All Fingers and Thumbs

Back in the early days of blogging (when blurry photos seemed okay) there were some lovely people who made sure I wasn't lonely and some of them are still very much here and blogging along today: The aforementioned Glenna is one, another is her friend: Hedgehog Knits Kelly is not a knitting hedgehog. I'm sorry if that's a disappointment to anyone but really, though she is a mere human person, there is no way her knitting can be a disappointment to anyone. She keeps a super cute pet hedgehog Molly who features too rarely on the blog in my humble opinion - so go tell Kelly to let us see her. She's had all kinds of job craziness of late which limits her blogging activity a little but the knitting still continues apace. Knitting in the North Charity is a very generous commenter. I'm never too sure how she cares for her mighty brood of chicks and fits in all the knitting and blogging to be honest. Still I think she's let slip some relevant info of late - she's p...

I was just reading about Bells' favourite knit and thought I'd join in. Unlike Bells I didn't have anything immediately in mind, though let's face it I knew it would be a pair of socks. As I was looking over my Ravelry project page I spotted my favourite knit. It's the Primavera socks , finished back in May so they haven't seen much use so far this year, until one cold evening this week the 1TB got in from work and went upstairs to change and came back down wearing a very fine pair of socks on his feet. They're his favourites I've made for him by far. All the elements together - great fit, pattern, yarn and colour. And if they're his favourites then they're mine too :o)

This is the heel I just completed on my bee-yoo-tiful Monkey sock. I love it, both the sock and especially the heel turn. It's not exclusive to this sock, I'm always excited to do the heel on my top down socks. I enjoy it so much that, as I did on this one, I sometimes pause the project to find a peaceful little moment to knit the heel flap and make the heel turn all in one go. Turning a heel was one of those phrases I knew in my pre-knitting life and I had the idea it would be a tricky thing to do. It pleased me no end to find that it was straightforward and so clever. While I was blindly following the instructions for my first sock I don't think I even realised that I achieved this significant moment in my knitting career! Now, every top down sock I make, I relish this part most of all. A simple, elegant piece of engineering. What's not to love? Anyone else have a favourite element of the sock knitting process, or have I reached new heights of knitgeekery? Thank goodn...

A ball of Regia Silk Shine magically transformed by knitterly alchemy and serious sewing skills to a gorgeous sock project bag. My friend needed that tricky-to-find shade 150 to finish up her Anna stockings and I still hadn't found a mate for my lone ball following the Vancouver debacle so this is a perfect resolution to two troublesome situations. Thanks again Clare, the Monkeys love their new home :o)

...how do your socks grow? Well quite slowly actually now you come to ask as it seems that I used most of the weekend when I wasn't snivelling into a tissue to knit a snood.* I know it is Socktober when sock love is official and I don't normally need an excuse to knit socks but my brain wasn't up to small needles so I got big uns and just knit until: A polar explorer's snood fit for a gardening mad Mama. Well from one set of bandwagon knits to another, I've been unconvinced about cowls but they are lovely to knit so I'm glad that my Mum is convinced about them. I did want to make a really generous size so that it could perform the snood function of making a hood or sit snuggling warmly around the neck. I can confirm that it is very toasty and that is why you aren't getting any better photos as I had to remove it before I overheated. Pattern: Just knitting with a few decrease rounds Yarn: Rowan Plaid - Moonwave - just under two balls Needles: 6.5mm 80cm Bambo...

The title should be said by voice over man: "It's Blogs I Love, the sequel, this time it's about the links." Some blogs belong together in my mind you see, when you write about one you want to write about the other. It felt quite wrong to mention Bells without mentioning Rose Red - these partners in crime organise the Southern Summer of Socks together and have a delicious Nigella blog they share - Mouthfuls of Heaven . Rose Red Shoes I found Rose Red after I saw a rather lovely shoe avatar popping up in people's comments and had to check out the blog of the owner of such a beautiful thing. Rose Red shares more of her AMAZING shoe collection every Shoesday and in between shows us gorgeous knits (sometimes with the daring use of stunt buttons) and flashes her awesome yarn collection including much alpacky. Knitting to Stay Sane Glenna's blog was the one that started all this wonderfulness for me. I was loving her Ivy design in Knitt y and followed the link to h...

No I've not suddenly started knitting super fast and rattled off one of my Socktober projects. The FO love is for the Honeybees which have been done since before the holidays but were awaiting photographing as this glorious yellow is mighty hard to capture. Love for these socks may be official because it's Socktober but it's not unconditional love. I am not head over heels for these tricky customers and a lot of the issue is with those heels. Pattern: Honeybee Socks Yarn: Oxford Kitchen Yarns Sock - bit under a full skein Needles: Trusty Harmony DPNs - 2.25mm Started: 25 March 2008 Finished: 13 September 2008 Notes: I think these have convinced me that standard show row heels and toes for toe ups are not for me, second go and I'm still not happy with the fit around the heel and the length of the toes. Allow me to demonstrate: Gappy and baggy heel Way too long before the pattern starts on toes Still it is very hard to argue with the beauty of the stitch pattern whic...

I've been lucky enough to be given some blog awards lately from some lovely fellow bloggers. Thank you so much to Princess Pea , Blog Bletherings , Bells , and Terri Knits . I'm always really delighted when someone nominates me for one of these things but also a little unsure about how best to pass the honour on. I'm also always a little disappointed you see, when one of my favourite bloggers doesn't nominate me in their list. Maybe it's just me and my mega ego but in case some of you lovely peeps feel a twinge of this sometimes too I'm always loathe to pick out just a few blogs. All the blogs I read are great in their own particular way; for me one of the endless fascinations of blogging is how we all stamp our individuality on the same medium. However having said all that I loved the little mini reviews that Bells did with this award and it gave me an idea about how I would like to pass on my appreciation of my favourite blogs. Kicking off today I'm going...

Socktober is here, Socktober is here - dance the happy dance! Some may say it is always Socktober at All Fingers and Thumbs but for this month the sock love has an official outlet. Ambitious plans are afoot ( sorry couldn't resist). Initially I was going to aim for three pairs of socks this month, then I remembered and the speed I go at and I modified the plans slightly; you see there are three classic sock patterns that I haven't knit yet. It's hard to believe but I haven't made a pair of Pomatomus , Jaywalkers or Monkeys even though I have now knit a grand total of 21 pairs of socks since I was first infected by the sock bug nearly two years ago . These patterns seem to me to be three pillars of the sock knitting world, in order to earn my sock knitting stripes they must be knit. Ravelry project stats prove their popularity: 2019 pairs of Poms, 5018 Jaywalkers and a quite unbelievable 6871 Monkeys; these are bandwagons I need to jump on. So, as I don't yet suf...