Well I did get them finished in time, some how! the green ones are knitted in James C Brett 100% Merino in a gorgeous limey green and the pattern is the International Sock of Doom. They where a lovely knit and are sooo soft! The purple ones are knitted in Sublime extra fine merino and are the Thuja pattern.

I am so happy to have them finished and ready to be wrapped with their little handmade tags (Thanks to Jen). I just hope they like them

It has been a strange time of late, I have been having some issues at home, mainly the fact that my lovely hubby who has worked hard for 4 years to complete his PhD in Chemistry is now finding it terribly hard to find work. This has been a real strain on us and I have been finding it hard to find solace in my knitting, that was until I received 2 amazing boxes from the USA and a parcel from England.

Let me explain, I have this amazing set of online friends that I met via the “Friends of P” group on Ravelry and they are the most kind, thoughtful, like-minded, generous people anyone could dream of knowing. I had mentioned about my problems and they where always there (and still are) with a sympathetic comment and some positive vibes (even though they must have been sick of listening to me moan!) and they started hatching a plan of which I had no idea!

Until one day, I received 2 HUGE boxes from across the pond and a parcel from Derby. WOW, where do I begin, well I will just show you what I received:

I am a very lucky girl, the kindness really blew me away and really I just wanted to say a HUGE Thank You to everyone involved, you all know who you are, your generosity has restored my faith in human nature and I appreciate it more than words can say. Love your faces xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

I really don’t know why I stalled out on these socks, the pattern and the yarn are beautiful and they fit perfectly. The yarn is Posh yarn Lucia in Denim coourway, it is a gorgeous cashmere/merino blend which was a real joy to knit with. There are so many patterns in this book that I love, a real classic for all sock knitters.

Here are my latest completed pair of socks, they are Spring Forward socks and are knitted in Malabrigo sock yarn in Indecitia colourway. I pretty much followed the pattern, it is well written and easy to follow but I did use 2.75mm needles (the pattern calls for 2.25mm) to compensate for my wide feet

I really enjoyed knitting these socks the yarn was beautiful to knit, so soft and pretty, the pattern was very intuitive and the chart was very easy to memorise.

I did make an amendment to the pattern, however. I wanted to try an afterthought heel and thought these socks would be a perfect pair to try it on. I knitted the socks up to the heel and then used a provisional yarn to knit the stitches that would be the heel stitches, then just carried on until the sock was completed.

I then picked up the stitches that where knitted with the provisional yarn, the picture show it more clearly, the first picture is of the provisional line still inplace and the second is when I had removed it:

You basically then just knit a toe! I picked up a couple of extra stitches in between the live stitches and then just decreased as you would in a toe, until I had 18 stitches left on the needles which where then grafted together and the result:

It worked well and I like the look and fit of the heel but I am not sure it is my favourite heel. I like the sense of accomplishment on a sock when you graft the toe and didn’t get that on these as I still had to finish the heel, however, it was something that I wanted to try and I am happy with the results

We took the kids to the Reaseheath College Lambing event yesterday. I really didn’t know what to expect but was surprised, it was an amazing day. There where around 244 lambs expected this weekend, as we arrived in the barn, 3 had just been born and where just amazing, all stumbling and cute!

It was so well organised and the sheep looked well cared for and the staff where very attentive, I even got to hold a couple of lambs, who where just amazing!

I did ask about the fleece as it seemed incredibly soft, the sheep where a cross-breed (names of which I can’t remember in my cold fogged memory but they weren’t breeds I was familiar with). They are sheered in May and the fleeces are sent to a mill in Wales where they are made into carpet or insulation, the farmer said they weren’t fine enough for knitting, even so they are beautiful and it was really lovely to see the beginning of the life of the  fibres that I use everyday

Well I received my first square this morning and all I can say is WOW. It was from Stacey and it is beautiful. I specified that the colours I would like would be teal, purple or blues and she hit it bang on the head with an amazing square knit in Dream in Color Classy – Deep Sea Flower. If I could have chosen a yarn myself I don’t think I could have picked a more perfect colour for me

But that wasn’t all, as well as the amazing square she truly spoiled me and sent me an unbelievable box of goodies

There was a “cheep” project pouch, a Piddleloop Valentines notions pouch, cute knitting girl socks, a heart tape measure, a StixFix which is an amazing little set of beeswax and cloths to rejuvenate bamboo/wooden needles and some Knitters Hand which is a solid hand moisturiser which smells so nice and leaves your hands so soft

All I can say is Thank you

I have been wanting to swap blogs over to wordpress for some time and thought that the break gave me an ideal time.

So what have I been up to? well I have been knitting continually throughout the break so I will share my latest sock FO’s.

These are the Bubble Wrap Socks, knitted in Perfect Day Yarns Beat sock merino in Sweetheart colourway. The yarn was a real joy to knit with and the pattern was lovely too. A real easy yet effective knit

These are Broadripple Socks knitted in Wendy Happy a Bamboo/Nylon blend that is lovely to knit up and gives a beautiful stitch definition and sheen. Again this pattern was a nice easy knit and I was so surprised that I managed to get the stripes to match, it was a complete fluke!

These are one of my favourite pairs of socks that I have knitted, they are the Zig Zag socks from Vogue Knitting – The Ultimate sock book, the are knitted in Katia Caricia 100% 4-ply merino. The pattern was lovely and the chart made it easy to follow. I made these for my neice for Christmas, she was stunned that they where hand-knit and loves them as much as I do, which is nice.

These are Thuja socks, knitted in Sublime merino, a lovely quick knit, knitted as a gift for my sister in law for Christmas. I will definately knit these again.

Well they are the last 4 pairs to be finished, I will update again soon with some non-socky knits

And just to give a perspective of length:

There were stalls run by Natural Dye Studio, Fyberspates, DT Crafts, Laughing Hens, The Mulberry Dyer and obviously Bluefaced.com. So we we’re spoiled for choice……

I decided it was about time to embrace some new fiber related arts, I have been wanting to have a go a yarn dying for some time and there was such a fantastic choice of undyed yarn and the choice of dyes was amazing too, I decided to get a procion starter kit and 4 different types of undyed yarn, all sock yarn but various blends. BFL & Nylon, Merino & Bamboo, Merino & Tencel and Cotton & Tencel. I am excited to start giving it a try

Chris also kindly volunteered to show me how to use a drop spindle, after we had finished our lovely scones, she gave me a little tutorial and let me have a go, it was amazing. I loved the feeling of turning the lovely fluffy fibre into something you can knit with, so with Chris kindly offering to loan me her spindle off I went and bought some lovely fiber, purple and green extra fine merino YUM.

And a close-up of my first spun yarn:

Overall a fantastic day was had by all, I met some lovely people and it was nice to put names to faces that I have only ever spoken to through Ravelry.

Here is a picture of us and the fantastic haul that we brought home