Not Stash

Another finished pair of socks, these were finished really early in the year. They were meant to be for pants, but they’re a bit tight, so they may be mine.

The pattern, Crosswalker Socks, just eats yarn and makes a REALLY weird toe but I like the funny pointy cuff it makes..

The yarn is Chewy Spaghetti Fingering, this was a club colourway that I picked up in a destash, Eclectic. It’s a really nice yarn with a firm twist and the dye job knit up really nicely.

Another unposted pair of socks.

These were made to wear slouched over work boots (daggy, no?) apres dirt biking. They’re perfect for the job, with a toe up construction, short row heel and increased calf sizing made by increasing the needle size after the ankle. Too easy.

The yarn is Perchance to Knit’s sock and it’s really lovely.

I have been knitting socks this year, as part of my challenge, I’ve just been really slack about posting photos.

This is one pair I made out of my own self-striping handdyed sock yarn, I had to keep this skein because the colourways remind me of a scarf my friend had when we were teenagers that we used to call Big Bird’s Legs.

This is just a basic pair of toe ups with a short row heel and a long-ish cuff. Fun!

Now that I’m mostly finished my Christmas shopping, and have made a good start on my Christmas crafting, thoughts turn to my Christmas giftlist, and right at the top sits a request for this fantastic book, unavailable in Australia (click the photo to view at Amazon):

It seems crazy that I didn’t even have a chance to post this one as a WIP, but I’m on a knitting roll at the moment.

I cast Damson on the day after I finished my vine yoke, and three days later I had this beautiful shawl.

It’s going to be a Christmas gift for my mother, who has blue eyes, so I think it will look great.

I used a thicker yarn (technically a DK, but I have my doubts about that) and slightly larger needles.

Obviously, as yet unblocked, as it rained all day yesterday and I knew it wouldn’t dry inside. Today, it’s already blowing a gale outside, so we’ll see if it (and vine yoke) get blocked today.

Now, I should be working on Pants’ mystery gift, but I’m itching to cast on Lorelei.

I recently discovered Kathy’s Fibres, and let me tell you, I considered keeping the finding to myself.

I managed to score four gorgeous braids of her hand-dyed 24 micron merino. YUM.

They’ve been draped on the spinning wheels, waiting to be spun.

Thanks Kathy!

I’m having a bit of a WIP parade at the moment, so here is one unidentified item, which will hopefully be done in time for the little gentleman’s Birthday at the end of September.

Can’t give away too much detail, but I can tell you that it’s being knit out of Bendigo Woollen Mills new Alpaca Rich yarn, which is absolutely scrummy. Rich Wine and Rich Noir are the colourways, and I mean it this time when I say I’m not going to knit any more of this burgundy, after this project is finished!

Unless I have leftovers.

Vine Yoke is finished, well, you know, except for blocking, weaving in a few ends and finding and attaching buttons.

For the purposes of the blog, FINISHED!

What a brilliant project. I cast on at 5pm on Monday and knit my final stitch at 9pm on Thurs. Surely some kind of record. A happy, happy upper body garment for August’s resolution knitting.

I made a couple of wee changes, as follow:

• Left off the  sleeves and continued the yoke lace as a kind of sleeve cap by binding off the wrapped stitches from the body piece and turning the last stitch of the body chart into a k on the right side (p on WS) to match the edging chart. I worked 10 repeats of the yoke chart (may be slight overkill, but I have fat arms), then changed the last stich back to a p on RS, cable cast on those 5 stitches before adding the body stitches to the yoke and continuing on with the back.
• I cast on using long tail and left off the last row and bound off using Russian on the w/s.
• I slipped the first stitch of every w/s, because that’s what I do.
• I didn’t read the notes on the first page properly and picked up and knit all of the wraps. It still looks fine, but it took a tiny bit longer than it could have.

This working of the pattern used FAR less yarn than was indicated (3.15 skeins, rather than 7), which is good, because I only had five. In hindsight, though, I could easily have made the sleeves with the yarn that I had. On the positive side, I’ve enough yarn for a cowl and a hat, so…

The yarn (Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted) is absolutely gorgeous to work with, slightly dry with an almost papery hand, I could knit with it all day.

Five stars for this project.

Still knitting along on Vine Yoke.

Day three ended with my having completed 13 of 17 lace repeats required for the back.

By my calculations, I’m 33 repeats in to my 53 repeat cardigan, so well over half way.

I’ve just joined my third skein, so either I’m doing something terribly wrong or the yardage requirements are out by quite a bit. Regardless, I’m very pleased with the way it’s turning out and can’t wait to wear it before the weather turns and it’s too hot.

I babysat my gorgous Goddaughter today, and here follows a cautionary tale of why you perhaps shouldn’t let knitters be godparents to your children.

I feel like I’m going great guns on this project, having completed 5 (of 17) repeats of the chart for the back. It looks like it’s turning out a wee bit large, but we’ll see.