Have I finally learned my lesson...............

Well you would think I have by now wouldn't you. Yep we are back to the on going saga of the pairs of socks that only end up with one toe while I start a worldwide hunt for more yarn.

It all started off with the Slouch socks in Evolution sunrise



Please ignore disgusting toes this photo was taken pre online pedicure! This was solved with the lovely Alice of socktopus asking the yarn company to dye another batch so I could swap skeins for ones from the original dye batch with a friend of Alice, complicated, I don't like to make things easy.

........then it was Carl's cable socks in the Cherrytree Hill ......



.....they finally ended up a ladies size five having to cut the toe of the first sock, unwind and use the yarn to knit the toe of the second. Not something I want to reapeat. I think this was more frustrating as I did actually weigh the yarn after knitting one sock and had 51grms left, I was blissfully unaware of the 4oz skein!

Oh not forgetting the Karenina version II where at one point I had odd toes..



......and then still not satisfied it was the Jaywalkers in Kasbah........



thanks to Dalesgirl who very kindly agreed to swap her skein of Rainbow that was from the same batch as mine I am now able to go and finish them.



Yes these two are the same colourway but as with all handyed no two are the same but these were particularly far apart in fact the top one missing the pink out all together, it just goes to show you should always read the label...



Anyway, thankfully they are now finished and ready to wear, but will I have learned my lesson? Will I have learned toe up? Who knows? Watch this space.

United at last.................

So Mosaic socks got finished, February Lady Sweater is still pending completion.

Here is the evidence..........




......and I didn't even need to resort to photoshop. I thought at one stage I was going to have to fake the whole scenario.

It was only a few days ago my sock blockers actually looked like this .....



...... one lonely sock waiting for its mate to become a complete pair.

I really didn't think I was going to make the deadline for this one. I only had a few days left, all my reports, and a lady sweater to finish. Oh and not forgetting two reports to govenors in my various roles at school and a marketing stall for the school fair to put together. Deadlines hey!

But I made it and they look great - well I think so.
I also managed to finish the toes on my second pair of Karenina socks too.



A definate improvement.

Odd toe sock...............................

OK so a while back I was knitting up some of my oddments and decided to knit another pair of Karenina socks designed by Jane Lithgow. I wanted to prove to myself that I hadn't had to have the yarn coming up through the centre of the sock to knit the pattern. I had some Smooshy from my gloves and a ball of RYC cashsoft that would do the trick. These colours somewhat remind me of Candy floss and icecream.

They have been on hold for a while as I have hit my usual problem. I wasn't sure if I had enough yarn to finish both feet. So in my wisdom I thought I should do a contrasting toe. I was also trying to use up leftovers and stumbled upon some Seawool from the SeaVines vest.



As hard as I tried it just didn't work for me.

At the weekend I saw a lovely pink artesano 4ply alpaca ball of wool for a cool £3.50 and it was up to the till and paid for quicker than you could say Frog that socks toe. So I knitted up sock two at Chessington World of Adventures on Sunday adding the contrasting toe just to make sure it worked.



I have to say I was rather pleased, however it left me with these.



Was I going to be brave enough to unpick the red toe. I have to say the thought of them not matching even if no-one else would ever see the toe was too much for me because I would know.

So I have unpicked and reknitted toe one to match toe two. A match made in yarn. All's well that ends well.

Odds and Ends. What do you do with them?.........

Well apart from having a bad case of startitis at the weekend it is important to look at the root of these problems. I had been wanting to sort my yarn out for a while and after a trip to Ikea on Friday night with G and a non purchase of storage items I ended up resorting my yarn on the Saturday. So how do you go about sorting? Well there is a box for undyed yarn, a box for yarn purchased for specific projects, a hamper (and I do mean hamper of the picnic kind) full of beautiful individual skeins of yarn, the hand dyes, the sock, the luxurious and then there is the box of odds and sods. Mostly made up of old balls of arcylic or left over balls of yarn from projects etc. But what to do with the left overs? Some of it beautiful yarn needing someone and something to put it to good use.

So hence the series of startitis (and a bit of finishing) which has resulted in the following knitted items starting their life.



A very small amount of some lovely yarn from the Sock(topus)Club part I which was too good to just use up holding stitches for fingers for gloves so I created the following. There is a third but it was finished after I had taken this photo.



Staying on the theme of the Karenina, I loved the pattern so much that I wanted to see how it would look in different colours so scabbling around I found the following. You may recognise the pink Smooshy from my gloves.



I am not sure how these will turn out colour wise as they are such a contrast to the purple and yellow but they do remind me of summer and Ice Creams.





And finally I needed something to knit on the train last Friday so I started another beret using the left over yarn from my Chrysallis jumper (yet to be photographed, blogged and logged on the Rav). In fact I think that this was what started the need to sort, classify and use up the remenants.




I will take pictures of the other finished articles as they are completed. This is my contribution to the environment by doing the reduce (my stash) and reuse (my leftovers) bit.

Karenina - I've finished

I have finished finally after 31 days since I started. So here is the evidence. The story in pictures from start to finish.




I have really loved making these socks and follow along the progress of the other knitters in the group. You can see what we have all achieved by clicking here.

Sock(topus)Club Part One - Knitting started..........

I've started. Just as I promised myself, a little quiet and some time to myself to get started on these little lovelys. I am really pleased with how they are knitting up so far. The pattern isn't anywhere near as complicated as you initially think the only pull back I have had to do so far is when I knit instead of purled one round. I love the way the colours go together. Also my 'gold' yarn has quite a bit of green running through it which adds another dimension. I am hoping to get a little more done this evening. I plan to have turned the heel tonight.


The initial tentative cast on.






I love the way the little ladders run there way down the leg. I now need to find some time to listen to the book. I was able to hear the first five chapters last night on the train up to Iknit but I'm not sure how much I took.

The Karenina socks aren't all I have been knitting though I have also been working on my first pair of gloves, thats gloves with fingers and pretty, girly buttons. I set aside my skein of Dream in Colour Smooshy to knit these with a while ago and have been waiting for the holidays to have some time to master them. I also needed to do a little preparation and skill aquisition first. This consisted of first of all knititng the Tabi socks - practice for fingers. I then knitted the fingerless mittens where I learned how to increase a thumb gusset. So armed and ready I finally attempeted the gloves. I completed my first one last night on the train home from the Iknit meeting at the Royal Festival Hall. I pulled the thread through the five remaining stitches as the train pulled into the station.








I now need to find 8 delicate little pearl buttons for the cuffs. It is great to have gloves custom made so that they fit the fingers perfectly. I just have to finish the second one now. I have to say all the preparation that I did knitting the other patterns was certainly worth while.

I have also knitted my first hat / beret on circulars over the christmas season and have been spotted wearing it on more than once. Something to keep my ears warm. It was knitted in 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK. In fact I managed to get two hats out of three balls. I knitted the second a little tighter than the first. I also had to run a little shearing elastic around the rim of the first one as it was a little too loose. It has worked really well and made it quite robust.

SOCK(topus)Club 2007 has arrived............

OK so here it is the very first Socktopus Sock Club package. It arrived beautifully packaged in its destinctive silver bag. Alice you always pay such attention to detail.



And inside was.........




Which in more detail is.........

This bag is exquisite and just my colours! I like the little zip pouch in the front were you can put your tools. Great for carrying around with you, although I am not so sure that I will be carrying this particular pair of socks around as they appear to require a little more concentration.

I love the extra touches such as the tree decoration and the mini chocolate bar. The tree decoration is perfect as our tree is always in red and gold and every year we add one new decoration.


These are colours I would never have even dreamed of putting together but they work so well and I am so excited about trying something new.



Jane a big thank you on all the work that you have done to create this pattern especially for us. You can find Janes blog here.

My next job is to download the audio book to my ipod so I can also listen while I am knitting. I may however have to enjoy the book after if I find that I can't concentrate on both, despite normally being able to multitask to the extreme.

The only job I have now is to cast on. I finally wound the skeins yesterday in the car while travelling down to Eastbourne. Unfortuately I do not yet have a swift or ball winder so I have to do it by hand. It did make the time on the journey pass a little more quickly. I am going to cast on on New Years Day so that I start the new year knitting socks.