Sunday 26th July 2020

Hello friends, sorry for being MIA last week, we had an awful week after finding our old lady cat Connie passed away on the living room floor just a few weeks after we lost her twin brother Frankie. Coming on top of everything else I simply did not have the wherewithal to get the words out to you all. Luckily as always, I had my knitting and my stash to keep me sane.

The Knitting Toolbox

As a new segment, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my knitting toolbox, having the right tools for the job is an important part of any tradesman's ability to do the job well and it is the same for any knitter who wants to be able to expand their skills.

This week we start with the box itself,

I got my multi-layer hobby box from Lidl a few years ago but you can find similar at hobby shops or on Amazon and such like websites. Next week we will start to delve deeper and find out more about what I have in there, much like a ladies handbag you just never know what we might find.

On the Needles

As per usual I have way too many things on the needles to show you everything, like many knitters I have different projects on the go to suit my mood at any given moment. 

I joined a new group on Ravelry last week called The Testing Pool. This is a group where designers put a call out to ask people to test knit their patterns and check for any mistakes and such before publication. Within a few hours, I was lucky enough to be accepted to test the Jupiter Shawl by and new to me designer, Sambaknits, from Chile. Into the stash I dove and came up with this beautiful combination

The top yarn is from the Natural Dye Studio and is a Merino/Alpaca blend in gorgeous primrose yellow tones and feels divine to knit with. This was a gift from a good friend and had arrived just a few days beforehand so it felt very serendipitous to choose this yarn.

Below is yarn from one of last year's Rosie's Moments Beatrix Potter mystery boxes. The yarn is Merino wool and Donegal Nep in the Mr. McGregor's Garder colour. It is also a dream to knit with.

I have completed Section 1 of the pattern and am about 3/4 through Section 2

I must say that it is a very enjoyable experience so far and I will have a beautiful shawl at the end.

Finished Items

I only have one finish to share this week, or rather 12. 

Hubs and I nipped into our local wee Scotmid on Tuesday afternoon for a couple of items and we were speaking to a staff member who was saying how their ears were hurting with the pressure from the elastic on the masks we all have to wear here in Scotland when in shops. It is very easy for us shoppers to not realise how it must be for them as we can take our masks off after we have shopped but the have to wear them for many hours. I had seen these mask extenders popping up all over Ravelry in the last few months and decided that in the spirit of local support I would knit a few. They were so easy with each one taking just 30mins to complete that I managed a full dozen. Now hopefully wearing a mask for many hours will be much more comfortable.

Coming to my Needles Soon

Next week I will be able to share with you the full glory of the Stillness Shawl MKAL which came off the needles yesterday. I had such a good time knitting it that I really wanted to do another straight away. Luck must have been on my side as up popped Casapinka's The Sharon Show MKAL. This one will certainly be fun as it is not designed by Casapinka herself but by Sharon from Security her 1-year-old cat. I duly joined her group on Ravelry and will buy the pattern tomorrow. There will be 6 weeks of clues beginning with the first on August 7th, which gives me time to finish my test knit, and I have already chosen my yarn which has also been approved by Sharon herself.

I really love the colours and am chomping at the bit to get started but will have to be patient for a while longer. 

I think that's it for this week, thank you for reading my ramblings and happy crafting,

Mary

Find me on Ravelry as mazbil and on Instagram as The_Sunday_Sock

Sunday 12th July

Hello friends, I hope this week finds you happy and healthy. Yesterday was handknitted sock wash day for me and for once I did not lose a single sock. I put this down to procuring a basket into which I put my socks after wearing and once I have collected a few pairs it is time for a mass wash. Because most of my socks are knit with superwash yarn I do them in the machine on the rinse and spin cycle with some Eucalan wool wash added to the fabric conditioner section of the drawer. So easy to do, then I hang them up in the wet room to air dry. Sadly we have no outdoor drying facilities so wet room it is.

Now for a wee segment about how I avoid SSS.

The 7 Day Sock

If, like me, you are a regular sock knitter and know how many rows it takes to knit the socks to fit this will be so easy for you to do. If not this can be an easy way to avoid the dreaded second sock syndrome and have your pair of socks finished just one week after completing sock 1. The theory is very simple, it just needs a little simple maths to create your daily target. For the socks below I added up how many rounds in total it took to knit the first sock, I did not include the short rows for the heel as these are very quick and I count it as just the two full rounds knitted. In this case, it is 184 rounds, then you divide that number by 7, which gave me 26. 28. Being as I am somewhat anal and like even numbers, I rounded it up to 28 rounds per day to finish my 2nd sock in just 7 days. easy peasy and so effective.

Day 1 gives a toe and the start of the foot

Day 2 continues the foot

Day 3 finishes the foot and begins the gusset increases

Day 4, gusset, heel turn and start of leg

Day 5 continues up the leg

Day 6 end of leg and beginning of cuff

Day 7 finish cuff and cast off

And so, in 7 days I have a matching sock to the first one and my pair is complete

These are my own wee in my head pattern for socks that can be worn two ways as you can see. I call them the long and short of it socks.

Other knitting has been happening this week too, I am keeping up with the Stillness MKAL and am dying to share it but am being good so as not to spoil the mystery. I also signed up to the Curious Handmade Spindrift Shawl workshop, this fabulous series of e-mails has taught me a great deal about what to do to get the best out of your yarn and all the processes of shawl knitting. We are never too long in the tooth to learn new things. I will share my progress on the shawl next week. 

I think that's enough for this week, stay safe and healthy

Mary

Sunday 5th July

Hello friends, I do hope you are all well. It has been a somewhat exciting week here as we got a new cooker on Thursday which meant an end to soup and sandwich dinners which we had been eating for a fortnight since our old cooker packed in. What a treat it was to have fish, tatties and sweetcorn for our first meal.
Last week I spoke a bit about how my needle usage has changed over the years. Today I want to address my knitting preferences. My gran, who taught me to knit, would be horrified that I love to knit lacy shawls with beads or without. That would be considered frivolous and a waste of time and effort in her eyes. Not practical and useful. I don't think she would mind the socks but would be shocked at the colours and especially at the price of yarn. In all, I think that today's reasons for my knitting would be beyond her comprehension. I knit to relax, and for the pure joy of it, it is my hobby and my passion. The fact that I can take some sticks and string and create something wonderful soothes my mind and swells my heart.

Last week I shared a lot of my outgoing projects. This week I have some incoming beauty to share. For the month of June, RipplesCrafts was the chosen dyer for the Flower Power Fund initiative for Marie Curie Cancer Care. She chose as her flower of inspiration the Northern Marsh Orchid

I just knew I had to have a skein to knit a shawl and I knew I wanted to knit the Hundred Acre Wood shawl in two colours so I chose the also stunning Gorse colour in her Burras base. When the package arrived I was more than delighted with my choice.

Now for my knitting round-up.
I have really just been concentrating on two projects this past week. First is the Stillness Shawl MKAL, clue 2 came out on Thursday and I am taking it nice and easy trying to stretch out the knitting for the whole week. I am knitting around 8 rows a day and then switching to the Habitation Throw.

I have just about 30 more increase rows to do on this and then it's time to start the decreases.
Like I mentioned last week I am really loving the patterns of Helen Stewart, Curious Handmade, and all three I have mentioned today are by her. I have also checked out her podcast and spent most of yesterday evening happily knitting along to her talking about all sorts. It really is worth checking it out, you can find it here, Curious Handmade.

I think that's enough for this week, stay safe and healthy.

Mary