All Fingers and Thumbs

Done at last and straight in to action. Socks make great little summer projects but as the weather starts to cool down they really come in to their own. There's nothing quite so satisfying in knitting for me as finishing up and pulling the item in question straight on for some much desired warmth.  Pattern:  Caretta Caretta - Alice Yu for Knit Love Club Yarn: Socks that Rock in the wonderful Thraven Needles: 2.25mm DPNs Started: June 9th 2010 Finished: October 18th 2010 Ravelry page These are a wonderful match of a pattern I love (top down - yay!) and a yarn I'd dreamt about owning until the start of this year . Thank you again Wendy for your generosity and thoughtfulness it makes these beauties all the more beautiful to me. I may never take them off  though I love how they look when I do. The sculptural aspects of the ribs are wonderful. And the colour - oh the gorgeous colour - it's a little more true to life in this last shot. I doubt I'll ever have the...

Oh why, oh why is Socktober flying  away so fast? I'm making glacially slow progress on my beautiful Carettas. They were three quarters done before the month started.  This toe has been tormenting me all week, so close, yet so far, from an actual finished sock. Even when I manage to sit down with it in my hands I'm so tired it gets only a row or two longer. Still I'm hopeful that today even I must be able to finish off these toe decreases. I'd thought I'd be on to the Lorna's Laces next but then last weekend the next club parcel arrived with this in it.  Seriously! I'm so excited to even hold this legendary yarn I think I have to let it queue jump!

A long time in the works mainly because of the idea that I needed to think about the knitting of them here finally are the Spring Shoots. Pattern: Spring Shoots - Alice Yu for Knit Love Club Yarn: Brooklyn Handspun - Soft Strength in club colourway - Persephone Needles: 2.5mm DPNs Started: April 2nd 2010 Finished: September 19th 2010 Ravelry page I wasn't sure I would ever be bothered to knit another sock in this way, it is based on Cat Bordhi's Houdini structure  and I am quite wedded to the cuff down, heel flap construction. I suspect in the main I love my top downers because it is what I learnt first, though there is something very special in the rhythm of the knit. Normally a simple cuff to get you into the feel of the needles and the yarn, then a stretch of leg with pattern if you fancy, then the magic of the heel for a little razzmatazz  and then gusset decreases ahoy you can feel yourself running down hill to the toe. This pattern taught me lots and it is fu...

Did a week go by?  I've been slightly dazed and confused these past days. So out of practice at getting up and that work stuff, sign of a good holiday I guess. Suffice to say, I'm only just finding time to post about my knitting souvenir but as it's seen little action since the end of holiday it's kind of fitting. I'll try and settle back in to that lovely post vacay relaxed vibe I had last weekend and it'll be like the work never got between us. Knitting on our balcony at Rottingdean As with my project choice I'd done my preparation for a little holiday yarn shopping. I knew that Christchurch had a lovely traditional wool shop , Honora Wool Specialists stacked high with a big range of the staple UK yarns. To try and avoid my normal panic when faced with such riches I picked out a pattern in advance that I could hunt down some suitable yarn for. I went for  Short Lucky  as a nice autumn welcoming cosy project, I don't have anything quite like...

Beaches and knitting - can't go too far wrong with a holiday heavy on those two things can you? Avon Beach, Mudeford I took three knits away with me. First up was a project suited to car knitting time: Jonna, a simple ribbed scarf, in more of the scrumptious Cashsoft, in Poppy this time. I started this just before we went away to make sure I had something simple on the go. View across to the Isle of Wight The Spring Shoots socks I took are not really complicated, it's just that the unusual construction means that they require that little bit more thought and attention than car knitting, or indeed post-work knitting time tends to offer. Perfect for peaceful holiday time. Mudeford Spit from Hengistbury Head I also used my holiday peace to start a pattern I knew would need a little thinking about: Summit . I got the chance to buy another skein of the Sunna sock club yarn that I was saving for a scarf, thus the search for a suitable pattern grew to shawl...

.. to 'When did you become one of those people who get Christmas all organised by June?!!?' Well maybe not quite but here's my first gift knit all done, done, beautiful and did I mention done? By the start of September no less - gift knitting is go! Pattern: The imaginatively titled - #12 Cabled Cowl by Cathy Carron Yarn: About 4.5 balls of Rowan Cashsoft Aran in Haze Needles: 5 and 5.5mm Started: August 17th 2010 Finished: September 2nd 2010 Ravelry page I barely noticed this cowl when I got the magazine last year but there are many lovely versions on Ravelry to convince you it's a winner - just not the way the magazine styled it. I showed a couple of people the magazine picture when they enquired what I was knitting and they definitely gave me the 'hmmm well she is a crazy knitter' look. This version by Yarn Snob was the one that made me want, want, want it. Sadly I wasn't able to live up to her great photos. I added a stunt jacket for mine as I fe...

Daniel was a good supervisor for the owl production line - as well as the needlebook I made a lavender sachet, a felt brooch following this tutorial and I knitted a little cuddly. I'm rather proud of her, I wanted a seamless pattern for this little knit and couldn't find one easily so I  used my brain and thought about socks. She's started with a magic cast on and the only sewing was at her head and a little embroidery of feathers.