Last Of The Old, First Of The New

Things have been a little slow in my knitting world of late (it's difficult to find the energy to knit when doing house renovations), but I finally have some finished objects to show.

For my last finished object of 2010, I knitted Mum a pair of socks for Christmas. It is now something of a tradition that I give Mum a pair of hand knitted socks every year for a Christmas gift. Another part of the tradition is, that no matter how much I plan ahead, I always seem to be up late on Christmas eve, doing a mad dash to finish them while watching Carols by Candlelight.

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Medium Weight - Hollyday
Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Duration: Started 20th November 2010 - Completed 24th December 2010
Modifications: 56 stitches instead of 64 that the pattern calls for to give a nice snug fit, and a short row wrap & turn heel

For my first finished object of the new year, I have finished another pair of socks to add to my sock drawer, which brings my collection of hand knitted socks up to 13. These are the Loopy Ewe Sock Club installment from September 2010, and despite the fact that brown is not a colour I normally choose to knit with, the skein looked so pretty that I had to cast them on immediately.

Yarn: Madelinetosh tosh sock - Loopy's Favourite Season
Pattern: Berries and Leaves by Ruth Greenwald
Duration: Started 2nd October - Completed 16th January
Modifications: Extra repeat in the legs to add length

Hopefully I should have some more finished objects to show soon. At the moment I'm have two different pairs of socks on the needles (one for the S62011 KAL, and one for Dad), and a shawl for The Knitgirllls swap, so as long as I don't get distracted with casting anything else on, I should be able to finish something. Fingers crossed...

Happy Knitting New Year

Overly ambitious as always, I've completed a list of knitting related goals I want to achieve this year.

* Buy less sock yarn. Yarn purchased through sock clubs doesn't count, and sock yarn purchased for larger projects (i.e. jumpers), or for gifts also does not count. (Let's just ignore the fact, that at last count, I have signed up for at least 4 sock clubs to count, and am signing up for another 2 this weekend).

* Knit 2 jumpers - 1 for Mum as a Mother's Day present, and 1 for me.

* Knit Featherweight cardigan for me

* Knit 12 pairs of socks.

I have signed up for the S62011 group on Ravelry, and have chosen the below selection of yarn, which includes my first ever skein of Wollmeise purchased. Can you believe that I've been stalking Wollmeise for over a year and haven't knit with it once?!?

I'm also going to knit from my personal sock club along side this, as there's several patterns that I've wanted to knit for ages, that I've never gotten around to doing.

In my personal sock club for this year, I've got the following patterns earmarked:
* Hayrick
* Flaming Desire
* Holidazed
* Lenore

I've also got to do some gift sock knitting in there too, with 2-3 pairs for Mum, and 2 pairs for Dad.

This list of goals doesn't even begin to cover all the other things I want to knit this year either. Other assorted items I want to knit this year include the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing cowl, a shawl or two, several pairs of fingerless gloves, and somewhere along the line, actually finishing my niece's jumper while she can still fit into it.

I'm overwhelmed just thinking about all the knitting I want to do this year. I think I need to go and have a lie down...

Cause for celebration ..... or not?

I was lucky enough to pick up four Socks That Rock Rare Gems skeins at the start of the year (see here), and they had been languishing in my stash ever since. So in order to celebrate getting a temporary job (hey, when you're unemployed, even a days work is good news), I decided to celebrate by casting on a special pair of socks. The job fizzled out, but the socks turned out much better than I had hoped.

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight - Water
Pattern: Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder
Duration: Started 28th August 2010 - Completed 1st October 2010

The colourway of this particular Rare Gem didn't initially appeal to me, but I'm really happy with how these turned out. Apart from some pooling on sock number one, the textured pattern really brings out the best of these colours. I'll definitely be using this pattern again for some of my other Socks That Rock skeins.

In other news, I had to redo the Smooshy Winter Gloves I made for my mother. It turns out that Sanguine Gryphon Bugga stretches a lot, and the pair I made for my mother's smallish hands now fit my father's giant sized ones!

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga - David Attenborough

Pattern: Fingerless Gloves - One Pattern Three Looks by Clare Vallans

Duration: Started 8th October 2010 - Completed 15th October 2010

Modifications: Cast on 50 stitches instead of the 60 the pattern calls for. This way when they stretch, they'll actually end up being the perfect size.

Other than these, I've actually been working on some of my old WIP's, tyring to finish them so that I can start on Christmas knitting with a clear conscience. (I figure I might as well actually finish my niece's jumper while she can still fit into it.) We'll just ignore the little slip up I might've had with the latest installment of The Loopy Ewe sock club. Brown is not really my colour, but somehow before I knew it, this had happened....

Oops!

Father's Day Socks

Recently, my father who has always picked on me for knitting, decided that he wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding hand knit socks.

When presented with such a perfect opportunity to convert him to the dark side (so to speak), how could I resist?

So I decided to knit him a pair of socks for Father's Day. Given that my father has huge, giant sized feet, I decided to use the Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey socks pattern, hoping and praying throughout the whole time I was knitting them, that they would fit.

Yarn: Patonyle - Grey
Pattern: Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Duration: Started 14th June 2010 - Completed 5th September 2010

I did my usual last minute rush on these, actually finishing them half an hour before my dad woke up on Father's Day. Talk about cutting it fine!

When I gifted these to my dad he was very happy to finally have his very own pair of hand knitted socks, and has already placed a request for another pair! The socks were pronounced as being "comfy", which coming from my dad is high praise. Having socks custom made for him means that he gets a perfect fit around the heel, which is something he doesn't get with store bought socks.

So now that these are over and done with, it's time to start knitting another pair for him for Christmas. Time to get started on all of the other Christmas knitting as well!

For The Love of Swaps

I recently took part in the Low Budget Swap on the Australian Knitters board on Ravelry, and I wanted to knit something nice for my swappee, Bribroday. As she had expressed a desire for some hand knit socks, but was unable to knit them herself, I decided to knit up these for her, and off they went with some yummy edible treats.

Yarn: Moda Vera Noir - Bushland
Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Duration: Started 19th July 2010 - Completed 10th August 2010

In return, from the lovely Celia, I received this delightful package - nice warm bed socks and chocolates in my favourite brand.



Celia actually sent me the first ever swap package I received, and the fingerless gloves she sent me years ago are still in regular use today.

It was nice to go full circle with the swaps and the kindness and generosity of everybody in ensuring that their swapee's had lovely packages to brighten their days reminds me of why I love swaps. I love going to that extra effort of making something that someone I've never met will adore, and then receiving a package in the mail, with the contents a total surprise, and knowing that a total stranger has also gone to that extra effort to make something nice for you ..... the kindness and generosity of other knitters is why I love swaps.

P.S. On a totally unrelated matter, I got a mention on Round the Twist video podcast. Carin chose my suggestion for a name for the newest pair of socks that she's knitting. Check out her blog to see.

Winter Warmers

So the weather has turned extremely chilly of late, prompting the need for some warm winter knitwear. Nothing like cold icy winds to put the pressure on when you're being slack in finishing up an item.

Therefore, I present one quick fix for cold icy weather.

Yarn: Wendy Dennis Polwarth 8ply

Pattern: Mitts in Seed Stitch by Cleckheaton

Duration: Started 6th June 2010 - Completed 12th June 2010

These gloves were actually quite a quick knit, and were well received by my five year old niece, who immediately put them on and didn't take them off all weekend!

I picked the yarn up at the Bendigo Wool and Sheep show last year and I live the stitch definition. I made sure to pick up some more of this again this year.

Next up we have a Noro striped scarf that I knitted up for Mum. I made one of these for myself last year and had to go to great lengths to keep my mother stealing it on me! I originally started this with the intent of giving it to Mum for Mother's Day, but it was nowhere near finished at the time. However I did finally get this finished recently, when we had our coldest day in two years. Needless to say it was another gift that was definitely appreciated.

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden - Colours 87 & 284 (2 balls of each)

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood

Modifications: Knitted this using 49 stitches rather than the 39 stitches the pattern calls for, as Mum requested hers to be an inch wider than mine, as she likes wider scarves.

Duration: Started 4th April 2010 - Completed 29th June 2010

I purchased this yarn at Easter last year while on holiday at Daylesford, so this counts as using up souvenir yarn as well as knitting from stash.

Then we have another pair of fingerless gloves, also made for Mum. An attempt to use up some of my steadily growing stash of Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, while knitting something nice for my mother to wear while at work.

Yarn: Sanguine Gryphon Bugga - David Attenborough

Pattern: Fingerless Gloves - One Pattern Three Looks by Clare Vallans

Duration: Started 29th June 2010 - Completed 11th July 2010

I love knitting with this yarn, it's so soft and warm and squishy - I'd stop my knitting almost every five minutes just to admire the yarn!

Eventually though these were done, and the super high cashmere content of this yarn has ensured that they have been steadily worn since they were gifted.

Last up, we have a little finished object I knitted for me. I actually started this last year, but decided I needed a nice bright scarf to go with my new winter coat, for my annual pilgrimage to the Bendigo Wool and Sheep show, so this came out of the UFO pile to be completed.

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted - Amoroso

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Duration: Started 14th August 2009 - Completed 14th July 2010

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On a sad note though, I think I'm going to have to frog what I've done of the Evenstar shawl and start over. I seem to have a mistake along the way, putting some yarn overs where they shouldn't be, and of course I didn't use a lifeline. Off to the frog pond with this....

So to wrap up, lots of finished objects to show you this time. It's amazing what a motivation a bit of cold weather can be!

Socks, Socks and More Socks

Well, it appears that the upside to being made unemployed / redundant, is that I now have a lot of free time on my hands to knit. Specifically to knit socks and try and make my way through the mountain of sock yarn in my stash before it collapses on me. So, in the interests of not being buried alive under a pile of yarn, I've finished off these little pretties.

The first is a pair of socks that I knitted for my mother for Mother's Day. In a change of routine with me and deadline orientated gift knitting, I actually finished these with time to spare (as opposed to my usual routine of staying up till midnight knitting my fingers to the bone, trying to get the present completed).

Yarn: sKnitches Cinema Sock Club - Feed Me Seymour
Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Duration: Started 27th February 2010 - Completed 8th May 2010

Nice and bright, these socks were well received, and I was left with a clear conscience to knit on something for me.

Orange is not normally a colour I like to knit with (think the ugly burnt orange of 70's appliances if you want to know why), but I saw the design process on the Knitspot blog, and I had to knit it.

Yarn: Dye Dreams Classy Sox - A Sockwork Orange
Pattern: Fishbone Gansey Sock by Anne Hanson
Duration: Started 28th April 2010 - Completed 25th May 2010

Then, because my dad has finally stopped picking on me about the fact that I knit, long enough to actually request something, I had to start these.

I love socks!