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!

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.

Last Saturday, I finally admitted that July’s upper body garment was just not going to be finished in time. I’ve knit the body and sleeves and they’re ready to join in a simple colourwork yoke, but I lost my mojo.

I needed a new jumper project, pronto.

Sundays are usually a good knitting day for me, as we sit up late watching films until the MotoGP starts, and we’ve recently been using our Mondays (our day off together) to road trip down the coast to look at farms (more on that later), so I knew I had a good 6 - 8 hours of knitting time there. Combine that with a newly arrived bag of Lang Silkdream in a gorgeous burgundy (sold as red, but what are you going to do?) and a recent flick through the first issue of Yarn Forward and I decided to cast on an Ysolda pattern.

My intention was to photograph each day’s progress, but my camera battery failed while I was away at work.

Here’s the first day of knitting. Gorgeous.

This is the second EGMTK yarn in the pile, a BFL top in purples and maroon. Not my colours at all, but they’ve grown on me as I’ve been spinning (and spinning, and spinning) on this project.

So far, just the singles done, at about 25 wpi, they’re resting for the moment until I get a chance to sit down and Andean ply them. Man, I’m pretty sure I’m making an enormous mistake by choosing to Andean ply 150 g of fairly finely spun fibre, there’s a very good chance I’m going to end up tied to the couch.

Singles spun z on the Roberta.

Frankly, I’m not terribly interested in bicycle racing. Not interested at all, actually, the Moto GP is more my speed, but I’m enjoying competing in the tour de fleece for this year and am VERY glad it’s such a long race.

I’ve spun and plied the first of my skeins, 100g of Polwarth / Bamboo top from EGMTK. Let’s just say that this was NOT an enjoyable experience. I’ve never seen such poorly blended fibre, it was horrible.

I understand that the polwarth and the bamboo have different properties, and different staple lengths, but this was ridiculous, all of the bamboo was contained in two distinct stripes down the length of the fibre. It needed at least another two passes through the carders. Not really good enough, given the price of the fibre.

Anyway, the finished project, a three ply weighing in at about 12 wpi. Singles spun z on the Little Peggy and plied s on the Mitzy.

There has been knitting, but mostly there has been dyeing.

This lot is 3kg, there’s another kilo and a bit awaiting Pants’ reskeining magic.

He reskeins for me and I pay him 20c a skein! He’s looking for  a pay rise, but I don’t think it’s going to happen!

So far, there’s been merino sock, bamboo merino sock, worsted weight merino (LOVE this) and a bit of the old nylon merino sock. 40+ skeins, we’re getting ready for market season. If you look closely, you can see one of each of the club yarns for January. They’re in the yummy bamboo merino sock blend.

In the meantime, though, we’ve opened up a wee etsy store. The site was SUPER slow tonight, so we’ll be adding bits and peices over the coming days.

And here’s a sneak peak at some promos we’ve been working on. There are more to come:

Ok, here’s the deal with breaking up the yarn clubs into installments, it was going to cost a ton of money to sort it out through paypal ($110 to set up and $30 each month) which makes it not such a great deal.

If anyone is interested, we will offer the option of paying half now and half later and I will send you a paypal payment request. HOWEVER, you must pinky swear to pay the second installment because we’re buying all of the materials in advance.

Thanks for your interest!

At this time, subscriptions are only open for delivery to Australian addresses. Thanks for your understanding and please contact me if you want to convince me to expand sign ups next time.

YARN CLUB no. 1: Super Self-Striping Sock Club

Six monthly installments of our self-striping sock yarns, along with treats.

You will receive six skeins of self-striping sock, one in Wasabi, our bamboo blend fingering weight, one in HP, our tencel blend fingering weight, one in our brand new, super special sport weight and three in either Duck Sauce, our superwash/nylon fingering weight, or Sweet Soy, our superwash only fingering weight.

Please let us know in the ‘Anything to add?’ field if you would prefer Duck Sauce or Sweet Soy.

All skeins are 100g, except for the merino/tencel, which is a bit heavier.

Self-striping yarns come in two, three or four coloured stripes.

The first package will ship in the last week of January, with another in the last week of each month until JUNE (edited because I can’t count).

The cost is $185 AU, including postage.

Pay $95 now and we will send a payment request for the remaining $90 mid-March, and you do solemnly swear to pay it:

YARN CLUB no. 2: A Year of Lace

I’m sad that I can’t illustrate this club with a photo of some of the things we have planned, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Spiraling are offering you a year of lace, six installments of a hand-dyed yarn and specially designed pattern, straight from the Spiraling workshop.

Throughout the year, we’ll explore different forms and uses of lace knitting, with projects including a pair of socks in an all-over lace pattern, socks in a cuff-only lace pattern, a shrug, wrist warmers or a cowl, a hat or scarf and finally a lace weight wrap.

We’ll start in January with a straight forward pattern and, as the months pass, work our way up to our wrap, expanding our skills and experiencing some nifty hand-dyed yarns.

We even have a guest dyer lined up for you.

Yarns will include 100g of Wasabi (see above), 100g of HP (see above), 150-200g of our favourite worsted weight, 100g of gorgous BFL chunky, 100g of a soft DK and enough wool/silk laceweight to make a nice wrap.

Let’s not forget the special treats we’ve prepared for each package, too.

The first package will ship during the last week of January, followed by one during the last week of March, May, July, September and November.

The cost is $250 AU, including postage.

Pay $130 now and we will send a payment request for the remaining $120 mid-May, and you do solemnly swear to pay it:

Or, if you’re feeling particularly not-stashy, you can order them both for $400, saving $35 off the combined price, AND I’ll throw in a set of the Knit Picks nickel plated needles (you can choose DPNs or a Circular - just let us know your preference in ‘Anything to add?’) you’ll use for the first project (yep, the first project is a pair of socks).

Pay $150 now and we will send a payment request for another $150 mid-March, followed by another for the remaining $100 in Mid-July and you do solemnly swear to pay them:

Let me know if you want to pay by direct deposit and I’ll send through our details.