The Addiction Begins

Two's a pair.

Here is my very first finished sock.



I'm calling it the *Not-Quite-International-Sock-of-Doom*, due to the fact that I actually didn't do the sock of doom ribbing, as set out in the pattern, but just did k3, p3 ribbing instead. This was not planned, but it was way too late to go back when I realised I had done this, so I kept going because I figured it would still work. The yarn is Knittery 8ply merino, which was hand-dyed by Bec when Angel Blossom was alive. The colourway was *Blue Rainbow* if I remember correctly.

I attempted magic loop to create this and I must say I love it! So easy once I got the hang of it. A few false starts getting off and running, but pretty easy once I got into the swing. And no unsightly loose bits where you switch from needle to needle, like I was getting on my now defunct Jaywalkers. I shall be using this technique more in the future I think :) Only one minor issue of a couple of loose stitches on one side where I moved to the heel flap I think. Not sure why they are loose, but I can fix it by redistributing it a bit I think. Pretty happy for a first time sock anyway :) All up I think I spent about 5 hours on the sock, which I started on Friday and finished Monday night.

And just in case anyone thinks I'm going to fall victim to the SSS (second sock syndrome) I cast on the second one last night and I'm itching to get that one finished!!

Domestic-ness

Spent this morning baking. Here is the fruit of my labour:


Apricot Muesli Slice. Yum. It's actually pretty good. M even ate a whole piece with absolutely no coaxing whatsoever, and he even said *Yum!* after each bite! The real test will be when L is home and gives me his verdict. I have low expectations on that front LOL

Also made pizza scrolls this morning too. They didn't quite turn out as they should, but they went down ok for lunch so all is good. No pics as they disappeared too fast! I'll bake some more *properly* next time - I cheated and used ready-made pastry this time instead of making my own as per the recipe, and I tell you, cheaters never prosper! LOL

And just to show that I haven't been completely unproductive in recent weeks, I made these too, which are a gift for someone who's name I cannot mention right now, as I'm pretty sure she reads this and it's meant to be a secret, but meh. I'm already way over time, and the cat is probably out of the bag by now anyway. They are a little gift to say *sorry*, and she'll know what for if she reads here, and if she can't work it out, she'll know when she gets them! LOL

MIA

Well, I haven't really been *missing*. I've been *around*. Just got nothing to blog about.

A few things have gone wrong around here lately, not the least of which was all four of us being sick with one thing or another throughout the entire two weeks of school holidays. So no knitting has been done. Well, nothing too productive at least. And quite frankly, after discovering the error I made in reading the pattern for my CPH sleeves, I've become a bit unmotivated to go on :( I will eventually finish that though, but I'm not in any hurry any more as it's clear I won't be wearing it this winter. Something to look forward to next year though.

So I'm sticking to small projects now, nothing more for myself for a while (including Green Gable, which I'll probably have to postpone until next year). I do have wool for 3 different pairs of shorties to knit up for M for this spring/summer, so I should get cracking on those if I want them all ready by the time it warms up. He also needs a few more soakers as he's growing out of the one's we do have. And of course I have the Woolaholics *Small Things Swap*, which I need to get started ASAP if I want to meet the deadline!

So plenty to keep me busy. Just no pics of anything right now. THE HAT is going ok, and I think I've got the sizing worked out now, but progress pics of that look much the same as the pic that's already up, so I'll wait until it's finished.

If you were 19 months old.....

.....where would you put your half-eaten tuna paste sandwich when you've finished with it?

Why, in the basket of wet nappies waiting to be hung out, of course!



I might add that it took me about 10 minutes to find it here, even though I walked past it about as many times looking for it! Oh to understand the mind of a toddler!


And something a bit more attractive....

I made these yesterday as a gift for someone (who doesn't read blogs I'm sure, so no chance of them being seen here), but I really like them. DH told me they are nicer than the others I have already made, so I should keep them. I do have plenty more beads here, but what to do, what to do?

The Hat

**Update**

Well, I finally finished the hat last night. At least the *hat* part, now I need to finish it off with edging, a pompom, and some "tails" as L calls them. I'm not entirely happy with how it finished up, due to two things:

1. using Magic Loop to finish off, so I didn't have to buy dpns, which seems like an easy technique (and probably is) but which got me a little messed up, but it looks ok.
2. trying to work out the decreases and rate of decrease myself, ie, not using a pattern! I'm not very mathematical, and I kind of struggled with working it out a bit, but it doesn't look too bad.

Need to wash it and I'm sure it will look better, it's a bit curly right now. But no pics until I'm completely done. I must say thank goodness too, because I'm over THE HAT!! This was the 5th attempt at it. Lucky it's supposed to get cool here again next week, cause I know we technically have another month of winter left, but it certainly hasn't felt like winter the last few days, and after all that effort if THE HAT was not worn, well, I would be a bit sad.



***Update***

I've ripped it back. I went a bit far though, and had to redo one ear flap from scratch :( and that one is slightly different to the other one, because I couldn't remember exactly what I had done, as I hadn't written it down yet. But nevermind. The difference is so miniscule that you can't tell. So it will be smaller. Hopefully it will be ok.




This my *own* hat pattern. That is, I have started it from scratch based on what I want and my stitch gauge and L's measurements, I am not following a pattern to knit it. Sounds very clever?! Not really I think. It's been quite easy, and I did do some searching around for other patterns *like* what I wanted - couldn't find what I wanted which is why I decided to just go for it myself. So I did read a few patterns and get an idea of how to do the ear flaps and continue on so that it's all one piece, but as for using a pattern, I'm not. So it's *mine* :) I'm using Blackberry Ridge Bulky merino which I purchased from Monster Knits, in "Talyn". It's lovely.

Now my problem is this. It's quite big. Quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be, which is all part of the learning experience, so I'm not totally devastated by this. It did take me a few attempts to get beyond the two earflaps with the *correct* amount of stitches, but obviously I have more than I need. It does fit. It's just not as snug as I planned, which on one hand is good because it will more than likely fit for some time. On the other hand I'm afraid that it's just going to look too big when I'm done. I'm at the point where I need to begin decreasing to finish the hat off. Also I'm afraid that I'll run out of yarn and not be able to finish it as I would like. Also not devastating because there are a number of other things I could do.

Just trying to decide whether I should rip it out and start again with less stitches or not? I would have to go back to the very beginning after the two ear flaps were done, so I'm not sure if I want to do that or not. I do have to order some dpns in the correc size to finish it off (my LYS doesn't have the correct size :( ) so I have to wait a bit. I'll think about it.

Sea Horse Dancing Longies

Finally finished these up on Saturday night. The actual knitting finished on Friday night, but I grafted the crotch and took care of the loose ends on Saturday, so that's my official finish time :)

I must say I am extremely happy with the way they have turned out, despite a few *errors* in my completion of the pattern. They are minor though, and entirely due to lack of concentration. My stitch markers kept falling off for some reason, and of course I didn't notice this immediately so I think my replacing of the markers wasn't entirely accurate. This means that they are a little skewiff if you look closely, and there's also a few more stitches on one leg than the other, due to me forgetting it was like that and just continuing to knit when I picked them up after a couple of days break. Oh well. The join where I swapped balls is visible on the front, but it's not terribly ugly and will be covered by a top mostly anyway, so I'm not bothered with that. I'm just glad I finally worked that technique out!! I just need more practice.

I did think that I would try to embellish these, but I'm undecided. I always find the yarn so beautiful on it's own that I don't want to cover it up, so I'll think about it some more.

Sock Swap

I participated in a *Sock Swap* on Woolaholics recently. You could either send 150gms of sock yarn, or you could knit socks for your swappee. I chose to send yarn because I have zero confidence in my sock knitting abilities! (being because I've only ever attempted one pair and they didn't get finished :( ).

Well, my sock yarn arrived today!! Yippee!!!



It's gorgeous. And my swappee included a cool African bookmark also. I think that L has commandeered the bookmark though, so I'll have to run a rescue mission tonight when he's in bed LOL

Thanks swappee!!

Wooly Mail

My latest purchase from Monster Knits. I am planning to make L and earflap hat out of some of it. I had planned to use the one on the right, but as soon as he saw the colourful wool he claimed it LOL Probably just as well anyway. It will make a nice warm hat. Hopefully it will be a quick knit and he'll have a new hat soon.