FO Friday: Lots of socks!

It's been a producive couple of weeks of sock knitting, so for FO (finished object) Friday I have not one, but two pairs of socks to share with you.

When my aunt and uncle sent out save the date cards earlier in the year for their joint 70th birthday party, I knew that I wanted to knit them each a pair of socks. I think handknitted socks are prety much the perfect present: every stitch is knitted with love, and even if someone already has some handknitted socks, they do eventually wear out, so you can't really have too many. Once I had decided that I wanted to knit socks I contacted my cousin to see if he could find out my aunt and uncle's shoe sizes for me, which he did.

I had known for months that the party would be in mid-October, but for whatever reason didn't cast on the first pair of socks until the start of September, and knitted the first one and a half socks around other projects, rather than dedicating any proper knitting time to them, which meant the final two and half socks were knitted at super high speed last week. One day I will learn!

The first pair of socks I knitted was for my uncle. I used Regia Pairfect*, which is designed to be knitted from the top-down, and pulled from the centre of the ball. This isn't my favourite way of knitting socks (I usually knit them toe-up), or way of pulling yarn from a ball (I usually work outside in), but I decided to go with it, and used Kate Atherley's book Custom Socks to guide me through the sock knitting process. I LOVE this book. It has lots of very useful information inside, including a table of shoe sizes and how they correspond to foot measurements, as well as basic top-down and toe-up sock patterns for lots of gauges.

The socks knitted up really nicely, and other than a little tangling at the start of the ball of yarn, pulling from the centre of the ball was ok too. One huge advantage of the top-down sock pattern in Custom Socks is that it doesn't require grafting at the toe, instead you draw up the final few stitches and secure them in place. As I'm not a fan of Kitchener stitch, I think I'll use this toe method again, should I ever knit more top-down socks.

There might be ambitions for more complex sock construction somewhere along the line!

Ta dah! Finished socks!

All wrapped and ready to go

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The socks for my aunt were always going to be quicker than the socks for my uncle. I am used to knitting socks in UK size 9+, so UK size 5.5 socks always seem tiny. But realistically, I should have cast the socks on before the Thursday before the Sunday party! I had never before managed to knit socks in under 5 days, and that was a pretty intensive experience. But all I could do was try, so I cast on the socks and got knitting.

I decided that as both pairs of socks were going to the same household I would use the same construction, so again following the pattern in Custom Socks. My aunt loves the colour red, so I had a bit of a think, and remembered that I had some West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply* from their bird range that featured red stiripes (Bullfinch) in stash, and that I had the coordinating solid (Cayenne Pepper), so decided to combine the two, using the solid for the cuffs, toes and heels and the stripes for the rest of the sock.

I had forgotten how much I like working with the bird stripe colopurways: the stripes are quite short, so I always feel like I'm making speedy progess, and the repeats mean you can measure how much progress you're making (and whether you're on track for your stupidly tight deadline). I took these socks everywhere for the latter part of last week - in the car, in the kitchen, to drinks, to dinner, to breakfast... I even knitted on them while sat on a wall outside King's College in Cambridge city centre (and only got the ocassional odd look).

By Sunday morning I still had half a foot and toe to go. And if I had nothing else to do I could have completed them before we got to the party. But in the end I hid in a corner for the first 30 minutes of the party and quickly did the final few rounds, then hastily darned in the final few ends before putting the completed socks into their gift box and adding them to the pile of presents. I would have loved to get better FO photos of these socks, but it wasn't to be. If you imagine the first sock looks like the second you're there!

In the end I managed to get the second pair of socks knitted in about three and a half days, which is pretty insane when even I think about it! Remind me next time I have a birthday deadline to allow myself at least a week to get the socks knitted!

The state of play on Friday morning. Maybe a little behind schedule...

Slight hold-up! For some reason I struggle to keep count while knitting toes, and sometimes it's easier to start the toe again than to try and fix it!

One sock down!

The finished socks, all ready to gift

 

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Regia Pairfect socks
Yarn: Regia Pairfect* in Waterfall 7114
Size 9.5 (UK)
Ravelry page

West Yorkshire Spinners socks
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply* in Bullfinch and Cayenne Pepper (heels, toes and cuffs)
Size 5.5(UK)
Ravelry page

*Affiliate link.

Yarning Along: Record socks

This time last week I was one a half socks into a four sock deadline. Did I make the deadline? Well, sort of! Somehow, through some serious speed knitting, I managed to get both pairs of socks completed by the end of the party (yes, that does mean I was still working on them when we arrived). I think these socks deserve a post of their own, which I'm going to save for FO Friday, but here they are in all their giftwrapped glory!

Having finished my gift socks, I am back to the autumnal socks I gave you a sneak peak of last week. The yarn is Paintbox Yarns sock yarn,* which will be available from Love Knitting** by the end of the month. I'm going to give these socks a full post to themselves when I review the yarn, so keep an eye out for that, but for now, just enjoy those beautiful stripes.

This week has felt long and we're only on Wednesday. The party we went to at the weekend was in Cambridge, which is a very long way from Durham, and we only spent one night there, so we spent a lot of time in the car. It was worth it though as we managed to catch up with friends, spending the afternoon walking round the parkland at Wimpole Hall, which was gloriously autumnal, before having dinner with my sister and her family, followed by drinks with just my sister after our children were safely asleep in bed. We nipped into Cambridge very briefly on the Sunday morning to show the city off to my brother in law who had never visited, and my son, who is currently studying the Tudors at school, was very excited to see all the Tudor buildings in the city centre. I spent three years living in Cambridge and it is one of my favourite places, so I was delighted to be back, even if it was only for an hour. The party itself was wonderful. I met many of my mum's relatives who I hadn't seen in years, and some that I had never met. The party was held in one of the Cambridge colleges, and the kids loved exploring the gardens and chasing the squirrels.

Yesterday I went into town to queue to get tickets for the Lumiere Festival, a biannual festival held in Durham city centre. I've been to all previous events and am looking forward to it again this year. Some of the event is held on the Durham peninsular, and tickets are required to enter that area between 4.30pm and 7.30pm on festival days. Having been to all the previous years, I know how busy the event can be outside these hours, when access becomes unrestricted and the area becomes very crowded, and as tickets are free queuing for them yesterday morning as soon as they became available seemed like the only sensible option. I ended up queueing for an hour, which was actually a bit less time than I expected. I took a book (I can't knit while standing up, I'm not sure I've shared that here before!) and read my way round the queue! I'm still reading Autumn by Ali Smith, and while I am not disliking it, I am unsure of where it's going and what its conclusion will be. Also, the book has no speech marks to indicate when someone is talking, which is annoying!

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along. What are you crafting on and reading this week?

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Don't forget, I'm currently running a competition for my blog's first birthday. More details can be found here.

*Yarn provided by Paintbox Yarns for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
**Affiliate link.

Yarning Along: I had no plans for Socktober

In the online knitting world, October is referred to as Socktober, a celebration of all things sock.* Many people set themselves sock-related challenges, such as knitting their first pair of socks, knitting as many pairs of socks in a month as they can, knitting some socks for charity, or trying a new sock construction. This year I decided that I wasn't going to get involved in any Socktober activities, but here we are, one third of the way through the month, and I have a lot of sock projects on my mind.

This weekend I am going to a family birthday party, and I decided months ago when the save the date card arrived that I would knit a pair of socks for each of the two hosts of the party. And now, four days before the party I have almost one pair of socks (knitted in Regia Pairfect). Which isn't quite enough - I can't give one host a pair of socks and not the other! So for the rest of this week, I'm going to be using every spare minute to whip up a second pair of socks, in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, and keep my fingers tightly crossed that I can get them finished on time.

A little disco sheep progress marker to help me make the socks the same length

I have another half finished pair of socks that have been on the needles for too long. The socks are knitted in some brand new sock yarn that I have been lucky enough to get my hands on before the yarn's official launch next week. These socks have been my out and about/leisurely lunch socks for the past month or so, and while I am very pleased to have one sock complete, I probably should have a full pair by the time the yarn launches next week. In the meantime, here's a tiny sneak preview. Aren't those colours perfect for the season?

This month I also need to knit a pair of socks as a magazine commission (and yes, that is all I can say about them), and I really, really want to cast on my superb self-striping Halloween sock yarn from Strawberry Fields Yarn, but at this point I'm not sure that's going to happen. Ah well, next month I'm sure I'll be casting on some special festive socks to wear in December!

*Socktober didn't start as a knitters event. Socktober was coined by Brad Montague in the US in 2011 as a charity collecting socks locally to distribute to the homeless. This initiative is ongoing, and more information can be found on the Socktober website.

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This title of this week's book is very seasonal: Autumn by Ali Smith. I've been reading this for a little over a week now, and while I don't feel like I've made that much progress I am enjoying the variation in writing styles between chapters, and the relationship between the central characters (a child, her friend, whose is an older male neighbour, and her mother). There have been lots of little gems in the writing that have made this an enjoyable read so far.

As ever on a Wednesday, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

Yarndale 2017: What did I buy?

I'm pretty certain that when I said I was going to Yarndale, no one expected me to come home empty handed. And I didn't. Here are the things I picked up at this year's Yarndale.

First up is the Extermiknit bag from The Knitting Goddess. I had been admiring this bag since it was launched a little while ago, and have even had one in my shopping basket on the The Knitting Goddess site for a few weeks. When I realised they were going to be available at Yarndale I made a point of buying one. The bag is fab. Nice and sturdy, good thick fabric, and an excellent design. I'm really excited to start using this bag.

I didn't need more project bags, but I was picking up a unicorn one from For the Love of Yarn for a friend, and as there were still plenty in stock, I got one for myself as well. These unicorns are really cute, and the bag is a good size for a sock project.

I have wanted a sock ruler for ages, and knew that Rosie's Moments stock them and would be at Yarndale. This little device makes it easy to measure sock lengths while you're knitting as you can put the ruler into the sock and stretch the sock out. I used it last week for the first time and am really pleased with it. The sock ruler features both EU and UK sizes, and cm and inch measurements, and I think it's going to be really handy.

The sock ruler in use

I looked at a lot of yarn while I was at Yarndale, but kept coming back to the Ripples Crafts stall. They had a huge selection of colourways and bases and I totally fell in love with this deep pink Donegal Nep aran. This is definitely going to become a hat.

I noticed the Pond Street shawl pattern on the Baa Ram Ewe stall - they had a sample hanging on the front of one of their boxes and it was beautiful. I thought for a long time about buying the kit, but went for it, and in the colours that were used in the shop sample. I think this is going to be a pretty quick knit, so I'm hoping to get it knitted before it gets properly cold!

I made one other purchase at Yarndale: a very boring ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply. I'm planning on using it for heels and toes on a lot of pairs of socks!

For years I said I didn't like pink, but this haul seems to suggest otherwise! I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I bought at Yarndale. Hopefully I'll be able to share some projects knitted from it in the near future.

Did you go to Yarndale? What did you buy?

Yarning Along: Hello Summer!

After a week of warm weather, this morning I was woken by the glorious sound of rain! Ironic for the first day of summer, but equally pretty standard for the UK. The rain is a huge relief, the temperature has gone down by 10 degrees (Celsius), and everything feels much fresher. The rain didn't even get in the way of the day's plan, which was to go to the shopping mall about 20 minutes north of us and spend the day sorting out birthday presents for several small people, so hooray for that!

This week is a two-project two-book week.

First we have socks for my son. It's his birthday soon and I said to him that I wanted to knit him some socks. He immediately dashed off to his room and located the yarn that we bought together on Yarn Shop Day and said 'You could use my yarn mum'. Sorted. These socks will be much quicker than usual, and I'm whizzing through them. I've just done the heel of the first sock and am confident I can get the whole pair done by the end of the weekend.

The second project is a children's jumper with a Christmas theme. You can't work out what it is from the 20 rows I've done so far, but I'll give you a clue: it's a self-published version of a pattern that I had published in a magazine a few years ago. Any guesses? I'm re-knitting the jumper in different yarn (Stylecraft Life DK,* which is one of my favourite DK yarns - an acrylic-wool blend that is woolly without being scratchy, and easy-care without being squeaky. Perfect), and I've redone the raglan shaping, as my design skills have improved over the years. Fingers crossed I might have a good chunk to show you next week.

On the book front I am still going with The Lake House. I'm on page 141, which I think is pretty much where I abandoned it last time. I'm enjoying it, but am only reading for a few minutes each day, so am not getting through it quickly!

The second book is The Careful Use of Compliments, which I picked up from a little library shelf at our local swimming pool last week. The book is a very easy read, so I'm keeping it in my bag for reading when I'm out and about. I'm really enjoying it and its easy-going pace. The book is part of the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith, and this is the first I've read, though not the first in the series, not that it matters as enough background is given as you're reading. The story is set in Edinburgh, and has a very similar feel to the 44 Scotland Street books, which I also enjoyed.

Oh, and I blocked the blue cardigan I was knitting last week. It is pretty cute!**

As ever, linking up with Rachel for Yarning Along.

*Affiliate link.

**The pattern should be out in the next couple of weeks, watch this space...

The Knit Night Collection: The people behind the designs

Just before Easter I launched my Knit Night Collection: three pairs of socks named after some of my favourite knitty people. And thankfully it has been really well-received, so thank you to everyone who has purchased the patterns and is currently knitting a pair of Lyndas, Amys or Sara Elins!

Today I thought I'd tell you a bit about the people I named the socks after.

Lynda

Lynda socks

First up, Lynda. I met my friend Lynda at a newly-launched local knit night a few years ago. I'd been looking for more local people to knit with as, strangely, the people I worked with weren't all that interested in my knitting. Every week Lynda would come along, chat and knit socks. I had always vowed not to knit socks (I have huge feet and was concerned that they would take forever; that I wouldn't like wearing them when they were done; and that I would never be able to knit tightly enough to make a viable sock), but there was clearly something enticing about watching someone knit socks. So one day I found myself in a local yarn shop holding a ball of West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in the Blue Tit colourway and some tiny knitting needles; I immediately sent Lynda a text to ask if she would help me knit my first socks.

The following Monday night at our regular knit night, Lynda arrived and handed me two books on sock knitting: Getting Started Knitting Socks by Ann Budd and Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oates. Over the course of the following week I read the whole of the Ann Budd book, knitted a swatch for my first socks and cast on. Within a couple of weeks, with a lot of encouragement from Lynda, I had my first pair of socks. And with that I was hooked! I now always have a pair of socks on the needles (and the accompanying sock yarn stash accumulation issue...), and I have Lynda to thank for that.

Amy

Amy socks

I met Amy early on in my PhD; I had just moved back to Durham having been away for a few years, and in the interim all my old friends had moved away. Whatever the course was on wasn't terribly interesting, so it rapdily became an opportunity to get to know a few more people at the university. Amy was heavily involved in GirlGuiding, and invited me to come and help at a local Brownie unit, something I had done when I lived in Cambridge, but hadn't thought to continue doing when I moved. Over the course of the following few months we got to know each other and realised we had a mutual love of crafts.

A few years ago, Amy moved away (she finished her PhD a lot faster than I did!), but our friendship continued and we sent photos of our crafts back and forth, both really appreciating having someone to 'talk' to about whatever it was we were working on. At some point we both learnt to knit socks and shared our frustrations with whatever yarn/needle/pattern we were working on. I knew as soon as I started writing my collection of sock patterns that I would want to name one of the patterns after Amy and was delighted when she said yes! Thank you Amy for coming on my knitty adventures!

Sara Elin

Sara Elin is one of those knitting friends that I haven't actually met, and instead know solely through the internet. When I first started writing a blog, Sara Elin was a frequent commenter, referred to the blog via my brother who knew that Sara Elin liked knitting, and is now my most frequent commenter, and we routinely send emails back and forth too! There are lot of knitters that I have never met, but count as friends, mostly through Instagram. While these socks are named Sara Elin, they are for all the knitters I know but have not met; the people who I most frequently chat to about whatever I'm working on, the people who understand what it is to be a knitter. Thank you all.

I have a KAL for the collection* going on in my Ravelry group, which finishes at the end of May, so you have plenty of time to join in if you'd like to. And you'll be eligible for prizes if you finish just one sock!

*Ravelry link, you'll need to be logged in for this link to work.

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I'm writing a blog post every day in May. If you'd like to read them all, follow this link.

Yarn Shop Day 2017

This Saturday is Yarn Shop Day, a celebration of the local yarn shop and their role in the community. I don't have one single yarn shop that is my 'local', but I do have several local favourites where I go to see yarn in the flesh (colours and textures are always better in real life than they are over the internet), talk to the staff about yarn and patterns (yarn shop staff at small yarn shops, at least the ones I've come across, are generally very knowledgeable and willing to help) and get involved in the local knitting community. Many also run classes and events, which can be excellent places to expand your crafting knowledge.

Many local yarn shops are holding events to celebrate Yarn Shop Day, a map of yarn shops taking part can be found here, so if you're free, why not pop along to your local and see what's happening. Or you could try out somewhere new.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it to any yarn shops this Saturday as we already have plans, but I will be knitting some of this exciting self-striping sock yarn, a limited-edition release from West Yorkshire Spinners on their Signature 4ply base, which I've raved about previously. And if I get a minute tomorrow, I will be popping into a yarn shop to get hold of some yarn to use as a contrast for the heels, cuffs and toes. The yarn is only available through yarn shops, not on the internet, so if you want some for yourself, you'll have to head to a yarn shop and hunt some down!

Are you doing anything for Yarn Shop Day? Which is your favourite yarn shop?

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I'm blogging every day in May. This post is the fourth. If you'd like to read the others, follow this link. If you're getting involved, let me know in the comments!

March, already!

The year has gone far too quickly, I've blinked and suddenly it's March. March has lots of exciting things in store, starting with the weather and the emergence of Spring: even in the past couple of days I have noticed more sunshine and lots of colour arriving with the early Spring flowers and the newly replanted flowers at the bus stop near my house. I also have several new patterns coming out this month, so look out for those, and I'm planing on hosting a KAL in my Ravelry group later in the month too. And I'm going to Edinburgh Yarn Festival next weekend, so lots to look forward to!

Today is Wednesday, so I thought I'd link up with Ginny for Yarn Along and show you what I am reading and what's on my needles. I have finally acquired the first few Lemony Snicket books. As there are thirteen in the series I decided that I would resurrect my Kindle (which I bought before my son was born, used a lot when he was small, and then stopped using as I wasn't reading fast enough to get through all the books I was given for birthdays and Christmas every year) rather than add more books to our over-full bookshelves. I did briefly consider buying the lot in one go, but it would have cost rather a lot of money, so I bought the first one, and am planning on buying the later ones as I want to start reading them, or picking them up in charity shops as I find them (I found books three and four this weekend). I'm two-thirds of the way through the first book and am enjoying its dry sarcastic dark humour immensely. The project that I am currently spending most of my time on is a pair of pink socks (in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply). The pattern is my own, and I'm really hoping to get it out by the end of the month. The pink isn't a colour I would usually use, but I bought the yarn in the depths of winter as it made me smile; the yarn still does and I am really enjoying knitting with it.

I also cast on a new pair of socks today. This morning I was listening to the latest edition of the Sockmatician podcast, in which he announced a sockalong (#SockmaticianSockalong) that is running for the whole of March. I know I said I wasn't going to join in any KALs this year, but I am certain I can get a pair of vanilla socks knitted by the end of the month! The yarn is an Arne and Carlos design for Regia and has been in my stash since last summer (I'd forgotten about it, and was delighted to find it in my stash this morning). Am I being overambitious to think that I might be able to finish these socks in time to wear them for Edinburgh Yarn Festival next weekend? Probably, but I shall try.

What are you looking forward to this month?

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