. also another skein in (Knitty Rocks) somehow got ordered too, a girls gotta have a reward sometimes you know ;-) I just hope they arrive soon. and can post pictures next time. I also re-newed my Rowan Subscription too.


Its just a short post this time, as time is getting a bit crucial for these socks, I have ten days to knit the second sock, note to one-self never set a dead-line, it takes some of the fun away from knitting.

So that' s all until next-time and hopefully I shall another pair of Socks That Rock for Big Feet!

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!

AT LAST

At last, I have finished the Laura Long Cropped Cardigan from Yarn Forward Magazine, this looked as though it should have been a fast knit, but seems as though it has been a very long WIP, but here it is all done ;-)

And here is the back view

The underarm feels a little tight, so I am now wondering whether I would have been better doing the large size rather than the medium, but then the body may have been a bit too big and baggy. I think the real problem was down to the length in the raglan shaping, maybe it should have been a little longer, but to get the raglan shaping looking even, you needed to decrease one stitch on every alternate row, but then surely if you knit more rows this way, you end up with very few stitches left for the back of the neck, or do you cast on more stitches in the first place! Confused? I know I certainly am, boy did this pattern give me some headaches, but then that is how to learn and gain experience, maybe one day I shall learn how to adapt patterns. But apart from that, I do love it and will probably actually wear it too, even if it is just for taking Tess for a walk and I am secretly pleased with myself that I persevered with it to the bitter end! Thanks again Roxy, without all your help on this I would never have got to the finishing line!

Work has still been fairly busy, not helped by the end of the Tax year falling right at the start of the Easter Bank Holiday, but that's all done now and sorted, so hopefully things shall get back to "normal" very soon ;-)

Tess would like to say a big thank-you for all the well wishes and is feeling much better now and back to her normal self, the lump has now disappeared with thanks to mum and dad for bathing the infected area, with Salt water and TCP not at all pleasant for the little dog, but far better than that lady vet squeezing, poking and prodding and of course a few Dog Choc Drops just helped the antibiotics go down! So thankfully another visit to the vet was not needed, although Tess says she shall milk the attention for a little longer and make sure she gets plenty of rest in her favourite armchair.

I haven't done much knitting lately, what with the warmer weather, although I did manage to finish The Inside Out Monsoon sock. I have enjoyed making this and the yarn is so lovely to knit with, although knitting on 2mm dpn's, this is not a quick knit and I did find the cables on the leg part a little bit fiddly, although I think this was down to me using longer dpn's than usual, I usually use short Brittany 2.25mm needles, but these do have a tendency to snap and break, so this time I used Clover bamboo instead and these no doubt are stronger, but they are also a bit longer and kept getting in the way, when trying to twist the cable, although fortunately the cable twists are on every tenth row, so there are plenty of plain rib rows in between. I did 55 rows for the leg, which is a good length, but at the same time, still leaves plenty of yarn for the second sock, don't want to running out of yarn after all that work now! I don't think I will get second sock syndrome with these, cause this time I know exactly how many rows need to be worked on each section and will not have to keep stopping to try them on, and also I can't wait to be able to wear them!

The second STR kit, I think, is going to be dispatched this week. I am really looking forward to seeing what this one will be, I did however to help with the waiting, order a couple more skeins this time in the colours Foofaraw and Farmhouse.

These colours are fabulous, the photograph really does not give them justice and it is very difficult to resist the temptation of starting yet another pair of socks, but I can't possibly as those Trekking Socks are still on the needles and I must get them finished first really.

I have started Caister, but only done a few rows so far, for some reason, Tess seems a bit more playful with this, usually she quite happy to sit at the side of me on the settee, whilst I am knitting and usually only tends to jump and pounce if the ball should fall and roll across the floor, but with Caister, four balls jumping up and down in the bag together is too much to resist and has been making her go a little crazy, playfully growling, almost as though she thinks the bag is alive, so I have been only knitting this early on a Sunday morning, whilst her and DB have a lie in ;-) crikey it is going to take forever at this rate!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunny weather, let's hope it continues ;-)