When It All Goes Horribly Wrong

 Sometimes, no matter how well prepared you are, things go awry. This happened this past week when the jumper, (yes I know, I am knitting an Aran weight jumper in the hottest summer on record) I was lovingly knitting for his nibs turned out way too big. Now I had done my homework and knitted a swatch and all was well with that and I had happily ploughed on with the pattern until the body was finished. Bill duly tried it on and OMG it was enormous. I don't know what went wrong but something very obviously did. There was nothing else to do but frog it. He did however love the pattern so it was agreed that I would start over, and I have. I am knitting a smaller size Med instead of Large and using 1 size down needles.

So here we have the Dustland Sweater, pattern by Stephen West, take 2 being knitted in Stylecraft Life Aran in the Natural Nepp colour on ChiaoGoo circular needles size 3.5mm and 4mm.

It looks so much better now, and we are both happier with that.

I had to buy a new needle to be able to restart the jumper so while I was sulking and waiting for it to arrive I cast on a pattern I had in my library for a while, the Dust of Snow Wrap by Curious Handmade. I really had no business casting on something new as I have WIPs galore but as I said I was in the huff with the jumper. 

This beautiful asymmetrical rectangular wrap was designed as an Advent Calander project and so I am using the 4 boxes of beautiful mini-skeins Bill gave me for my birthday, from Ruffles Crochet Crafts on Etsy, and holding it with Drops KidSilk in Moonshine from Purple Sheep Yarns, using a ChiaoGoo 4.5mm fixed circular. It is going very slowly with some subtle colour changes so far but I am delighted with it.

No socks this time round but there will definitely be some soon.

Happy Crafting

Mary

Sunday 9th August 2020

 Hello friends, another week has gone by. Don't you think this year is going faster than those before? I am finding that one day just rolls into the next and I forget where I am in the week. We have had a very strange week here in East Lothian, on Tuesday and Wednesday it was so dark and dreich with incessant rain that it felt like winter and then yesterday the sun was so bright and warm again, our weather has gone mad. Perfect knitting weather though staying in the house and keeping dry and cosy. As usual, I have way too much on the needles I really must try to get my head around monogamous knitting but sometimes I just want to knit something different, I don't know how other folks do it.

Finally Finished

Two weeks ago I promised you pictures of my Stillness Shawl by Helen Stewart, here it is in all its glory

This 5-week mystery knit along was simply a joy to knit. I used my Christmas present from DH which was a 3 skein yarn club package from Ripples Crafts in her reliable sock base. The colours were Green Grass on the Turn, Steel Grey Skies and The Gathering Storm and were dyed by Helen from the inspirational photo at the bottom of the picture.

The shawl is a half-pi shape and grew beautifully over the five weeks.

Week 1

Texture and stripes of colour

Week 2

Some simple lace and more stripes

Week 3

A section of star stitch and rows are getting longer

Week 4

Colour and eyelets and long rows

And we finished up with the simple lace and bind off you see in the finished shawl. The final sections were long rows with over 500 sts on the needles but somehow were so relaxing that it did not seem a chore at all. It was a joyous knit and I am looking forward to wearing it.

I would highly recommend this pattern for any knitter who has a little lace knowledge as there is nothing at all difficult and as with all Helen's patterns it comes with the percentage checklist which really spurs you on to do a little more. 

I think I will leave it there for this week but keep a lookout as there may just be a sneaky post midweek as I have more to share.

Stay safe and healthy

Mary

Sunday 2nd Aug 2020

Hello friends, how the heck is it August already? This year is running away and for obvious reasons, it has been such a sucker. It has been hard on everyone and I really hope you are all keeping safe and healthy. 

I have an apology straight away as I promised to show my Stillness shawl this week but it is still not blocked so I have no pictures to share. I have however spent the morning taking photos of the socks I have so far completed for Operation Christmas Stocking. For those who haven't heard of it, we are now in the third, (I think), year of providing hand knit socks for the homeless in the Edinburgh area at Christmastime. They also get a free foot treatment from a podiatrist and our hope is that they realise that someone truly cares for them. I am slowly but surely filling a box with the socks.

I am using a hybrid pattern of Fiona Tulloch's Milkshake toe-up sock and the ever-popular Vanilla Latte. This is such an easy and intuitive sock to knit and they just fly off the needles. It also works with all yarns whether they be solid, variegated, or self-striping.

I have slightly modified the vanilla latte pattern to centre the strips of purls and love that the pattern is unisex. Both patterns can be found on Ravelry and are free.

 The Knitting Toolbox

Since we are talking socks this week I have chosen my two favourite sock knitting tools from the toolbox. First up is something which was a true gamechanger for me, the sock ruler.

This simple gadget, which I found on Etsy has made knitting the right size socks so easy. As I knit toe-up I just pop the ruler into the toe and can see at a glance how much further I have to knit to get to the heel. For you top-down knitters you simply pop it in the heel and measure towards the toe. 

The second item is my sock blockers

These are Knit-Pro blockers which I think I got from Wool Warehouse a few years ago. I have the large for man-size socks and the small for ladies. I use them mostly for taking photos as the make the socks look so good. There are many types out there from plastic to metal and hand-cut wooden ones.

On the Needles

I was catching up with the Grocery Girls podcast on YouTube and Tracie showed her Sweet and Tartan socks which is a pattern she released around the start of the lockdown and I fell instantly in love so bought it there and then. I could picture using the leftovers of my Stillness Shawl to knit a pair. I cast on right away but haven't got too far.

This is a great pattern for using up leftovers, and I am knitting these as a treat for me. 

Hopefully, I have not bored you to bits, that's all for this week. Stay safe and look after yourselves

Mary

Find me on Ravelry as mazbil and Instagram as The_Sunday_Sock

Podcasts I am watching, The Grocery Girls, and listening to, Curious Handmade.

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