What I made, by Sharon

My best times are when I'm reading a good book, knitting a good project and just cruising along. And that's where I'm at right now. I'm knitting He-Oak , a jumper for Leon. I was a bit concerned, because there are no projects on Ravelry (surely you'd get some test knitters or something) but it's coming a long nicely. Also quite quickly - I started it on Friday, and it's really knitting up well. The Chiaogoo needles are such a joy, although knitting at 4.5mm does feel enormous after all the socks. I'm reading Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman. I bought it ages ago, after listening to One Good Day and then I realised it was a Holocaust novel, and I wasn't really in the mood, I've read lots of holocaust novels and I think most of them are reading from the same source material - or many people had similar, heartbreaking experiences. Either way, not what i wanted to read right now. But this novel starts with a question I've often wonderin...

Since sOctober is over, I made a baby hat! In left over sock yarn, my favourite thing to use. Also, I seemt o ahve endless amounts of it, even though I've used kilos of it. I'm certainly not complaining, I have quite a few projects lined up for it, but it's odd. Also, I do seem to keep making more. I used some LOSY - I have no idea what it was, or how I have any left over blues after the bathmatt . I used more the the self stripping that Katherine gave me . For 29 grams of yarn, this has gone a long way! I used the Countless baby hat pattern, and then failed to follow most of the instructions, but it still worked out. Top down and magic loop! I was going to take a photo to proove I knit a whole hat on magic loop. I do love my new Chiaogoo interchangable set - but I still love doublepoints over magic loop, even with the best needles in the world. I really need to go back to blocking things before posting them - I've managed to pu up 8 projects in a row without d...

I nearly missed this months "Once apon a sock" - for some reason it didn't click in my head that the first Thursday of the month can be before the first Wednesday. So, I'm a dollar short and a day late, but at least I'm here. Here's a picture of the socks I knit in sOctober I somehow knit 6 pairs, including a pair of knee-highs , a KAL with the Richmond Knitters , sneaker liners , monster socks , thrummed slippers and a pair of baby socks . There is something about sOctober, that lets me knit more socks than is entirely possible - or as one of the Richmond Knitters said "do you have a time turner?" Last year I also knit 6 pairs, which was 4 pairs of crew socks and 2 pairs of sneaker liners. Mixing it up with 6 different styles this year was really fun. I'm joining in with Once-apon-a-sock, hosted by Paula from Spinayarn. Pop over to the linkup to see what everyone is knitting - and to join in in you feel like it. And now I'm off...

Are these not the cutest wee things you have ever seen? I finished my Gloamin-Tide socks on Sunday, and since sOctober was not quite over, I decided to sneak in another pair. Baby socks, made with left over sock yarn. I decided to make these for my office mate Ian - he is having a baby, and the other day (he may have seen sock patterns on my screen) he asked "will my baby be getting socks?" I replied "If your step mother makes him some" I was joking, but it is true his step mother is an "obsessed knitter" with a yarn room. He got all embarrassed, I guess he understands that knitting can be asked for, or begged for, but never demanded. So I knit these for him. They are so sweet, only took 25 grams of yarn, and 2 nights knitting. And with that, my sOctober draws to a close. I'll do a wrap next Thursday in Once-Apon-A-Sock, but for now I'll just say it's been a good one.

When I finished Gloamin-Tide I had 60 grams of yarn left over, in the 3 fade colours I used. Obviously I decided I wanted to make socks to match the shawl - not just in colour, but to chanel the spirit of the shawl. When I found Cat Bordhi's Hither and Yon Socks , I knew I had found a sock that was just right. It had the advantage of also including the instructions for the Sweet Tomato Heel. Cat has free instructions for these on her website and you tube, but I prefer written instructions. So I bought the pattern and knit two other pairs of socks using the heel construction.  Because I knew I'd have just enough yarn I decided to do these two at a time, toe  on double pointed needles: It was fine when I was only knitting in one colour, but got a bit messy when i was using two. After I finished the foot, I realised that I wouldn't have enough yarn, so I pulled in a fourth colour for the heel - leftovers from my Boxy again.  I'm glad I did. The...

Remember when I knit Kate Davies' Strathendrick ? Of course you do. I went on and on about it. What I don't think I wote about was how I struggled with the name. In fact, when I first set up the pattern in fravelry, I called it "Strathdrick". I didn't change it, since I thought it was kind of funny, and who is going to see it anyway? Well, lots of people as it turns out, since Kate Davies featured it in a blog post today. I'm obviously rather excited, since now I have been on two of my favourite designers blogs (remeber when Ysolda posted my Blank Canvas? ) The only thing is,  now I wish I had named it something clever, or at least spelt it right. Small regrets, big thrill.

This is my oldest pair of sneaker liners and my first pair of socks, knit in 2009. I knit them in  from the left overs of a baby jumper. There are top down, heel flap and gussett. They are also getting too small for me.I have noticed is that over time, my sneaker liners  shrink  through the heel.   It also happens with the  Fish Lips Kiss heel. And when the heel gets shorter, the back of the cuff goes down, and leaves the back of my Achilles exposed. It probably wouldn't matter with socks with longer cuffs, but I do knit a lot of sneaker liners. Now, it's not uprising that this happens. I wear these socks with bike shoes, and sometimes it's raining. I wear them to the gym. Sometimes with shoes, more often without. What's surprising is that they wear so well and last as long as they do. It also led to me experimenting with the Sweet Tomato Hee l. Even though it is a bit more work to work than the Fish Lips Kiss heel, when I got up to the heel of the...