One of life’s little luxuries is a pair of hand-knit socks. I wear nothing else about the house and I rarely wear them outside of home. Put simply, I feel the most comfort when they are upon my feet. Since I’ve discovered this pleasure I’ve done my best to boost my personal hand-knit sock tally. It’s true I only have two feet; but the reason I strive for many pairs of socks, is so that I’m never without a clean pair and more importantly I want to extend the wearing cycle to limit the wear and tear on them. Socks get holes…
Finally, my love of spinning and socks have come together in these…

The fibre was from The Thylacine sock club from earlier this year. I was lucky enough to score an extra 50 gms from Melanie, so I could make extra long socks (Thanks Mel!). The fibre was spun as singles, then Navajo plied to maintain the colour gradients, this part makes me excited, I could spend hours staring at the magical transitions between burgandy and bright red and back again. To further maximise my handspun, because I hate having leftover sock yarn, I used the universal toe-up sock pattern from Knitty. It was a very well written pattern and was adjustable to whatever your gauge. I would use this pattern again, it was my friend.

Just a little catch-up with my other projects: my cowl and mitts have been finished and in use for weeks; I did fall short of making a hat to complete my winter set, but I don’t really wear hats and I had another pressing baby knit to do. The Baby Yoda sweater was a fun little knit and I got to do a bit of i-cord. I’m looking forward to seeing my niece in it as soon as I can schedule a meet and a cuddle.

I haven’t done a Bendigo wrap-up, because well… the yarn fumes. The stash shelf has been rearranged to accommodate, the only thing I didn’t squeeze onto the shelf was 2kgs of Pear Tree ::gulp:: My stash and I are an island.

Lastly, I’m running a little comp over on the Richmond Knitters Blog, follow that blog and you’ll have a chance to win a skein of my handspun! Details over on the Richmond Knitters blog.

I’m off to cast-on Golden Wheat, have a great week!

Warning! Lots of baby photos ahead 🙂

We visited Marilyn two weekends ago. I am not being biased at all to say she is the cutest and most perfect baby I’ve ever met. She’s really good at being cuddled too.

These are the official blanket photos:

Yeah, not much blanket in there! But do you really need to see the blanket?

Last weekend after completing my Winter set mitts, I cast-on for the ‘Snug’. I was inspired by Marilyn’s cuteness and also her parent’s admiration for my hand-knits so far. I made some quick progress on the hoody early on and I was certain it would be finished in time for this weekend. But then I lagged behind after having a particularly busy week (not to mention some grueling gym sessions; I showed up to a cycling class at 7:30am on Monday morning to find I had signed up for a RUNNING class, yep, that was pretty funny, not).

This morning I woke and discovered I would be getting a visit from my newest niece. Needless to say that was all the motivation I needed to push through and complete the hooded cardigan in record time. Little Marilyn gave me a bit more time by pee-ing everywhere at her home, giving me an extra 20 mins to complete the button band and sew on the buttons, 5 mins before their arrival. I love this baby! Once again the parents were thrilled. I was thrilled that they were thrilled.

I’ve cast-on for a Baby Yoda Sweater. Alert the media, I have discovered the meaning of knitting.

I have lots to catch you up on, but unfortunately I can’t do it all here today. I need photos remember!

I’m participating in Tour De Fleece, which basically means I’m spinning everyday for 2 weeks bar 2 rest days (I took an unplanned rest yesterday shhh). I’m a part of IxChel’s spinning team, and I whilst I picked out three hanks of fibre to spin with, I already feel I’ve deviated from the plan! I have many different fibres of Charly’s that I haven’t even tried and I thought it would make sense to have at least tried them before I embark on another Bendigo Show.

So far I’ve spun (but not plied, I think I’ll leave that to last, or when I run out of bobbins whichever comes first), 100gms of BFL seaweed bunny and 100gms of Cashmere Fling. This morning I began preparing this Navajo Bunny fibre, I stripped it down the most I’ve ever split a braid before to approx 16 sections. And then, there it was, the fibre told me its purpose. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad, I like having frivolous fibre/yarn which serves no purpose up until it is needed! The fibre didn’t whisper, it shouted, damn and I thought I had other plans, oh well.

In the new little niece update. She is gorgeous and so far has been the perfect baby for my sister, I’ve seen her once outside of hospital and got a very long cuddle (her head was very heavy!). My sis and her hubby have also been the perfect knitted gift receivers, so I’ve cast on a ‘Snug’, which is a hoody cardigan. A girlfriend at work said cardigans with hoods were the best thing when she had hers. No hat to lose, and when theyre all snuggled up, you pop the hood on and they fall asleep on your shoulder… apparently! I’m hoping to have it done for next weekend in time for another visit.

I’ve had a couple of knitting casualties recently. There’s the charcoal swing coat: I washed it for the first time to finally settle down the puckered pleats. The pleats looked a whole lot better but the cardigan grew exponentially and is destined for a frogging.

Then there was my first pair of socks to wear through a hole (I knit them for Damian but they were reclaimed), the fact it was probably the second pair of socks I knit I was willing to accept this from the yarn.

This week I popped on these socks and almost the exact same thing has occurred. Same injury, same yarn, socks which have died before their time.

The decision was simple, unfortunately I won’t be continuing with my ‘Diversion Socks’. My Jitterbug stash will be used for stripey cardigans and shawls. It is a lovely yarn, I just can’t be using it for socks, it’s too heart-breaking.

In other more positive news! I’m competiting in TDF or Tour De Fleece this year. My sizeable IxChel stash needs a pruning and what better time to do it right before the Bendigo Sheep Show. The two organisations must be in cahoots!

Here’s where I’m starting out: 3 braids of IxChel BFL Seaweed Bunny, to be 3 plied into something like an 8 ply.

And here’s what I achieved from my first day of cycling/spinning

I’m looking forward to getting a lot of spinning done, so my Bendigo purchases will be made with a lighter conscience.

Dear blog, I know it’s been a while. The weather has been so dismal there’s not been a lot of impetus to take photos and no photos means no blog entry.

I’ve been knitting more than I’ve been spinning and I have things to show, but instead I have some news…

Yesterday morning I got a message to say my sister had her baby! Well, I was a little shocked. The little one was not due for three weeks and guess who hadn’t taken final photos of The Baby Blanket!

Visiting my sister I have to say was a little freaky, in all sense of that word. Her baby daughter looks just like her when she was born, how very frightening and very confronting! The blanket was very well received and I predict this baby is going to be very well dressed in woolens I tell you. I’m so happy it’s a girl because now I can make cute girl things in pink; I think my niece and I are going to get along just fine.

Picture this: The Op Art blanket is blocking. I finished knitting the final stripe of six hundred plus stitches, which in turn used no less than two 50g balls on Thursday evening. The ends were sewn in this morning. It has been machine washed on a fancy woollens cycle and is currently harnessed between 4 strong blocking wires effectively making it square. It looks awesome. I’m not talking about the knitting, my meaning is to the optical pattern which has suddenly come to life in my knitting.

Despite having begun a pair of socks in a weak moment a few weeks ago, and desperately wanting to cast on Golden Wheat; my thoughts this morning returned to my Winter set.

I entered my personal yarn store and spent a good amount of time accessing and deciding on yarn and in turn patterns to make up my winter set. I must say I was a little inspired by Katie’s recent cardigan, in the pink and grey stripes. It reminds me of my fav fleecy dress which I wore throughout grade one and two. It’s a colour combination which still speaks to me today. It’s pink, it’s grey, it’s the best of both worlds!

I was determined to knit something a little chunkier, something a little faster, my attention span for projects is a maximum of four weeks as proven by my recent projects. Ideally, I would like my winter set complete in under two weeks; that’s do-able.

Without further a do, my winter set for 2012 will consist of Veera’s ‘shimmer in blue’ cowl and ‘here and there’ cabled hat and ‘Dashing’ mitts from Knitty for my hands (Veera hasn’t designed any mitts as yet). I have chosen a selection of yarns which I hope will complement each other and not look dreadfully ‘matchy matchy’, just cool and considered, thanks Louisa for the tip!

After making my pattern decisions, I purchased them and they downloaded immediately. I wound my yarn from skeins to balls and I cast on. Is there anything better than that? Perhaps downloading an entire book to my new kindle in under 10 seconds flat, that was pretty shocking. Technology has made me feel very powerful this week, I’m excited and a little afraid.

I’m on my last stripe for my sisters Op Art baby blanket. The very last stripe, I kind of think I can get there now. I have loved knitting the Op Art blanket again (the first one was for my sister-in-laws baby), but I won’t lie to you, I wish it had gone faster. The very nature of the illusion, beginning in the centre, the rapid growth and then nothing… just the constant knitting and something that doesn’t look bigger than a hand towel!

So here we are on the long weekend and it’s still not finished, I was hoping to cast on ‘Golden Wheat’ perhaps today. It would have been a nice little reward for a job well done. But alas I’m still defiant, the blanket must be done first!

The baby shower was yesterday, a month early; I never intended to have the blanket ready this early, so instead I gifted some bootees I made some time ago. Saartje’s with ladybird closures. They were received with squeals of delight, I was very pleased and relieved with that.

The feeling I got from the room of 30 or so women, was that my sis would be having a boy. I have no idea how they’ve come to that conclusion, although there were many different theories circulating.

My sisters husband is a mad Yoda fan, so at some point I may have to knit a baby a Yoda wrap, and my fav umbilical hat. If my knitting dreams catch up with reality that is.

I was knitting away on the Op Art blanket yesterday, having managed to get a fair bit done (unblocked the width is about 41cm) and there’s a lot more to go. When my hands got a bit achy I switched to spinning for a while, but sadly it didn’t keep my interest.

This morning I did the only thing I could do. I cast on another project. I casted on some socks.

Sock yarn is guilt-free, so it makes sense that sock projects should be guilt-free too.

I had signed up to some Craftsy classes over Christmas when they were going cheap. I thoroughly enjoyed Stefanie Japel’s ‘Fit Your Knits’ class and got a tremendous amount of knowledge and practical tips for future jumper knitting. I also purchased at the same time, Donna Druchunas’ Knit Sock Workshop. The workshop features two patterns, one of which I’ve been wanting to make for a few months. Enter the diversion project, ‘Ladies Lace Socks’.

Very early this morning I attempted to do the Turkish figure 8 cast-on as described in the class. After my first successful attempt of casting on with this method, I went back to ‘Judy’s Magic Cast on’ and it was perfect and effortless. Why would you try/do anything else? Give credit where credit is due, that woman is a genius…

I have now completed my very first ‘swirl toe’, which I’m quite taken with and I’ve completed one lace repeat.

Guess it’s time to head back to the blanket now, fair’s fair.

 

The Op Art blanket is underway… this is going to take a while. If I’m realistic about it, I’m looking at a good 4 weeks of knitting this baby (if not more), But. I get these super unrealistic ideas come weekend time, that if I knit solidly I could be almost done by the end of the weekend. In my experience of me, this is never the case. The weather is rubbish or should I say positively wet, because in actual fact deep down every knitter out there is secretly rejoicing in a weekend where venturing outside is utter madness. My only other hope for this weekend is that my husband comes home with some dinner, I’m feeling that lazy and lux at the same time.

I’ve had a rather busy work week, I’ve actually been quite busy for some time. I am loving work, and this week I love my boss just a little more. Can’t tell you why, but I really feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I am where I am supposed to be. Is there anything better than that?

Apologies for another crappy indoor winter photo. I am going to have to get some photography tuition from Damian. I’ve had a really inspiring week, life-drawing classes anyone?

There’s a lot to be caught up with this weekend, I have no less than a dozen pieces of knitwear to wash and de-pill, I only wish I had done the washing during the week, because with this weather…