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.

Some socks are not meant to be

Once in a while the universe shouts loudly that I have too many projects on the needles. As it was Yarn Shop Day today, I wanted to cast on my limited-edition West Yorkshire Spinners self-striping yarn in their Yarn Shop Day colourway. I had the yarn ready, and yesterday posted the options for heels and toes to Instagram for a few opinions (overwhelmingly blue, if you discount the many people that suggested mix and match; anyone who has ever seen my sock drawer is aware that is not an option). I knew I would need another ball of whichever yarn I chose as a contrast, so popped into the yarn shop in town yesterday lunchtime to pick up a ball, only to find that they were out of stock of both colourways! Rather than hunt through all my cupboards to find some 2 mm needles, I had also decided to get another set of needles for this cast on (yes I have plenty, but all the good ones are in use), and there were none of those in stock either.

Not one for quitting, this morning I drove to the next-nearest yarn shop, where I bought one ball of the pink and one of the blue (still a little undecided in which colour to go for), and my son added a ball of blue self-striping for some socks for him (he commented on the way home that it wasn't fair that only one person in the house could knit, as he'd like to knit socks too, so that's a future wet weekend sorted), but still no 2 mm needles.

Blue stripes that have been claimed by my son

Before we'd gone out I had located a Knit Pro Zing 2 mm circular needle, but when I took it out of the bag to cast on, I remembered my (almost) irrational fear of knitting socks on Zings; I don't like them and they don't like me (many reasons, but I can't get consistent gauge with them, which is the main one). So when we got home, I dug out the bag of emergency needles: magazine freebies, half pairs and cheap needles purchased when nothing else was available. Hooray, a 2 mm 80 cm circular needle. And I cast on.

I'm using blue for the contrast, and the needle is totally fine. A bit stickier than I'm used too, and the join isn't the smoothest, but certainly not too bad. And I am making excellent progress. Sorry to all the other sock projects, you might be on the sideline for a little longer...

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I am blogging every day in May. If you'd like to read the other posts, click this link.

The socks of doom...

...are no longer doomed!

I've mentioned my 'socks of doom' several times on the blog. These socks were so unassuming when I started them, but have suffered many set-backs along the way: I had tension problems; they stubbornly refused to grow; they destroyed a pair of needles; they're not quite identical. But they are now done! And by some miracle they didn't leak dye when I washed them.

The socks are destined for Nikki, a podcaster (go check it out, it's lovely) who I met in real life last year, for her birthday. I'm now just hoping that Royal Mail manage to deliver them successfully...

The socks were knitted in Sirdar Heart and Sole, in the colourway Hip Hop, which is discontinued. Other colourways are available here.

When Nikki saw the yarn she said it looks like a My Little Pony. It really does!

*This post features affiliate links. For more details, see the Disclaimers and policies page.*

A week in the life: 10th February 2017

This week hasn't been the best (hence the long delay between posts). We had the death of a close family member last week, and I had an job interview that I didn't get. I'm trying not to dwell on either of these things, but the week hasn't been as bright and sunny as I'd have liked.

The week hasn't been all bad though. Friends have come to my support, and a lot of my knitting work has been sample knitting with friends in pubs and cafes. This means I have finished the new sample for my Lynda socks (the pattern is currently out for testing, and the pattern will be available from my Ravelry store very soon), and am very near the end of the first sock in the second design of the collection.

Lynda socks in my size!

I've been working on a new blanket design too, and am now 40 rows from the end of the charted section and am delighted with how it looks. I'm really hoping to get the blanket finished by the end of the weekend (and then for some better weather so I can take some decent photos; it is sleeting as I write this and has been all morning).

New blanket design in progress

The socks of doom are off the needles and only need their ends to be darned in before I declare them complete, and I have finally cast on a pair of socks for my husband: I had started knitting him socks in this yarn (a self-striping yarn by Mothy and The Squid) last year, but the second sock came out smaller than the first, so I'm knitting these two at a time in the hope that they will match!

My socks so far this year

The next few weeks may not be the easiest, but I have a few things to be looking forward to, including spending half term with my children, so it's not all doom and gloom.

What have you been up to over the past couple of weeks?

Half term hiatus

This week is half term (mid-term break), so knitting has taken a bit of back seat as I am distracted by other things. I do have two projects on the go though, both straightforward stocking stitch that can be done while entertaining children/being driven to events/whilst shattered and winding down in the evening.

The first project is a cardigan for me that I cast on last weekend, the Antler cardigan by Tin Can Knits. The cardigan is knitted bottom up, so I have a lot of stocking stitch to do before I get onto the cables. I've almost got to the end of the first sleeve, and once I've measured my arm and worked out how long I want the sleeve to be, I'll cast on the second as a few days of portable knitting.

 

The second project is, somewhat predictably, a pair of socks. I always have a pair of vanilla (non-patterned) socks with me that can be worked on whenever I am held up somewhere or have a few spare minutes. The current pair are knitted in Halloween striped yarn that I bought from Rosie's Moments at Yarndale. Purple is my favourite colour (you couldn't have guessed from the colour of the cardigan), and while I don't generally do anything Halloween-related, I couldn't resist these stripes when I saw them (going against my policy of looking at everything available at a big event, then making a decision). The yarn is lovely to work with, and I've used a Fish Lips Kiss heel (which I recommend, it's nice and easy to memorise) to avoid disrupting the stripes with a gusset. I'm at the very end of the first sock, and am about to cast on the second, so I doubt these will be done in time for Halloween, but really don't mind as these will get a lot of wear as soon as they're off the needles.

Do you also find that knitting with children around requires simpler projects? Let me see your current projects.