Sunday 20th January

Hello friends, I do hope you have had a good week. I have been very productive this week finishing 2 pairs of commissioned socks which will go off in the post on Monday to their new owners who will hopefully have cosy feet for the rest of the winter. This also means I have two more Scottish burghs to share with you and that I have completed 6% of my 2019 Ravelry challenge.
The first of the socks is Dundee, this pair was a really fun knit as I made up the pattern as I went along. I chose to use a garter rib stitch for the main sock and used my new favourite garter stitch short row heel. These socks just flew off the needles.

The yarn used is Stylecraft Head over Heels in Sugar Loaf and I used 2.5mm needles.

The second pair, Edinburgh, my home city and also that of the recipient, was another very quick knit. This time I used the Vanilla Latte pattern for the main sock and again the garter stitch short row heel.

These were knitted with the same needles and yarn, this time the colour is Eiger. 

Thursday saw the sock and I out and about, my good friend Sheena and I took our sock knitting to a garden centre cafe and had a lovely time catching up and knitting. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge my phone before we went and only got a photo of the delicious cherry scone and latte I had.

 I did notice we got some curious glances from other patrons but sadly no-one came over to ask us about our knitting. Sheena also presented me with a bag full of sock yarn for me to make a start on socks for Operation Christmas Stocking 2019. 

Now on to a WIP. My EYF sweater has moved on a bit with both sleeves now complete and progress made on the body.

No sleeve island this time

I love knitting sweaters in the round as one of my pet hates in life is seaming. I just never seem to make them neat.

Body is coming on

I have two new projects cast on this week.
First, is a scarf. I cannot remember when I last knitted a scarf, it must be quite a few years ago. You may remember that my wonderful hubby gave me this beautiful set of mini skeins for Christmas,

Tranquillity

I had been looking for a suitable pattern to do them justice when on the Ravelry radar I spotted the ZickZack Scarf. This free pattern is just a joy to knit being essentially just one row, but the options to create something beautiful are endless. Just take a look at some of the finished items.

I haven't gotten too far yet but am loving the pattern and yarn together. I have modified slightly as I am knitting 4 rows of colour 1 followed by 2 rows of colour 2 to allow me to add in my progression of colours as I move through the minis. This pattern has been knitted many times using leftovers with spectacular results and that segments beautifully into my final cast on this week.

Penelope Penguin has a very long term project to keep her beady eyes on. This little corner is the start of my Happy Scrappy Blankie. This free blanket pattern is the perfect way to use up all those leftover sock scraps, mini skeins and magic knot balls. My Facebook friend Lisa Woodruff takes all the credit for coming up with this idea and has almost finished her blanket which is looking stunning and which made up my mind to cast on one for myself. Lisa is an inspiration having been very ill last year and still recovering yet, she is still so enthusiastic about her knitting and her recovery. I am proud to call her a friend albeit in the virtual world of the internet. She also has an Etsy shop where she sells magic knot balls and mini-skein bundles if you need some to start out on your scrappy project. After I get the Edinburgh Yarn Festival out of the way I will save up and buy some mini skeins from her to add to my blanket.

I think that is all for this week other than to say I managed 639 rows for my round the world challenge. Next Sunday I will update the map and see how far along the journey I have gotten.

Happy crafting

Mary