A big thank you...

...to "the Ninja Knitter" from whom I received my Sockapalooza parcel last week. I've finally got the camera and computer both working at the same time and can show you some pictures of the lovely things she sent me.

Opening the parcel was very exciting, inside the grey mail pouch was first purple, then pink tissue paper, then something very shiny...



My sewing friends were very jealous when they realised that my pal obviously has a machine with an overlocker.

The bag is gorgeous - I'm not quite sure what it will get used for yet. Maybe it can hold some of the special stash (the stuff that's way too posh to mingle with the random oddments and half balls that fill up every spare nook in my stash box).

Inside the bag I found a pair of Hedera socks knit from Natural Dye Studio yarn in a greeny/grey colourway plus the rest of the skein and two lovely dangly beaded stitch markers (these are the first fancy stitch markers I've owned so it's quite thrilling).



The socks are lovely and warm and fit a treat - they're going to be worth their weight in cashmere if this winter if anything like as wet and cold as the summer has been I can tell you!

Big thanks also to Christine (my Sockapalooza sendee) who said such lovely things on her blog about my socks. I couldn't believe all the nice comments too! For those as have asked, here are the instructions for the turn-down cuff with the hidden ribbing*.

Cast on 70 stitches as directed in the pattern here.

Note: if you want to do the beaded cast on, thread 35 beads onto your yarn before you get started. Slip one bead up the yarn until it rests against the starting slip knot. Then, using the lace cast on (scroll down the page for Eunny's description of this) cast on the other 69 stitches moving a bead up the yarn to the needle every other stitch.** Don't worry if the beads don't stay exactly where you want them. Once you're well into the pattern you can go back and tweak them around.

Proceed with the pattern as written until you have completed the first repeat

Next two rounds: knit all stitches.

Next round: purl all stitches.

Next two rounds: knit all stitches (70 stitches).

Next round: turn work (you are knitting back the way you came), slip 1 stitch purlwise, P1, {K2, P2, K1, K2tog, P2, K2, P1, P2tog} 5 times. Your last P2tog should purl together the last stitch and the first stitch (which you slipped) of the round (60 stitches).

Knit 19 rounds (or until ribbing is just shorter than the lace when folded at the turning row).

Knit rest of sock as per pattern but over 60 stitches, rather than 70. The heel should be knit over 29 stitches and the instep over 31 stitches.

I jotted these directions down from the top of my head so if you do notice any glaring errors please please let me know via the comments. Also please note that if your feet are larger than a UK size 6 (in breadth at least) you will probably have to go up a needle size or two, or knit the pattern over more stitches (e.g. 80 for the cuff and 70 for the sock).

* This is how I knit it for the Kew socks and for Christine's measurements (she has dainty feet!), however, this is pretty easy to adapt to most patterns.

** Brenda Dayne describes it all much better here.

Mystery Stole update

Eek, this is turning into a monster post. I had plenty of time for knitting on the Mystery Stole over the weekend as I'd pretty much knit everything else I'd taken (Knitted Walking Stick Cosy and dishcloths) by Saturday evening. I'm now on the current clue and am well into knitting the "wing" which involves a lot of short rows.



Luckily I'm a short row heel specialist. I had a little mental groan when I realised that I would be knitting more or less the same pattern over three charts and two clues (where's the mystery in that, I ask you) especially as the lace repeat isn't the most challenging, but it turned out to be very good train knitting and hopefully good TV knitting as I'm just off to Ellen's for our weekly Heroes session.

Speaking of which, I'm not feeling too heroic myself at the moment*** after falling over during my run on Sunday. One moment I was jogging along congratulating myself on having such great running conditions (damp and cloudy with rain in the air, perfect), the next I was flat on the pavement, wondering what had happened (I tripped). I'm fine barring a few scrapes and bruises and what looks set to be a v. impressive scab on my knee, still I wish I had Claire's miraculous healing powers.

*** Actually I say that, but I did then pick myself up again and run 11.5 miles (despite being only half a mile from home. Can I have my cape now please?

Sockapalooza - finished object

The Kew socks are done! I actually finished them off on Thursday evening but only just got around to taking a photo. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out and just hope that my sock pal likes them too!



I now just need to finish off the Vinnland socks, then I can make a start on Baudelaire with the gorgeous Jitterbug yarn!

The Yarn Harlot made me do it

"It" being signing up for MS3 (aka Mystery Stole 3) and I suspect I am not alone (in fact I know I'm not as it seems that sign-ups jumped from c. 4000 to c. 5000 after Stephanie's post about this KAL). However, I'm not blaming anyone, indeed what seemed like a somewhat insane idea (what with the looming Sockapalooza deadline and all) on Friday evening is looking rather more feasible now because...big drumroll...the first Sockapalooza sock is finished, right down to its little Kitchenered toe (I'm knitting top down for reasons that will be explained later).

How has this been achieved? Answer, I think I may have put in about 24 hours of knitting time this weekend. Here it is in pictures.

The yarn arrived on Friday morning and on Friday evening I dashed up to Katie's after work to wind it into a lovely fat cake of yarn.



I'd already decided that I would knit a variant on the Kew pattern from last autumn's Knitty. The colourway is Ocean Forest so it had to be something leafy (and possibly also a bit wavy) and the Kew pattern seemed just right. I wasn't overly keen on the top of the socks as pictured, they seemed a bit on the loose and ruffly side (I like the tops of my socks to be snug), however I did like the garter stitch wave on the edging. The solution, I knit the edging and one repeat of the Kew stitch pattern over 70 stitches as directed and created a fold-down cuff which hides 20 rows of 2x2 ribbing at the top of the sock.

worked up to the turning row at the top of the cuff..



pretty weird looking sock..



but turn down the cuff..



turn the heel..



work 2 repeats on the instep..



and voila, the finished article.



If you look careful;y at the edging in photos 1 and 3 you can just see the clear beads used in the beaded cast-on. Not to get too poetical or anything, but my sock pal has been bemoaning the Florida heat and I thought that rain-drops on leaves might be reminiscent of the somewhat damper British summer!

Tear ball band in case of emergency

OK so I've caved.*

I tried a little bit of plying earlier and it did not go well. I think that if I take my time and do everything properly I should still end up with some pretty decent yarn from my first attempt at spinning but just one yard of yarn plied direct from the spindle was enough to make it quite clear that that was not the way to go. So, new plan. I'll spin up the rest of the second single, then skein it and wind both skeins into balls, slowly and carefully. I can then ply from the ball without (hopefully) too much entanglement as was occurring earlier when I tried plying one ply from the skein and one from the spindle (did I mention the words hopelessly naive in an earlier post?). I'm still not sure that I'll achieve such desirable things as evenness of twist and nice interplay of colour but it won't matter because the yarn will be for myself.

Yes, as hinted at earlier, I have ordered emergency sock yarn for my Sockapalooza socks (the relief is almost tangible - time's a wasting and I still haven't knit a single stitch!). My sock pal wasn't too specific about colourways or fibres, only stating a disinclination for wildly variegated yarn and a vehement dislike of purple, which is a shame because there are some great purple socks yarns out there (and indeed in my stash!).

However, I took another peek at her blog today and discovered that she's very much into aqua at the moment and is yearning for cooler climes. This then, in the colourway Ocean Forest, should be perfect. I'm quite excited about knitting with this as I've not used Fyberspates before and it looks absolutely lush**. Pattern ideas are nudging rather than leaping out at me but the gauge looks like I should get plenty of stitches to the inch which makes for plenty of choice.

Talking of patterns I want to knit, I have finally bought the yarn with which to make me a pair of these (which I have been coveting for ever so long). Whilst I was online buying the Sockapalooza yarn my hand 'slipped' and I also purchased a skein of Colinette Jitterbug (another thing I have been coveting for some time). It's in the colourway Velvet Plum which just sounds gorgeous.

Finally, some yarn that I already have my sticky mitts on and some actual knitting.

I popped into the my LYS to see if (by some strange chance) they'd started stocking any sock yarn other than Artesano Alpaca Hummingbird (which is lovely but a bit hot for summer in Florida). They hadn't but I got into conversation with the owner and between me not managing to say "sorry, you don't have what I'm looking for" and feeling guilty because I'd come in a few times recently without making a purchase*** I ended up buying two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk with the idea that I could possibly use it for the socks if the spinning didn't work out. I know, what was I thinking??



However, it is lovely yarn and I think it would make a beautiful open lace scarf for someone (not quite sure who as yet), possibly in the Chalice or Oriel lace pattern from the Harmony Guide vol. II.

And a sneaky look at the second half of POTW.



I'm 11 repeats in with 10 to go. I still haven't done the maths on how many stitches I'm going to have to pick up along the long edges for the border but there's still plenty of time to work that out.

* Alas I only read Katie's rallying pep talk (in the comments on the previous post) after I'd bought the yarn. I totally appreciate the support but really I'm very relieved to be off the spinning treadmill and also rather excited about the new yarn arriving.

** Very excitingly you get 425m in a 100g skein - that must be enough for two pairs of socks surely. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

*** It's a small shop so not the sort of place in which you can browse anonymously, it's usually just you and the owner which starts to get embarrassing after about the sixth time you go in without making a purchase. This is why I love Get Knitted (that and the free lollies etc.).

Like I don't have enough work deadlines

I've been really good all this week, working on the POTW on the bus and at lunchbreaks and spinning when I get home with the result that I've completed 10 out of 21 repeats of the 2nd half of the POTW and am more than half-way through the fourth bit (or batt if that's the right word?) of prepared fibre out of 5 on the 2nd single for my 2-ply yarn. Still, there's a lot of spinning still to do before I can even ply the stuff, let alone knit it (thank goodness it's a quick knit).



My plan (and I'm a novice spinner so do tell me if this sounds hopelessly naive) is to spin about half of my fibre to make one ply, then on a fresh spindle, spin the other half-ish for the second ply with the aim of ending up with two plies of roughly the same length which can then be plied together. We'll see pretty soon how that works out in what I like to call reality. Once I've finished spinning there'll be a mammoth skeining session and then it's off to Katie's to wind the two plies into balls. Actually just typing that makes me want to chicken out - the plies are pretty thin in the places where I let the spindle drop without grabbing enough fibre and I have now idea how my spun fibre is going to behave in a centre pull ball. Maybe instead I need to hand wind my first ply back onto a bobbin and ply it together with its mate still on the spindle.

I think I'd risk the centre pull option if a) I wasn't on a schedule and b) the eventual product was for me (I can put up with lots of woven in ends from knots and breaks). Given that I need to have knitted and posted a pair of Sockapalooza socks from this by August 2nd I think this is going to have to be done quick and dirty so to speak!*

In the meantime..



I made these on Sunday when my wrist was too tired to spin any more and it was raining (thus precluding a trip to the Co-op for bought biscuits). I was going to try small chocolate flowers in the middle of plain flowers and vice versa but the dough was a little too soft, still they look pretty good I think and they certainly taste alright.

* I am still horribly worried that it won't be done on time. I really don't want to let down my sock pal - I think I'll have to buy in some emergency sock-yarn as a back-up. I'd use my Trekking but she doesn't like purple.

FO—PBP-03:Top-down baby raglan

The pile of cute baby stuff under the bed just keeps on growing.



Yarn: 2 balls light green Rowan cashsoft dk, 2 balls cream Rowan cashsoft baby dk
Needles: 3.75mm circular, 3.75mm double pointed needles, 4mm for casting off.
Pattern: My own.

I finished the button band (the last bit of knitting) on Friday night and left the cardigan blocking on Saturday while I went to town in search of buttons. The selection in the fabric store isn't the widest and I couldn't get a good match with any of the green ones, then I found these. Aren't they the cutest?!



(I forgot to take a close up earlier whilst it was daylight so it's a bit blurry.)

The cream is a really good match for the yarn and the clear bits seem to pick up the green from the button band around and below.

Although I've specified 2 balls of each colour above you only need a tiny bit of the second ball of each colour. If you were to knit a single colour version (which I might later on when I know which gender to knit for) it would only take three balls with some over for matching bootees or a hat. So...



These are from the Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss and they really are a last minute knitted gift and take the least amount of yarn! The turn-over cuff with the snug ribbing underneath is so neat as is the little heel flap. (I don't mind heel flaps when they're this small, and when the maths adds up properly - I hate having to fudge an assymetric heel flap).

I'm knitting another pair with a slightly more fancy cuff, though I might rip back and knit over 30 stitches instead of 32 as the lace pattern gives a slightly larger gauge and also doesn't go exactly into 32 stitches (and at this scale a 2 stitch "blank" column is quite noticeable).

Yesterday was meant to be another "Spin Sunday" but I went out on a bike ride instead to atone for the previous night's excesses at the Summer Ball so I'm no further forward with Sockapalooza than I was last week. The boyfriend is out tonight so this looks like the perfect excuse to rent a good movie and get in a couple of hours tonight, hopefully I'll remember how!

Sockapalooza

I spent a fair portion of last night's Bluestockings gathering* thumbing through the two volumes of the Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches (Hilary had brought hers along) trying to pick stitch patterns for my sock pal's socks. I'd really like to design something and this would be a good opportunity. Plus, if I just buy a pattern or pick a free one off of the net then the whole thing will be over too quickly and I'll have to sit on them (metaphorically speaking) until August.

My brief is pretty non-specific—I just have to avoid purple—so there's lots of "scope for imagination"* but I'd like to include some cabling (though not too much as I'm mailing to a warm climate) and some lace and I want it to be assymetric so I can knit a left sock and a right sock (thus avoiding second sock syndrome). Too ambitious? We'll have to see.

* I don't like calling it a meeting, it's too reminiscent of minutes and agendas and I get emough of that at work!

** I'm still having a bit of an L.M. Montgomery fest via Librivox