Spiral Bound

Round and round the work days go, where they stop nobody knows...

After two weeks of seemingly never-ending queues at work I finally managed to snitch half an hour's free time to update the blog again. Exam and assignment time is always entertaining at the library, the queues swelling to unbelievable levels on Friday nights when they all realise they only have 15 minutes to get their essays and dissertations in before the assessments office is locked up. The spiral binding always has me thinking of my sock knitting though, both go round and round and round, seemingly without an end for most of the time.


At least now the neverending part of the first knee sock is over. I finished the first one of the pair off last night and within minutes was running around the house with just the one sock on, seriously proud of myself. It was the first time I'd used anything other than self-striping yarn on a sock and the first time I'd managed anything more than ankle length.





They didn't end up quite as long as the ones in the pattern I used, but with long legs, they were never going to stretch over my knees anyway. Keeping my fingers crossed now that I've got enough yarn left over to manage the second one, there's nothing worse than having to wait days to finish a project because your order's delayed in the post.

Since I had a bit of spare time last weekend I also pulled out the entire sock yarn stash to see just how much has crept in there in the last few months, the answer is .... far too much. Just love buying the yarns, drooling over all the pretty colour combinations and the wonderful feel, but at this rate it's going to take me at least two years to get through all that I've got at this point. So what did I do when I discovered this ... ordered some Lorna's Laces from the US. I should permanently get the word 'shopping' tattooed on my forehead.

Restless Saturday

Despite the fact that I finally found myself the time to take photos of the socks that I cast on yesterday and the first pair I ever tried making, that I certainly intend to frog, I feel totally restless tonight. I have a feeling that little joy will disappear as soon as I get to settle down in front of tonight's NCIS double bill with the knitting, but for now it's being a real pain not being able to concentrate on anything for more than five minutes. I'm hoping it's just a reaction to having to try and fill a four hour break between shifts at work yesterday.

The four hour break did at least give me the time to get going on the next sock project - a knee high pair based on a pattern from Simply Knitting magazine. Picked two shades from Opal's 2005-2006 Uni Collection and adapted things a little to fit the size needles I prefer working with. I'm naming them Colonel's Stripes since the colours really remind me of the US Air Force uniform - a dark smoky blue and a pale blue and with Stargate always in mind, the name seemed kinda fitting. At the rate I'm knitting them they'll probably take a month to complete but I'm hoping they'll be worth it.



The sock to frog was dug out from under other half-finished projects in my knitting bag today in the quest for the other bits of my sock wool stash. It was a trainer sock started well over a year ago with some hand-dyed Opal I picked up on Ebay. Compared to the pairs I've made since the half finished-bedraggled thing sitting on the needles was a little disappointment. Figure at this point it's easier just to rip it out and turn the wool that I still really like into something a little more appealing, that is one I get the skein unknotted, it's a real mess at this point.



Disappointment certainly feels rife today. Took a look in my local Borders just hoping to see Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich. The Stephanie Plum novella had definitely been published in the US and since they usually come out at the same time here I was praying I'd see it sitting there as soon as I walked into the store. No luck though and Borders Man (the sweet guy I've spoken to dozens of times in there about getting my grubby hands on things) couldn't find any sort of UK publishing date for it. I nearly threw a hissy fit over that one, there's a new Stephanie story out there, one that probably has more than a few references to Joe Morelli and it's out of reach for me. Drat!

Rain Rain Go Away

A grey and wet day in London seemed as good a time as any to finally start the blog I'd been promising friends for months. The mad rush of christmas and my hustle to get presents finished on time is finally over (despite the fact that my mother's scarf is still sitting on needles in my knitting bag). All the presents were received near Christmas, thanks to the post taking a tiny bit longer on some than others and all were received gratefully.

Finally after more than a year Anne's cross-stitch picture of Wells Cathedral was completed. That one was a real labour of love and probably the most exhausting thing I've ever managed to finish. 23,000 stitches later and I got it to the framers in time for them to mount it by Christmas.




A flurry of scarves was mailed out all over the place too, Mel's to California, Julia's to New Orleans, Barb's to Ontario and Stephen's, well just handed over personally in London, not quite as exciting, but he loved getting a handmade gift all the same. Corrina's hat and scarf went down a treat, although the slightly pointy top to the hat did encourage some pixie jokes during our ice skating adventure for her birthday celebrations. Learnt from that mistake though and the hat I made myself afterwards in some lovely Debbie Bliss Cashmerino had nary a bump in sight.




Barb's




Mel's Scarf



Corrina's Hat and Scarf



Stephen's


With the mad Christmas rush over I can finally start getting through some of the sock wool stash I'm forever adding to. Opal's my big obsession at the moment, trying to collect at least one ball of every collection they're putting out. Finding some of the older ones has been a drag, but they're so damn tempting. So far I've finished two pairs, not such a bad number considering I only started knitting them in August and the learning curve was a long one. The two completed pairs were both from Opal's first Rainforest collection, Chameleon for myself, Ladybird as a christmas gift for Jann. I'm a big sucker for anything in shades of green, blue and grey myself.




Each pair I make I learn something new about where I've previously gone wrong, maybe by the time the third pair's finished (a basic sock pattern using Opal Elemente, shade 1078), I'll finally have a pair I'm completely happy with. After the first one in the pair I've already realised I've decreased in the wrong place the last couple of socks and I've been doing the Kitchener to close the toe backwards, purling when I should be putting the darning needle knitwise and vice versa. Pictures of that pair'll follow when I finally have them finished later this week. Till then it's just a matter of knuckling down and working on them when I have the time after work, and of course trying to force myself not to scout for more wool on Ebay. Resisting's hard when there are so many new yarns to try though, been drooling over the Lorna's Laces Camoflage colourway for weeks. Maybe the trip to the cinema tonight to see The Holiday will satisfy my need to spend and I'll actually get myself some willpower. Fat chance.