What I made, by Sharon

The last Cookie A Sock Club delivery came this week. The patterns are both lovely lace, the yarn is a merino cashmere nylon in a lovely  shade of purple unlike anything I have in my stash.  I've loved being part of the club this year, but part of me is glad its over. I've knit eight pairs of Cookie A Socks so far this year (and, to my surprise 6 pairs of other socks) and I'm ready to spend some time with other designers. Still it's been a wonderful club, with only one pair of socks that I disliked ( Jedi Mind Trick socks, I'm looking at you). The "Cookies" have been really fun and have rather reinvigorated my baking. I made the easy ones from this months package, lemon bars. They were easy and tasty.

I've been really busy at work this week. Flat out. I had to go to Morwell and Bendigo and all up there was a lot of time moving around the countryside. Which I choose to do by train. So, I got the second pair of Cookie A September socks done in pretty good time.  These look good, and were reasonably fun to quite, although I found something annoying about them. Perhaps it was the fact that they are called Hamantashen socks, after the biscuits that Jewish people  eat at Purim, a festival that happens in March. More likely it's just doing two pairs of socks in two weeks. They fit me well and are very comfortable and I'm sure I'll get a great deal of wear out of them.

  Last night I finished Gyokuro , the Cookie A Sock Club August pattern and yarn. This yarn is en electric green, and I probably would never have bought it, but I love it. I knitted these socks because both Ursula and Louisa (Richmond Knitters and Cookie A Sock Club members) told me this was their favourite pattern from this years club. They were right and I loved knitting these socks.  Tarragon really wanted to be in this photo  They were incredibly addictive, and complex enough to be fun but simple enough to knit in public. Which I did a great deal of. I actually cast these on in a bar and woke up the next day to find the first chart finished, and not full of errors. much to my relief . These socks were so much fun that I  got them finished in a week, because I just couldn't stop knitting. I wore them today and they are really comfortable too, so  I've hit the trifecta of great yarn, fun pattern, and a beautiful , useful finished object. Junipe...

I finished Cookie A's Sarsaparilla socks, for Leon. I didn't make any significant changes, although I did knit the leg to seven inches, because Leon like his socks longer. I thought long and hard about which size to make. Leon said he would rather have his socks tighter, rather than looser, so I knit the smallest size. It's quite firm on him, but he says it's comfortable, and it does look good, so I think we made the right decision. The only hiccup I had was I knit the first sock four rounds too short. FOUR ROUNDS. I had to rip and reknit, because although he could get them on, it was obvious that he would wear through the toes. Even with having to reknit the toe, this was a very quick knit. The pattern is straightforward, but still really interesting and fun. The yarn, from Skein, is lovely and soft, although I have concerns about the wear of a Merino / Cashmere, without nylon. Also, and this is no criticism of the dying, I'm over really dark...

I was very excited to receive the October instalment of the Cookie A sock club. One of the patterns, Sarsaparilla, is a perfect manly cabled sock, which I cast on immediately, in a lovely man coloured Merino Cashmere from Skien for Leon.  The other is pattern is lovely and I think, done in a man colour, might be acceptable for Leon, or I may just make it for myself in the club yarn, the interestingly green / gold coloured merino/tencel blend, which is so much prettier than I made it look in this photo.   I'm pretty excited about these socks, and sOctober in general.

The Cookie A sock club August instalment in the mail today. Very exciting, the patterns are innovative and interesting and I adore the second one, with the leaves. I'll be knitting that in the club yarn, which is this amazing acid green. The other pattern will, I think look amazing in a multi coloured yarn and we all know I have plenty of that. I don't actually know when I'm going to get to either of these patterns, because I have a whole lot of other things I have to knit RIGHT NOW.   (These pictures are Cookie A's, taken from the Ravelry page) Tonight I am casting on a pair of socks for Raph, as mentioned yesterday. This amazingly beautiful Old Maiden Aunt Merino/Bamboo came in the mail yesterday. The colour is perfect for a man who is unadventurous about socks. When I saw him last I asked what colour sock he was wearing and he said immediately, without checking "Black. All my socks are black". My only concern, and one I rarel...

While I was travelling the June Cookie a Sock club shipment happened. The patterns were emailed and are classic Cookie A. The yarns beautiful, from Plucky Knitter Yarns, a Merino / Cashmere / Nylon blend, in a stunning blue. I knit one of the pattern already for Leon, and now, when I am considering what to knit next I DON'T WANT TO KNIT THE OTHER PATTERN. Or rather, I don't want  knit it right now. I feel like I have enough socks, for the moment. I want to be knitting socks for Leon and my father and Raph (a friend who is having a birthday soon) or knee high socks, and I don't think this pattern can be converted to make it manly. Now, for most people this wouldn’t be a big deal, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of leaving it. Just not knitting it now. On the other hand I'm the boss of my knitting and I'll knit what I want and at the moment that seems to be big, warm jumpers. Not really surprising, given the weather. During all...

I planned on making Laar, while I was away, and I did so. It was the perfect knitting to start on a long plane trip, because the picot cast on is quite fiddly, and by the time I finished it I was happy to proceed with simple knitting for the rest of the flight. It's very important to me to have good knitting for these long flights, because I don't sleep on planes, and everyone else does. I'm always to tempted to run up and down the plane screaming WAKE UP, WAKE UP, out of sheer boredom. Instead, I knit on Laar and listened to a wonderful recording of Pride and Prejudice .   This was perfect trip knitting, both because it was interesting and still simple and because I failed to pack a cardigan. I finished it a couple of weeks into the trip and got a lot of wear out of it. I knit it in Dublin and Portugal and had it pretty much done by the time we flew to England. I bought buttons at Liberty, but after sewing them on decided they were too big and replaced them with a s...

Yesterday I finished my fourth pair of Cookie A sock Club sock, Turbulence . I think they are quite pretty and the design was perfect. Something happening all the time, but not so I have to stare at the chart for every stitch. (Yes,. Wayward   I'm talking about you) The Jitterbug ended up having ample- I have x grams left, and there is definitely something to be said for not being a left with half a ball of sock yarn. But the biggest surprise about these was, when I put them on for the first time, they are extra comfortable. I don't know if it's the way the pattern clings like ribbing but is smooth like stocking stitch, I don't know if it's the yarn, but I do know they are something special. The only thing I wish I had thought to do was to make anatomically correct toes. The pattern is mirrored, and next time I knit a Cookie A pattern which is different for both socks I'm going to make the toes match my feet. Basically though, this is another ...

I promised to update you with the Jitterbug Yarn situation when I finished the first sock, which I did last night. Half way there and 60 grams left, from a starting point of 107 grams. I really do have small feet.

I finished my third pair of socks from the Cookie A Sock Club 2012, the lovely Nanaimo socks . I used the club yarn, since it's a perfect man colour for a perfect man pattern. This is the first time I've knit with Socktopus Sokkusu Original and it's lovely. Bouncy and beautiful. The pattern itself is quite straightforward, which was perfect as I knit them during the Comedy Festival, and was out and about much of the time. The other thing that's coming in three around here is cats. This is Fern:  She's staying over for the next six weeks while my parents are overseas. It's lovely to have her here, she fits in so well with the household. I wanted to get a picture of all three of them, but this is the best I could do. That's Tarragon sneaking off the front of the photo, Fern looking confused in the middle and Princess Daisy right at the back.

A couple of weeks ago the April Cookie sock club package arrived. As always it had two sock patters - one simple and one complex, and two cookie biscuit recipes, again, one simple and one complex. I cast on the Naimamo socks for Leon, in the club yarn. I considered making the Naimamo Bars. They required custard powder and I though I had some - which I did. I bought it before I moved in with Leon and we've been married for nearly three years. Still, when I opened the Tupperware container I was horrified to discover a maggot, happily reclining there. No Naimamo Bars then. (Fail one). Then my thumbs started to hurt and I've not been able to knit this week. The second sock sat there, heel turn completed, just waiting for my hands to stop hurting. (Fail two) Then I decided to make the other cookies, Palmiers. I decided to use supermarket puff pastry, because I couldn't be bothered basically. What I didn't know is that frozen puff pastry is brittle and the package sho...

I made the second socks from the February delivery of Cookie A's sock club for Leon. My aim is to make at least half the sock club socks for other people, because I have enough pairs of handknit socks to wear a pair a day for a month before washing. I used Socks that Rock, colourway Thraven . I have spoken before about my love for Cookie A patterns, my adoration of Socks That Rock, and my new found fondness for twisted stitches. All three of these were combined in these socks! The Socks that Rock given great stitch definition, although it did bleed on my hands while knitting. I love the way the twisted stitches wrap around the leg, and the little cables are absolutely adorable. I think the toes look a little bit odd, especially off the feet. There is another possible problem with the toes, not the pattern's fault: After I finished knitting the second one he tried them on and said "I think the second one is shorter than the first". We compared the socks and they were...

My parents are coming to dinner tomorrow, and when thinking about what sweets to make, I decided to bake the "flourless fiery fudge cookies" that came in this month's Cookie A sock club package. Cayenne pepper in a biscuit? Interesting and different. This club thing is so exciting!