It’s been a while….

craft-1

Well it’s been a while since I posted and I’m sorry about that.  Life however, sometimes takes over.  The short version of the story is that we had a family crisis.  My mother had to go into hospital for a major life saving operation, and wasn’t expected to survive.  Fortunately against all the odds she did pull through and is now making a slow but steady recovery. 

craft-2

While crafting didn’t stop it was pretty much limited to sock knitting in the hospital.  There are only so many posts you can write about that!

craft-4

Anyway, looking for that silver lining I can say it was really good for sock production.  I could now happily stop my socks of the month project now as the sock drawer is full.  I’m not going to though as all the stress, sleepless nights and general kafuffle have left me completely exhausted.  I returned to work this week and it was all I could do to make it safely through to Friday.  So plain old simply sock production will continue for a while until my brain recovers enough to cope with anything more complicated.

craft-3

So here are some shots of the plain old vanilla socks I’ve been knitting.  I’m rapidly running out of sock yarn again so I sense some yarn shopping in my near future.  Hopefully it won’t be to long before my next post as I have something wonderful to tell you about from Nikki at Sew Quine.

August Socks 2011

Well I finished my August socks (and I’ve cast on the first of the September socks). Yay.  Which of course leads to the problem we all face with socks – how do you photograph your own feet?

Well I popped them both on and headed out into the garden with my camera for some natural light.  Yes, those scary white chicken legs are mine.

august-socks-2011-5

The lilac one is Sunshine by cookie a.  The multi-coloured one just a variation on the basic pattern that many people use.  To give it a bit more elasticity I went with a 2 x 2 rib and also reinforced the heal with a slip stitch.

august-socks-2011-6

I have to say that out of the two my favourite is the rib one.  Probably because it was a super fast knit and the changing colours provided much amusement, constantly egging me on to do just one more row.

august-socks-2011---1

Of course once sat down I couldn’t help but look round the garden and think about all the jobs that need doing out there.  I would have made a start on them but Salem the cat came over and demanded a cuddle on my lap.  Well it would have been rude to get up at that point.

august-socks-2011---2

So I spent a lazy 10 minutes or so stroking Salem and planning garden projects for the future.

Some new socks…..

I’ve recently embarked on knitting patterned socks. Normally I tend to do plain socks as repetitive tv knitting but hey we all need a change at times.

I’ve now completed a couple and come up against the age old problem of how do you photograph your own feet! You all know what I’m talking about and it’s practically impossible to do with a SLR. Enter the camera on my iPod.

Both the patterns are by cookie a and are from the Sock Innovation book. The one above is Wanida done in one of my own Fantasia yarns.

This one is Sunshine but I’m afraid I can’t remember where I got the yarn from.

A little bit of Sunshine

I love hand knit socks, but suffered terribly trying to get gauge when I first started knitting them.  As a result I’ve shied away from patterned versions ever since.  However, after advising someone to face their fear of failure I decided I should take my own advice and cast on.

sunshine-sock-3

The chosen pattern is Sunshine by cookie a from her Sock Innovation book.

sunshine-sock-2

So far things seem to be going to plan and it looks a lot better when I try it on.  Unfortunately I’m lousy at photographing my own feet so I’ve been forced to substitute a febreeze can.

sunshine-sock-4

I’m currently working my way down the foot of the first sock but thought I’d share now rather than waiting till they’re finished.

pens

Oh, and on a separate note I promised to report back on the Frixion pens I bought for marking fabric.  So far I have been unable to work out how to rub or use friction to erase the pen lines on a fabric.  They do however disappear easily with a bit of heat from an iron.

Yay for Ann

A little while ago I blogged about a friend who had some sock designs accepted for publication. Well the first has now appeared in print.

The design is called Amy by Ann Crick and it’s in the current issue of Let’s Knit.

Ann is currently working on some new designs which are being test knit in some of my Fantasia yarn – how exciting hehe…… I love her designs and seeing them knit up in my own yarn is extra special!