First Ever Socks

I haven't done a lot of blogging lately, but I have done a lot of making!

My first ever pair of socks was a success, thanks to the great tutorial at Silver's Sock Class. They feel a little loose, so next time I'm going to try it with 60 stitches instead of 64.

I have been wearing them at ever opportunity since they came off the needles. :)

 

  

 This is Kaffe Fassett Regia 4-ply sock yarn, from my first Kemps order.

Another project finished!

I finished the Softly Ribbed Scarf for Mr. Jelliebeans in December. This is what it looked like:

There's a lot of advice on the internet about blocking, but everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. I knitted a swatch with the same yarn and had a go at the following method. It worked well, so I did this with the whole scarf.

I blocked the scarf by pinning it to my ironing board, length by length, and steamed the heck out of it with my steam generator iron without letting the iron touch the scarf. I let it cool then moved onto the next part. What a difference! It not only flattened out the scarf where it was rolling into itself but also softened the fabric considerably.

The next photo shows the unblocked scarf on the right and blocked on the left.

So here it is finished. Look at the gorgeous stitch pattern. I love it.

The only thing that I don't like about this scarf is where I carried the different coloured yarns up the side, a technique I'd read about. This probably works well if the colours are similar, or if the edge will be hidden in a seam, but I think it's a little too noticeable on the edge of this scarf. Overall though I'm pleased with it!

Two scarves and lots of socks

I now have a lovely big pile of cheap yarn, courtesy of Kemps online wool shop, decorating my sewing area.

I have Patons Reef in Spinnaker and Wendy Moiselle in Dragonfruit - both gorgeous and hopefully enough for a scarf made out of each. Also some Regia sock yarn - two lots in the Galaxy design and two lots of the Kaffe Fassett colourways. This is 'self-patterning yarn', which means that if the number of cast-on stitches and the gauge is correct, it should result in the intended pattern. I also have some Patons Vintage in the 'Faded' shade, which is not exactly what I was expecting texture-wise, so I still have to decide what to do with that (I was expecting to make thick, fluffy socks with it, but it's not 'fluffy' yarn).

Vintage Needle Roll

I originally bought this bedsheet in a charity shop for 99p to use as template material for a bigger project I have in mind. I couldn't bring myself to use it for that though - it seemed like such a waste of the cute vintage print.

As an experiment I tried using my Folk Art Craft acrylics to see if they would work as fabric paint. While they dry a little stiff, they didn't seem to fade, which is what I'd read could happen.

What every knitter needs is a needle roll, and I thought it would also be handy to have pockets for the other things I tend to hunt out while knitting - scissors, a tape measure, yarn needles, pegs for holding books open, as well as the usual knitting needles, crochet hooks and my new dpns! Also, I wanted room to grow.

As you can see, my supplies are delightfully mismatched, since I've been picking up knitting needles from charity shops for about 20p a pair, and my dpns I got as part of someone's clearout on ebay ready to start my adventures in sock knitting.

I pretty much made this up as I went along and I love how it's turned out (click for bigger pictures).

 

 

 

Softly Ribbed Scarf

I'm just past the halfway point now on this scarf that I'm knitting for Mr Jelliebeans. He wants it long, and this should end up about 3m, so he has his wish!

The stitch pattern is from a user on Ravelry, and the stripes are my own pattern. The yarn used is 'King Cole Premier Value' DK - about £1 for a 100g ball.

I love the stitch pattern - though it is curling in at the edges a lot, despite it having a garter stitch border. I have never blocked before, but I'm planning to do it with this when it's finished in the hope that it will remedy the curling. The pictures show it flattened out.

Books, Books and More Books

DH and I sorted through all our books this week. We do this a few times a year since we have a finite amount of shelf-space and I am quite capable of doubling the amount of insulation we have with the amount of books I bring into the house.

My weakness is second-hand books, and since I have eclectic reading tastes (check out my librarything widget) I can find something interesting in pretty much any collection.

As it stands, I have about 32 books in my TBR (To Be Read) pile. Since I aim to read 50 books a year, I'm not going to run out for a good few months.

But of course that doesn't stop me. Not when I pass a market stand with '4 books for £1' written on it. How can I possibly walk past that?

So now added to my TBR pile are:

The Resurrectionist by James Bradley  - body snatchers in Victorian London.

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill - a very promising ghost chiller

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory - most of  the world has now read this, but I haven't

Life Support by Tess Gerritsen - Tess Gerritsen has become one of my favourite authors recently. Dean Koontz used to be my 'fail-safe' when I was having trouble finding something to grab me, but since he has gone so spectacularly downhill (I couldn't even finish that one with the killer clowns), Tess Gerritsen has taken over his place.


Because I'm a member of Bookmooch, I have a great local library and there are so many places to find cheap books where I live I very rarely buy new books. When I saw Soulless by Gail Carriger mentioned on a Librarything thread I got quite excited about it. Vampires, werewolves, a steampunk mystery in Victorian London, with a humourous touch? Ticks so many of my boxes I ordered it new and so far it hasn't disappointed.

Happy Days

I have fallen in love with two things this week.

The first is this kitten:

The second is this little fellow:

DH wasn't too keen on some socks I bought him, so instead of getting rid of them, I thought SOCK MONKEY!

I used this tutorial http://www.craftbits.com/project/sock-monkey since this was my first time. Having seen these guys popping up all over the internet I couldn't wait to make my own.

He looked a little bare, so I made him a scarf, and now DH has christened him 'Snowy' since he is so white and wintery.