Birthday Haul

Shock horror, mere days after the last blog post, I'm writing another one. When you get such a wonderful haul of knitterly things for your birthday you have to share, even if it means dragging yourself back to the keyboard when staying up half the night reading has left you exhausted. Since I foist my knitting obsession upon just about everyone I meet, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to get so many wonderful knitting things for the big day, but it did. All of my friend Anne's gifts to me had a knitting theme, really no surprise since I'm the one who got her hooked on sock knitting, then again, she had already got me hooked on the Harry Potter books and films, so mixing the two must've seemed the perfect idea for her. She made me socks! Harry Potter socks! And she got me a little Knitting Personal Handbook (the perfect thing since I've got so many sock ideas I wanted to work out and this has the perfect graph paper section in it), and the little tin I begged for to put my stitch markers in.



Couldn't have asked for a better set of gifts from her. Of course I had to wear the socks when we went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again the day after my birthday, it seemed too good an opportunity not to flash them off during the film. My ex-boss Neil also did pretty well with the perfect gift for a knitter idea, he got me a beautiful book on natural knitting, The Natural Knitter. There's even a sock pattern in it, one that's built up of various pieces that are knitted first, then connected together into a very sweet pair of socks. Lots of sweater patterns in it too that are pretty tempting.

When your wonderful mother gives you cash every birthday rather than having a nightmare trying to find you gifts, you can't help but considering fibre and yarn if you're a knitter. Although I forced myself to spend most of my money on non-knitting things - a new watch strap from Fossil, some fantastic lingerie, some new DVDs and CDs, I had to spend just a little on fibre. Crown Mountain Farms had so many tempting things last time I'd bought from them that I decided to head back there for more spinning supplies, some of which was going towards another pair of my Brockmann socks (Brown Eyed Girl for Gina this time, and the Thelonius pattern by Cookie A. to knit the finished yarn up into), and some towards a pair of Gibbs (NCIS's wonderful boss) socks, Silver Fox for him. This morning the post man rang the doorbell at an unearthly 7am and delivered a little cardboard box that I had to tear open as soon as I fell out of bed at nearly 10am (I wasn't the poor schmuck who hauled themselves out of bed at 7am for the parcel, I merely buried my head under the pillow). And inside ... the gorgeous Crown Mountain rovings.

Gina's Brown Eyed Girl
Gibbs' Silver Fox

Seems that every day this week the postman has bought a little treat for me (he should do considering how much post should've arrived during the strikes last week), today the roving, yesterday the wonderful Regia yarn I'd ordered to knit Cookie A.'s Clessida Socks, for Joan DaCosta's pair of socks in my Brockmann Sock Project. It's a beautiful fiery red, sports car red I'm calling it despite the fact that it's real colour name is Hot Red, and its perfect for a fiery, sophisticated Italian Woman. The actual knitting of the yarn is going to have to wait until I've got a few more of the Brockmann pairs done though. At least last night the wonderfully bright Gilligan socks were finished.



Pomatomus Socks for Dan 'Gilligan' Gillman, in White Oak Studio's TV Yarn Gilligan's Island Colourway.

Now it's just a matter of casting on for the Cosmo socks when I get home. Natural Dye Studio's Titanium BFL and the Eagle's Flight pattern. At least it gives me something to look forward to throughout four very boring hours at the library.

The Countdown Has Begun!

There's only two weeks til the latest Troubleshooters book by Suzanne Brockmann is published and my Troubleshooters sock project is way way way behind where I'd hoped I'd be by this time. When I first decided on the idea and started making the Wildcard Monkey socks at the end of last year, I stupidly thought that by the time Force of Nature hit the shelves, I'd have myself a drawer full of wonderful Troubleshooter character themed socks. Oh how little I knew. Between a lot of overtime at work in the leadup to the end of the semester and my laziness since I started having to use up my leave and ended up with weeks off I got further and further behind with the project and only managed to complete three pairs in a year (Wilcard's Monkey socks, Izzy's Shadow Rib socks and Kelly's Classy Slip Up pair). I have to admit, I was feeling pretty damned ashamed of myself for getting so lax with it.

So with the start of my annual reread of the Troubleshooters series with Julia, I decided to get my butt in gear and really start work on the TS sock project too. Of course, any excuse to shop for yarn is a good one and I put in a good few days hunting for yarn wherever I could find an online shop that sold the stuff and got myself a big stack of yarn to start working on things. Yesterday, when most of it had arrived, I had a lot of fun photographing and winding everything up into neat little centre-pull balls with my new-ish ballwinder.

For Cosmo (the next pair that's going to be made) - Titanium (silver for his eyes and pale pink for his softer side) Blue-Faced-Leicester sock yarn from Natural Dye Studios, which is going to be turned into a pair of Eagle's Flight socks.



For Sophia - Mata Hari socks in the amazingly soft Posh Yarn Emily sock yarn in the Mystique colourway.



For Diego Nash - This pair have been planned for months now and still haven't made a move on starting the socks. For Nash it's Posh Yarn Emily in the Brooding colourway and to reflect his roving eye pre-Tess, a pattern called Wild Oats. This is one I'm designing myself (hopefully), but still haven't sat down to work out the exact logistics of the pattern.



For Molly - More Posh Yarn Emily sock yarn, this time in the very tropical Polynesia colourway. Still haven't decided which design to use, but definitely something with a tropical theme to match the colour and Molly's life in Indonesia.



For Savannah - Emily again (can you sense my love of this yarn? Just can't avoid buying it on Sundays), in the Savoir Faire colourway. Again no design in mind yet, but probably something lacy and very ladylike.



For Alyssa - Posh Yarn yet again, but not in Emily this time, Lucia instead, a finer yarn but equally as soft and beautiful to touch. The colourway for Alyssa is Truce, something she's had to do again and again with Sam. No pattern in mind yet, really have to do some more research on those before I run out of the socks I'm ready to go with immediately.



Sam and Max. For two of the most important figures in the Troubleshooters books I decided to do a little something different. When I bought my spinning wheel weeks back now I had the idea in mind to do some spinning for the TS socks, but until I actually started casting around on the web for roving to buy, I didn't actually have a concrete plan in place to spin for this pair's socks. A visit to the Crown Mountains Farm website had the ideas for their socks in mind instantly. For Max there couldn't have been anything more fitting in my mind, than the Secret Agent Man Sockhop roving and for Sam, the man with an addiction to chocolate, the Chocolate Bar pencil roving. OF course, then I had to try and improve on my spinning skills before I let the two lots of roving anywhere near the spinning wheel. Didn't want to ruin something that was so perfectly fitting for what I had in mind for those two. It was only a few days ago that I actually trusted myself enough to make a start on spinning up Secret Agent Man for Max. Eventually the Secret Agent Man yarn is going to become a pair of Trek's Blue Suede Socks, very fitting for an Elvis fan.




Sam's Chocolate Bar roving is still sitting in my storage tubs, but as soon as the Secret Agent Man is off of the bobbins, I'll push on with the Chocolate Bar. Can't wait to see how the two different sorts of roving differ in the actual spinning process.



Still to come in the mail (when they finish their damn strike and deliver everything I'm waiting for), I'll come even more ready for TS socks projects - a beautiful handdyed sock yarn in a colourway called Earthen (lovely terracotta tones) for Ibraham, Hot Red Regia Solid Colour for a pair of Clessida Stockings for Joan Da Costa, and from Crown Mountain Farms, some Brown Eyed Girl roving from the same SockHop range as Max's Secret Agent Man, to be made into Cookie A's Thelonius sock pattern.

It hasn't all been merely planning the last couple of weeks though, just last night I finally finished off the first of the Pomatomous socks (another Cookie A.) design, in White Oak Studio's TV Yarn, colourway Gilligan's Island. The colours were far brighter than I normally go for, but when you get as apt a match as Gilligan's Island yarn for a man whose nickname is Gilligan, you can't help but snatch it up and cast on.



Had a little trouble with the pattern at first, managing to mess up everything from the yarn overs to simply reading the stitch chart, but by the time I hit the foot everything was flowing pretty well, that was until I started panicking about the amount of yarn left over. By the time I grafted the toe shut I had about 3 grams left from the 50 gram skein. At least now that the first sock is finished, I should manage to finish the pair up pretty quickly. The second one always seems to get raced through faster.

Hasn't been all Brockmann, all the time, since the last post. Before I went into the mad rush to get the TS socks done as quickly as possible, I did manage to get in a little other spinning, and some other pairs of socks completed. The first attempt at spun yarn went to Anne for being brave enough to stand in the spinning shop with me while I was shown how to use the Ashford Traditional I'd decided on, and then braved more shops when we went to Enfield Town for a bit of a shopping spree afterwards. It wasn't a brilliant attempt, but the yarn was pretty well balanced. Had to be named Marshmallow considering the rovings I used for it and the fact that it ended up all pink and white and pretty damn fluffy.



The second attempt faired better, some Rocky Start merino from Veda Bliss on Etsy. It spun up beautifully, drafting really easily for me, into something actually resembling sock yarn. Woohoo! Only problem is that after nearly two weeks of coming off of the bobbins, it's still sitting on my desk waiting for its bath. Whoops.



Since the last blog entry three pairs of finished socks have come off of the needles. Most recently a plain stocking stitch pair in some Opal Tester yarn I got off of Ebay early this year, which I don't have photos of yet since they were in the wash when I went snap happy last night. Before that a pair of plain stocking stitch ankle socks, a birthday gift for my mom's friend Mary, in yarn I dyed myself (Trekking undyed, dyed on the stove in a variety of KoolAid colours. The kitchen smelled like burned sugar for two days afterwards) and a pair of KnitSpot Smokin' Socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, Slate colourway. The minty socks were the last photo I actually took with my old camera before a little trip to the ground at the staff ball put an end to it.



With my guilty sock conscious eased, it's back to the Third Watch videos and the second Gilligan sock.

Identifiable Finished Objects

Haven't had much time to blog thanks to the end of semester rush at the library, but at least I've managed to get in enough knitting time to have a few finished objects. There's nothing more satisfying than casting off that last stitch or weaving in those last few ends and realising you have something new to use. Some of the finished objects I had complete last month, but of course the photos take forever to take and put up. The first were the ones done for Anne's birthday. For the first time in about six months I dragged the sewing machine out to make her some sock-knitting themed gifts. I'd already put together some stitch markers from shells and little semi-precious stone chips I'd bought from John Lewis last year and had bought her some Clover dpns from the Stitch and Craft show at Olympia, so making a needle roll to go with them seemed like the thing to do. Plus it'd use up some of the fabric stash I've developed in the last couple of years, the matching homespun fabrics I'd bought from Alexandra Palace last November weren't enough for even a lap quilt, but more than enough for the needle roll.



Of course once the needle roll was done she needed something to actually make a pair of socks out of, so out came the Kool Aid I'd bought after reading an article on dyeing with it in Simply Knitting. The process had the house smelling like hot sugar for hours, but the results were well worth it - some bright colours I was hoping she'd like, and great smelling yarn. Of course once I'd got the bug for it, I had to rush online and order some of the undyed yarn, and since it's now a bank holiday Monday I actually have the time to use up the rest of my Kool Aid stash on some more yarn.



Had to race to get another gift done for the middle of the month too and working on it while I'd been on the Isle of Wight hadn't exactly been a success. In the week I was there I managed less than half of the first sock - whoops! It was a bit of a rush getting them done when I got back, but after all Neil (the guy I used to type for) had asked for socks in the past and I was determined to get them done in time for his birthday. It was the first time I'd used any 'stretch' yarn (Regia Crazy Colour 'Stretch') in this case, and quite liked it, apart from the tiny flecks of white that showed up in the coloured sections thanks to the elastic in it.



After all that work for everyone else I had to do something for myself of course, so first of all it was working on a pair of plain socks in Opal Dreamcatcher. This was one of the first sock yarns I'd ever bought on Ebay and of course it'd been languishing in the stash ever since, calling out occasionally when I picked up some other yarn to work on. Being such a plain design they took less than two weeks and I learnt that you can get a pretty long leg just out of a single ball. These had a 20 row ribbing and then another 90 rows before I got to the heel and I still had a pretty good amount of yarn left over at the end.



By the time they were done I was ready for another pair of the Suzanne Brockmann Team 16 series socks I'm making for myself. I finished the 'Classy Slip Up Socks' in Opal Uni within a fortnight, and of course I had to start wearing them right away. I get desperate to put things on once I've finished them, and of course then show them off to everybody.




I think they fit the Kelly Paoletti character pretty well - bright but very classy looking and of course super warm and comfortable. Doctors know the comfort that comes from having nice warm feet when the weather starts getting a little miserable out - just like it is in London today, lots of grey skies and showers, ick. The planning for the next pair of Brockmann socks started immediately, this time for Izzy Zanella, my favourite SEAL these days, but first I wanted to get some instant gratification from dashing off a pair of plain stocking stitch socks again. The Lorna's Laces Pin Stripe yarn had finally made its way to the top of the pile and knitted up quickly of course. The socks ended up all yummy and soft and of course they had to be worn quickly. They went on their first trip on a boat ride up the Thames with Jann, who'd come to London from Portsmouth for the day. Turned out to be pretty cold by the river so I needed the warmth, but of course I forgot to take photos of them. I'll wow you with photos taken at the National Maritime Museum and on the river instead.




The statue of Old Father Thames and the Aft section of the Implaccable made easy targets for the camera and they were far easier to shoot than the scenery on the water which tended to blur a little in front of the lens as the boat moved. I did manage to a get a couple of nice shots of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge though.




I've been a little better at photographing the progress of the Izzy Zanella sock. This is the first one I've made to a design I've come up with myself. The first idea I had was to use gun-belt ribbing, but after 10 rows of the pattern that was doggedly not showing up like it should I ended up frogging and regrouping ideas instead. I'd been trying to capture Izzy's darker side, and of course his ability to disappear into the shadows when he's doing all sorts of dangerous SEAL things, the Natural Dye Studio's yarn worked pretty well with the idea, being in the Midnight Storm colourway, and The Encyclopedia of Knitting provided me with the stitch pattern eventually - shadow rib. I was doubtful about it working out, but by the time I got down to the heel it was looking pretty good. The ribbing gave a thick but really soft texture and of course it was plenty stretchy enough. I grafted the toe on the first one last night and cast on for the second straight away, but I have a feeling another birthday present rush is going to crop up before I get that one finished.

Perfect Day Off

Doesn't life feel good when you have the day off of work and all you have to do is lay around at home with some good knitting and a great DVD to watch. Since I'm still transferring all the stuff I recorded from the TV onto video onto DVDs I got to spend a full five hours watching Time Team and working on the 'Classy Slip Up' socks I'm making in a light green Opal Uni. The pattern's from Knit Socks! by Betsy Lee McCarthy. I bought the book last year meaning to knit something out of it almost immediately and of course it ended up sitting on my shelves doing not much at all for the entire time. Once I got my Opal Dreamcatcher socks finished last Saturday I decided it was time to try a pattern out of the book and see how I got on. By the time I took the photos today I'd managed to do the leg and was just about to start on the heel flap. Not so sure if I like the pattern, but the colour is wonderful, a very soft lime green, almost like a ripe pair. The pictures really don't do the colour justice. Gonna call them my Kelly socks (even though they're not quite Kelly Green), they've very classy and a very girly colour choice (they remind me of Kelly Paoletti from the Suzanne Brockmann books).




Unfortunately I've been a bit lapse with posting photos of the other projects I've finished this month, both gifts and stuff for myself. I've made sure I've snapped piccies of all the presents, but my own two pairs of socks I've been a bit naughty with, couldn't wait till I'd photographed them before I wore them and now they're both in the wash. Naughty me. At least I have photos of all the luscious yarn I've bought in the last two months to occupy you while I try and get the other stuff into a state that can be posted about. First a long shot of all that woolly goodness.



On the top row there's two balls of Fortissima Colori Socka (think that's what it's called anyway), two lovely tweedy colours mainly in blues with some grey and purple thrown in. And two fifty gram balls of Regia Crazy Colour. Fell in love with all of these at Olympia when I went to the stitch and craft show with Anne. There was only one stall selling sock wool (other than a couple of outlaying balls randomly spaced on other stalls), so I had to do all my buying in one spot, thankfully they had some great stuff.



The bottom row - 100g of The Natural Dye Studio's Alpaca/Silk mix (I think) in the Midnight Storm colourway (perfect for the Izzy Zanella socks I'm planning, he's another Brockmann character), two skeins of Posh Yarn's Emily that arrived in the post this morning, Brooding on the left, and Sweet Tooth on the right (these feel so damn yummy against the skin), three balls of Rowan's 4-ply soft in a lovely grey-blue, then two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock in Devon, and two in Envy (snatched up both of these colourways as soon as I saw them on Get Knitted), and finally some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Plains, figured I had to try this out at some point and treated myself to the Slate and Nantucket Red colourways this week.




Like all the sock yarns sitting in my stash, they're already crying out to be knitted, but what can a girl do when work's filling the rest of the week?

Leaving Winter Hibernation

It's definitely time for slapped wrists. Despite numerous good intentions, it's taken me like a month to get back to the blog to write another entry. I have managed to get in a lot of knitting time between posts and the photos had been piling up but still I couldn't carve out the half an hour of time for myself to get on and actually upload them to the blog. Naughty me. Most of the time went on planning the upcoming vacation to the Isle of Wight (only 12 days to go now!), or working at the library, or of course, just being lazy and watching TV in bed.

The last few weeks have seen quite a few projects completed though, the Monkey socks were completed first, using the handpainted Opal yarn that'd been sitting in stash for about three years. With the idea in my head that I'd do socks connected with all the characters in Suzanne Brockmann's Team 16 books. Since I'm seriously strange when it comes to things like that, I like wearing things that remind me of the books I love, so when it comes to my yearly rereading time for all the series' I'm hooked on I pull out the little outfits and have myself a real good time getting totally immersed in my favourite characters again. Considering the jungle setting for Wildcard's story (Out of Control) I figured a pattern called "Monkey" was particularly fitting and when I delved into my stash for the yarn, the handpainted Opal just screamed 'jungle' to me. Since they were my first non 'plain stocking stitch' pair they took me almost a month to complete, but I got them done and they feel great on.




Now they just need a good blocking. I've been wearing them without doing it and while they're perfectly comfortable, I think the blocking would make the pattern show up a whole lot better. Just gotta hope I can get some sock blockers when I go to the Stitch & Craft show at Olympia on Friday. Only two days left till the exhibition now and I absolutely can't wait. Last time I managed to curb my spending (made sure I only took £50 cash with me), hopefully I can behave just as well this time but with my sock wool obsession at the moment, that's likely to be blown in minutes. I'm only supposed to be buying some wool for my boss Neil's birthday socks, and maybe a skein or two for myself, but I can never be quite that restrained when it comes to buying. I might even run into a work colleague at Olympia, since I told her about the show and she has the day off on Friday she's decided to go and treat herself too.

The second completed socks were my camouflage ones. I saw the Lornas Laces camouflage colourway on Angel Yarns and got majorly bummed out by the fact that they were out of stock, so I did a hunt on Ebay for the stuff and ended up getting four skeins. I figured two would go on a pair of plain stocking stitch socks (the easiest pattern to knit up quickly for me) and two for a pair of jaywalkers when I finally get around to trying the pattern out. I'm a big fool for anything in that shade of green anyway and I figured they'd look great with my combat pants for work, gotta coordinate after all. The first sock went incredibly quickly, I managed to get all but 10 rows of the ribbing, right down to the start of the heel flap done in one day, a miracle for me. The rest was a little slower, but they were on my feet in a week and half.




On a real run with the sock knitting, I had to cast on for the next pair immediately, using some Natural Dye Studio yarn I'd bought from Ebay. I got it so long ago that I can't remember the colourway or even if it's pure wool, or a mix with alpaca or silk in it. Whatever it is, it feels absolutely lovely, far softer than any of the other sock yarns I've tried before and I love the way it stripes up. So far I've nearly finished the first, just a plain stocking stitch foot with heel flap and gusset and a 60 row leg in 2x2 rib. Just gotta finish off the toe of that one this afternoon and I can move onto the second sock. Somehow I never end up with second sock syndrome, even if it does end up being a little slower than the first, I just plow straight on with it in the desperation to get the things on my feet. I'm calling these socks my love hearts pair since the colours look exactly like the sweets (candy) I used to love when I was younger.



This is as far on as they were when I took all the photos earlier this week. I think fondling this wool when I first balled it up from the skein was what's hooked me so completely on Natural Dye Studio's yarns. Since I balled the yarn up I won two more lots of the stuff on Ebay, one is pure British Blue Faced Leicester wool in the Titanium colourway, and the other pure merino sock wool in the arctic skies colourway. Both are lovely and soft and I can't wait to work with them.



Despite the lovely warm spring weather we had in London last week, the weather today has been looking completely yucky. Luckily I haven't been out in it, yay for the days when I get to do my typing work from home rather than having to drag into the library, since it looks like it's about to pour down with rain. It's the sort of day where you just want to snuggle up at home with some project that'll produce an end product that's warm and soft and completely huggable. So I think I'm gonna do just that, finish up the work for the day and run off to my socks ...

Stormy Saturday

Today's just been one of those days that's a frustration from start to end. Between the battle of grocery shopping and the deadline for the typing work, I've been just about ready to scream all day long. At least there was a pleasant surprise in the post this morning, the six skeins of Lorna's Laces I'd ordered from Canada. Only took six days for them to get here and I'm already drooling, ready to start using them for socks.



On the left that's four skeins of Camouflage and two of Flames, on the right, two each of Seaside, Sandridge and Pinstripe. They're just crying out for some attention, so as soon as I've got the Rowan Calmer socks I started last night completed (hopefully by next weekend), I'll finally be able to start thinking about making my first pair with the Lorna's Laces. I want to use at least some of it to try out the Jaywalkers pattern finally, I feel like the only sock addict out there without a pair to my name.

So far this year I've managed to work faster than I expected on my socks. By the end of January I already had my Opal Elemente ones complete, and Thursday night, after a month of work I finally finished up the Colonel's Stipes socks (these are in two shades of Opal Uni, a turqoise/light blue and a sort of air force smokey dark blue). Was so proud of them that I wore them into work on Friday. Soon learned that the knee high ones have an icicle's chance in hell of staying up all day, within five minutes of leaving the house to walk to work, they had sagged down to 'slouch sock' level, not that I minded that too much.





Now I'm just looking forward to the end of my typing job so I can get my mornings off from the library back. When that happens in a few weeks I'll have tons more time to work on something more fun than copy-typing, maybe it'll even let me finish up the aran knit sweater I started before the summer, and I'll finally get through sock of the incredible sock stash that keeps building up.

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.