The Mohair Bug Bites and an OCS Update

 Hello friends, after a busy few weeks with my hook making up your donated blanket squares the lovely Peter from Crisis came on Monday afternoon and picked up two boxes and two bags of blankets, socks, hats and mitts from here. Sadly my phone was on charge when he arrived so I didn't get a picture but I do have one of the finished blankets

The amazing generosity of folks from all over made these possible and Carol and I would like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. 

Now that I have more personal crafting time I re-evaluated my advent knitting and decided that the cowl was not what I wanted to knit with my Advent calendar, it was time for the frog pond. Luckily I was watching some Vlogmas on YouTube and I fell in love with the project that Kate of the Hawthorn Cottage Crafts was doing. She is knitting the Caramel cardigan by Isabell Kraemer, a free pattern, using her minis held together with mohair and it just looked fabulous. That was it, the search for mohair was on and I found what I was looking for at Purple Sheep yarns. I chose Drops KidSilk in the Vanilla colour for my project and was amazed when it arrived next morning, the post has been taking much longer than usual this year.

I duly cast on with a main colour from my Rosie's Moments stash and from that time I was hooked

The resulting fabric is unbelievably soft and using the mini skeins you just want to keep on knitting the next and the next. I have now caught up to day 15 of my calendar and hope to have a cosy, soft and snuggly cardigan to wear on Hogmanay.

That's it for today as my mohair is calling, stay safe and healthy and have a very Happy Christmas however you celebrate.

Mary

The Power of One

 Hello friends, there comes a time in every knitter's life that no matter how many needles one has nor how much stash you have beyond SABLE he or she realises that evolution has stopped at just one pair of hands. No matter how many projects are cast on and in varying stages of progress said knitter can only work on one at a time. That rarest of breeds, the monogamous knitter, realised that very early on and casts on one item and doggedly continues until the end. I am not one of those knitters. I am of the majority, the knitters who are tempted by that oh so shiny new yarn or pattern and want to start immediately throwing aside all else just to get high from the yarn fumes or the buzz from seeing an exciting new pattern emerge on the pins. Reading posts on Ravelry proves to me that this is how the majority of knitters choose to work, some may be in denial I am not. I just know I have too much on my plate at times. Today I realised I had to come up with a plan to combat my addiction. So you ask, how on earth am I going to achieve this? I have a plan, I am not going cold turkey, that would never work. I am going to limit myself to just one item of each at any one time from the following

1. Socks
2. Shawl
3. Hat
4. Jumper
5. Cowl
6. Blanket

I have chosen these 6 as they are what I mostly knit, or sometimes crochet. I am hoping that given the variety of items I will be satisfied at all times and be able to resist the pull of something new. 

OCS

The first OCS blanket has been assembled

I had to lay it out on the floor to make sure I got all the squares in. It is fabulously warm as I found out whilst putting it together and will surely be a great comfort to whoever receives it. It is currently being gently washed and will go into the huge box once it dries. Onward to the next one tomorrow.

For the rest of today, it will be sock knitting for the cause, it is so dreich here today that I am glad my yarn is bright and happy

Have a great day and stay safe

Mary

OCS 2nd November

 Hello friends, these 5 beautiful squares for an OCS blanket were sent all the way from New York state. Thank you, Barbara, for taking the time to support the OCS knitting community.

Today I am concentrating on knitting a hat to help keep someone cosy in the coming winter months.

I am using a super simple pattern which was only released yesterday, Warmest Regards is written for 3 yarn weights and best of all its free. The designer asks that in return for her offering her pattern to the knitting community you knit a hat for charity. That box is ticked here and the yarn was a donation from the wonderful Ripples Crafts. Helen has been a wonderful supporter of the initiative from the beginning 3 years ago and her yarn is a delight to knit. This particular yarn is Doubly Reliable Sock in an Assynt Storms colourway. 

Back to the knitting now,

Stay safe and healthy

Mary

How the Heck is it November?

 Hello friends, at last, I am back after having the most awful October with the sad passing of another family member. This time last month we had hope which rapidly faded with each passing day. It really knocked us both for six. The words to write to you just would not come and I spent the month trying to keep hubby and me together in some sort of normality. Once again throughout these most trying of times, knitting and my friends in the yarnie community kept me from going under. I only managed to finish one project in the month but I worked on lots more.

Finished

The one finish was the Woollsia shawl by Australian designer Ambah O'Brien. 

This was pure joy to knit and I have plans for at least one more in the future. I knitted this using Schjeepies Whirl in the Coral Catastrophe colour and love how the hues transition seamlessly from light to dark. I made my shawl larger as I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible. This was easy to do as the pattern is a simple repeat of garter and eyelet rows, suitable for a beginner knitter with just basic skills. 

Talking of Ambah, a new yearly tradition of mine is to take part in her Advent KAL. She has designed lots of patterns to make use of the gorgeous yarn Advent Calendars that have become available in the last few years. Normally I make up my own calendar using leftover yarn but this year my wonderful hubby has surprised me by treating me to a "proper" one from EasyKnits. The box arrived on Friday and I am beyond excited for December when I can start to open these intriguing little boxes.

Operation Christmas Stocking

Regular readers will know that throughout the year I have been knitting socks and hats for this amazing initiative. I still have a few pairs of socks to finish and more hats to do but here is what I have achieved so far.

I've got to the stage where my brain is screaming "gonnae need a bigger box!"

Parcels of blanket squares have also started to arrive one from the USA and one from Edinburgh 

and I have started to join the squares together. The first strip has been completed and I look forward to a busy month assembling the blankets. There is still time to knit a square if you want or if you would rather help in another way Crisis has an Amazon wish list which you can access here.

That's it for now. 

Stay safe and healthy

Mary

The OCS Blanket Square

 Hello friends, today I have a plea and a pattern to share

The plea comes from Crisis the homeless charity and I will copy here the message our Operation Christmas Stocking co-ordinator, Carol, posted to Ravelry.

Due to the situation this year the charity that we are knitting for, Crisis UK, in Edinburgh, is changing it’s approach at Christmas time.

The vast majority (theoretically all) of the people who had been rough sleeping have been offered some kind of temporary accommodation (B&Bs, hotels, hostels etc). The charity will also have a base open during the day to provide support during these challenging times. This should mean that everyone they engage with over Christmas has a roof, although likely a temporary one. They will then be supporting people in temporary accommodation into more secure housing.

This should mean that their guests will have more space of their own, and larger items such as blankets, and scarves and hats will be gratefully received as well as socks this year.

They won’t be running a physical Christmas centre this year with foot treatments etc. They will instead be offering delivered food, and “wellbeing packs” for their guests, which will include any items we make, both knitted and crocheted. Handmade items go a long way to letting our friends know that people are thinking of them at a difficult time of year, and help to build this essential sense of connection. They are planning to include various other items in their well being packs such as toiletries, underwear, gift items etc.

The charity is also planning to offer chat phone calls and digital activity sessions to try and provide some of the connection and support that their guests can expect from Christmas.

Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered already to be involved. Your help will make such a difference. If anyone else wants to join in and help in some way by making any of these items please let us know here or PM me if you prefer.

Some of us have been knitting socks, hats ane the like all year to donate but I for one was slightly concerned when blankets were mentioned with only a couple of months to go. After a few discussions with friends we decided that blanket squares would be a good option, at that point the OCS blanket square was born and I happily offered to assemble the blankets from any donated squares. We decided on a 12" (30cm) square so that 20 squares would make a decent sized blanket and involve minimal making up due to time constraints.

The OCS Blanket Square

Yarn 

DK weight, leftovers from projects are ideal. Or

2 strands of sock weight yarn held together

Needles

4mm needles

Notions

A tapestry needle to sew in ends.

Abbreviations

K - Knit

KFB - Knit into the front and back of stitch (one stitch increased)

K2tog - Knit 2 stitches Together (one stitch decreased)

K3tog - Knit 3 stitches together (two stitches decreased)

S1 - Slip stitch purlwise with yarn in front

Pattern

Cast on 3 stitches

Row 1 - S1 KFB K to end of row

Repeat row 1 until you have 80 stitches on the needles and the side measures approx 12" or 30cm

Row 2 S1 K2tog K to end of row

Repeat row 2 until there is 3 stitches left on needle then K3tog fasten off and sew in ends.

And that's it your square is done.

For those knitting for OCS please message me on 

Ravelry - mazbil or

Instagram - The_Sunday_Sock

for my address to send completed squares for me to assemble into blankets.

Thank you all in advance for helping this wonderful cause.

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.

Blogmas Day 1

Hello everyone, it's been a while. I have been having some struggles which I won't bother you with.
I am sure everyone will agree with me that it has been a quick year with lots of ups and downs so I thought a little Christmas cheer was in order. Way back in June I ordered an Advent Calendar from Rosie's Moments and each day until Christmas I will share with you the goodies which appear and the knitting done. I will open the package early each day and do the knitting later so will share the growing pattern a day later.
I also have some very important knitting going on which is for Operation Christmas Stocking, an initiative between a knitter and a podiatrist to offer a foot checkup and a warm pair of cosy socks to homeless people. I have already sent two pairs and have some more on the needles, the progress of which I will share with you this month.
Enough of me blabbing, time for some pictures.

24 little surprises

Wow!! The candle smells fab

Project bag from Sew Ray Me all ready

Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings for Operation Christmas Stocking

That's all for today, stay safe and happy crafting

Mary