What I made, by Sharon

 It's the third week of Stephen West's sock-a-long and I've finished the clue:  This is fun and chaos, so fairly typical for Stephen! Next clue is out Thursday, and I've got size six feet, so these will be done in a flash. I'm also knitting a jumper for an acquaintance . I started it last Wednesday and it's knitting up really fast - I guess 4.5mm needles and plain stocking stitch will do that. The yarn is Zealana Air, which is so, so beautiful - it's cashmere, possum and silk. So soft, so warm. I'm reading Salt and Skin , by Eliza Henry-Jones. It's a novel about an Australian family who have moved to a Scottish Island. There is lots of trauma hinted at, and I'm enjoying the slow unfurling.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned I'm listening to Anthony Mara's Mercury Pictures Presents . It's a World War Two book, focusing on "enemy aliens" in America and the film industry and family and so many other things. In Mara's...

We hadn't been away since June, and this weekend we took Monday off and spent the weekend in Marysville. We love Marysville, a little village in the mountains, and I am lucky enough that my parents own a (shared) holiday house there. We had a lovely time - we went hiking on Lake Mountain ,  trail running the back way to Steavenson Falls , reading, drinking coffee and waking up somewhere else! It was a good weekend. But, I hear you ask, did you do any crafting? Yes, thank you for asking, I did. I cast on a sock for Leon on the Friday, and am motoring down the foot of the first sock. Photos on Wednesday, but it's a fairly simple grey sock. I am very surprised I got the far, because I also knit a fairly significant swatch for the Tracery vest. I'm basically using the chart and re-writing the rest, because I am not interested in knitting colourwork flat. I also brought my folding wheel and spent a little bit of time sitting in the sun spinning. All in all, a very relaxing, mu...

Three weeks ago I finished the Sou'wester Socks  for Leon. I finished them on Friday, and on the weekend we went to the beach and took photos. And then I forgot to blog them or put them on Ravely! Must be my busy social life. These are, in typical Rachel Coopey style, quite wonderful. They are mirrored and asymmetrical but still manage to have simple charts.  As an added bonus, I knit them in the exact same yarn as the pattern called for, right down to the colour. It is Wendy Roam , and Katie destashed it about a year ago. This also means I have finished the Pretty Feet book. I wonder what theme my next block of sock knitting should have...

When I finish something, I put it to the left of the computer that I sit at to blog. Then I (at some point) photograph it, blog about it, update my Ravelry and off they go. I also occasionally use the spot as a holding zone for other things. The other day I received some leggings and had to return them for sizing issues. I put them on the pile, organised the return, put them in the envelope and sent them off. The only thing is that now I can't find one of the socks I JUST finished. They were on the pile, and the only thing I can think of is that I put them with the return. So, here's a single sock: Flores, by Joji, in a yarn I dyed myself. I've emailed the company, so hopefully they will find the sock with the return. The other item isn't actually quite finished. I made a tea cosy for Elise's tea pot, but I'm doing an afterthought spout hole. I say Elise for a few minutes the other day, but she forgot to bring the pot. So it's not technically finished...

Last month I put my hand up for a test knit from SquareJaneKnits , a designer who hangs out on the Monstersocks group, where we are all obsessed with LOSY (left over sock yarn). I thought I would make them for my father, but put them away until Chanukkah in December.  Instead, on Friday he presented me with this pair of socks, which he wears indoors in their Marysville holiday house. There is a no-shoe rule in the house. He declared they are not worth darning. There is a lot of hole there. I also noticed that the left heel has already been darned. He also announced that he like it when he looks down and the toes of his socks are different colours. I can do that. So, I'm doing this monster sock in a mixture of plain dark greens and contrasting self striping. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming out, even if the second yarn camouflages a little with our floorboards. . The first sock did take five days, but with everything being cancelled, the second one mig...

I love knee high socks. I normally wear them around the house, in winter over leggings or in cross seasons with a house dress or shorts. My favourite pair was knit in 2009, with left over yarn from the first jumper I ever made Leon. The are very comfortable, stay up, fit perfectly, but the toes always had holes where the decreases are.  I had already decided to make Kate Davies Lord of the Isles socks (don't judge me, I haven't knit a Kate Davies pattern since September)when I found that this: Yes, a whole lot of hole. I will  darn it, but I'm pretty glad that I'm halfway through the stunning replacement pair. 

Socktober, Socktober, the funnest month of the year...specially if you are an incorrigible sock knitter, like me. Last month I made two pairs of socks - a pair of shorties , where Iearned Kat Borhdi's Sweet Tomato Heel and  marvelous pair for Leon which were a test knit for our very own Katherine of Fiber and Sustenance. This month it's going to be all socks all the time. I'm currently knitting some Black is the New Vanilla socks in "Audrey" a colourway dyed l ast Christmas specially for my knit group by  HalfBakedHandDyed , who is also a member of the Richmond Knitters. So far so good - a top down heel, without picking up stitches. Interesting. Then I've got planned a pair of knee high sock s with the yarn than Kris destashed in January. Kate Davies, or course, I don't think a month goes by when I don't knit a Kate Davies pattern. her slippers had worn through, and the darns she has put in had also worn through, and it's her birthda...

I fibbed when I said that I wouldn't be casting on a sock until I finished Strathendrick. Two Sundays ago Leon and I were running and meeting some friends, and they came and picked up changes of clothes for us the day before, and I slipped in this unstarted sock project. After that I've just been knitting on it when its not worth bringing a huge jumper along - so mainly when I have coffee with my manager. Today I went to do jury duty. I knew they might take my knitting, because the info they sent in preparation said "no knitting needles". I don't know what crazy damage they think knitters can do, that you couldn't do with a pen. Anyway, I also brought my turkish spindle, just in case. Due to some oddities - mainly that the security people had no idea what knitting looks like - they decided my spindle was knitting needles and confiscated it, but never questioned my knitting needles. So I knit in the jury waiting room, but only in a fairly circumspect m...

I'm not sure that i am actually going to blog much, i forgot how much i hate typing on a tablet, but i am sitting on my balcony, knitting on Elise's sock, and soaking in the sun and this view And appreaciating the good things in life.

The last pair of socks I made for my father did not fit quite as well as I would have liked – I think because the Fish Lips Kiss heel isn’t the best for him, so I decided to make him another pair, using Stephanie Purl-McPhee's basic sock template . Since he likes his socks loud, I choose 4 colours from the Left Over Sock Yarn pile, a navy for the ribbing heels and toes, and I was good to go:   I did the first one using the Stashbuster Spirals method, which is a way of doing one row jogless stripes. Mainly by changing yarn colours every needle when knitting on four doublepoint needles. While I like the results, changing yarn that often was somewhat annoying and the tension at each needle change was just slightly off.   I knit the second using the same colours, but the Blender technique.  I really like this – no worries about jogs, although quite a lot of ends to sew in.   So, in Blender versus Spirals I think Blender wins. Next time I’m going t...

Remember when I finished my Hermione's everyday socks and eventually gave them to my father ?    I handed to him in a zip lock bag as I was leaving a long and rather wine drenched dinner. He asked what they were, I said "a pair of socks" he looked vaguely confused and that, you would expect, would be that. When I went over to my parents place this week, my father said that the socks were too short for him, and that they fit my mother, who was wearing them. This really confused me, mainly because she was wearing the Blackrose socks that I gave her last year. E ventually, after much confusion, we found the new socks in my mother's sock drawer. My mother doesn't want more socks, she usually wears sandals. So now I'm ripping back the toe and reknitting them so they fit him, but I can't say I'm doing it with good grace. Two lessons learnt: Don't hand over unexpected gifts in ziplock bags as you are leaving, and make sure that the socks are long enough...

Last Thursday I was at Anna's place, knitting on the foot of my (toe up) Pentre Ifran sock. Grace, Anna's six year old daughter , asked me what I was going to put in it. I told her "a foot",a nd explained that this sock starts from the toe. "Oh" she said, looking doubtful and wrinkling her little nose, "is that the right way to do it?". And my answer is "probably not". I'm knitting this sock because it's beautiful. Yes, it's toe up, but I don't want to be bound to one method of knititng socks. The Sherman heel and toe, which are Brenda Dayne's method of choice… lets just say I don't like them. I had to completely reknit the toe twice, and it's still not smooth or nice. I took more care over the heel, but it was hard going, and then transitioning to the heel patterning seemed like a great deal of effort. Also, I hate that Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast Off is also Jenny's surprisingly wavy-edged ...

After finishing Spice Road I couldn't quite work out what I wanted to knit next. It might have been my mood in general, because I had a really hard time choosing a novel to read. Anyway, I decided to knit something small and delightful, which for me usually means a pair of footlets, for the slowly progressing sneaker liner project. I chose a pair I've had my eye on for ages, padded footlets, from Interweave's Favorite Socks. I've only changed two things, I've made them one colour and I haven't included the padding, I like my sports socks as thin as possible. I'm using the leftovers from the Miss Babs October shipment, and I love how they have come out. They are the best fitting footlets I've made yet, partly because lace and ribbing is wonderful and pulling a sock close to the foot, but also because this pattern uses short rows to make the back of the heel slightly higher than the front, so it won't disappear into shoes. It also ha...

I was knitting away on my Cat Bordhi socks, and I got to the heel. I was very excited and a little bit puzzled because it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I knit on, thrilled to be having an exploration in heels, rather than following my usual tried and trusted heel flap and gusset route.  Unfortunately, I missed the "set up" rows for the heel, so on first try it didn't work. I ripped it on Thursday evening, and put it right on Friday at lunch time. And then I knit on, finishing the heel, the bit after the heel, the gusset decreases. All the time I was looking at it, thinking that it was a little longer than my usual socks. I tried it on and thought that it was a little loose, but it's a 64 stitch sock, so I figured  everything would sort itself out after the gusset decreases. After all, this is a brand new way of knitting socks, how do I know what it is meant to look like at the mid way point? Then I finished the gusset decreases, tried it on and found...

After I finished Leon's socks I thought I should knit more socks, since it is sOctober. I decided to make myself a pair of cabled knee highs. I'm all about the cables at the moment.  This is Kilvarock , another great Knitty pattern. I'm about to start the second one and I am rather dreading doing the top bit. It's a brilliant construction and stays up really well, but for some reason the first top was very, very slow.  I've tried cabling without a cable needle, but that didn't really work well for me at all. And in (almost) sock related news I made the the Namaimo socks from the April Cookie A sock club package. That makes April the one month where I have made both the pairs of socks and both the recipes. Initially I was put off by the number of steps, but they turned out to be quite straight forward and delicious.    I did manage to leave out the cream, because the instructions said "cream butter, cream vanilla custard powder, and powdered su...

I am an experienced sock knitter. I just have to state that right now, before I tell you about my sock drama this week. I was knitting on my first stripy Noro knee high sock on Tuesday night at the pub. I got to the heel and knit the heel flap. As usual, I didn't count rows, I just continued until it was square. I then turned it, unevenly, because I had more stitches that the pattern called for. I ripped it back, got a friend to look up a 64 stitch heel pattern turn on their iPhone, and continued down the foot. I was a bit pleased because the stranding was now on the sole of the foot, where it was invisible, and I had had some trouble with jogs were I was changing colour. All hidden on the bottom of the foot. The toe called for in the pattern is not my usual type of toe. I started it a little earlier than usual, to compensate for the huge heel flap. I stayed up until after midnight on Wednesday to finish it, because I was so close. On Thursday morning I got up, and tried the sock ...