I’ve discovered the secret to turning around projects and finishing things quickly.

Four day weekends and making little or no plans to see anyone.

My sister’s baby blanket is done. I am so excited and amazed at how quickly I was able to achieve the result. I’m thinking of becoming a hermit.

Pattern: Crochet Motif Baby Blanket from Patons book 8014 ‘Cute Crochet’

Yarn: Patons Dreamtime 4 ply

Ends to sew in: 280 approx. This took a stupid amount of time to take care of.

 

I’m really pleased with the end result and I can’t wait to present it to the new parents.

Recently on my new favourite podcast (The Knitmore Girls, like I had to say), Jasmin has been talking about ‘sock drawers’. Now for the avid sock knitter (or sock yarn stasher), photographs of hand knit sock drawers are terribly inspiring. You can go take a look at the pics on this thread on Ravelry, where people have been posting.

My hand knit socks are housed in an ikea tub, so not exactly beautifully presented. After a bit of rearranging (what else are long-weekends for), I’ve neatened up the tub and taken a snap. Now the challenge is to get more of my delicious sock yarn turned into socks. That’s if I ever get my tub back from Purl.

‘I have your socks, you go now’

One of my favourite guilty pleasures is knitting (and sometimes spinning), whilst listening to knitting podcasts. I have had a few of my favourite podcasts suddenly stop recording or taper off over the years, so I haven’t indulged in this as often as I’d like up until recently. For the record, I am totally grateful for the podcast shows which have brought me entertainment and have enhanced my knitting experience all of which has been provided to me for FREE. I understand that not all good things can last forever, but I’m rather sad when it’s over.

Happiness is… discovering a new knitting podcast that is one of the best I’ve listened to, then finding I had 240 -odd episodes to catch up on. Even better, is starting at episode 1 and finding that they were always awesome, so I have MANY hours of quality listening ahead of me. I’m referring to ‘The Knitmore Girls’. Thanks Deb for sending me their way.

So I knit a pair of socks for my mum for Christmas. I can safely post them here as she rarely pokes around on the net, if at all. I normally don’t knit socks for anyone else apart for myself or Damian (even Damian hasn’t had a new pair in a while). Socks are risky though. When they are a gift, a surprise one at that, you have to make a lot of calculated guesses when it comes to fit. I guess I’ll find out how well I did on Christmas day.

Pattern: Cookie A’s sock club August pattern ‘Artemis’.

Yarn: Sweetgeorgia cashluxe fine 70% superwash merino wool, 20% cashmere, 10% nylon. 400 yards per 115 grams Colour way: Blood Orange (from Cookie A’s June Club)

Thoughts: The pattern was an easy knit, the rib on the arch of the foot should make for a comfy fit. If I was only working on these they would have taken me a 3 weeks to a month to knit.