A Week of S's, Sadness, Socks, Sweater and a Shawl

In amongst the sadness of this past week, my knitting has brought me great solace and comfort. I was, to be honest, quite astounded at the emotions which played through for a woman whom I have never met, nor was ever likely to. Whilst watching the news coverage the peaceful rhythm of the stitches moving along the needles kept me grounded and connected to the life I have around me. 

So what have I been working on?

Needing something easy I cast on a toe-up vanilla sock. 

I am using the free Milkshake pattern by my friend, Fiona D Tulloch, the yarn is by James Makes Yarn in the Popping Candy colour.

I have two more socks on the needles, the first is the Heel Toe Do Si Do which has seen a little work 

More details about this sock can be found in a previous post or on my Ravelry project page.

The second is my Sunday Sock, a pattern I made up myself inspired by the sweater I am knitting for Bill.

The yarn here is Cascade Heritage Paints in the colour 110 Sea Morn.

As mentioned earlier, the sweater has seen some steady progress with separation for the sleeves and the 19" slog of the body now on the go. I am sticking to 4 or 5 rounds a day so as not to bore myself and I am delighted to see the progress keeper getting further away each day until it gets moved on a Sunday after I have shared it with you.

Finally this week the project which has seen the most work is my Shawlography. I have finished both wings of section 9 and am at last making progress with section 10, the brioche.

I say at last, as this is my second go-round of the brioche as I cocked up spectacularly with my first attempt. It really was my own fault as I did not read the instructions properly. I should have known something was amiss as previously I did not have too much trouble with this technique. Yesterday afternoon was spent frogging this section and re-knitting it correctly. 

That's it for this week, time to pick up the needles.

Happy crafting.

WIP Bingo

 When it comes to my knitting I am totally disorganised and have way too many works in progress. I am very easily seduced by the new shiny yarn and/or pattern. This has led me to re-evaluate my knitting practices and with the upcoming Westknits MKAL I know I want to free up a project bag, needles and notions so I can have everything together. To that end,  I have joined some fun threads in the Stash Knit Down group on Ravelry and this led me to discover how to make a bingo card of my WIPs to try to concentrate on just a few this month.

Some of these, most of the socks, are not yet cast on and I don't have a current photo of my Bits and Bobs blanket but here are photos taken this morning of where I am with the others.

Shawlography

This is the second time I have knitted this glorious Westknits pattern. I am on part 9 of the shawl on the right-hand wedge.

The yarn is all Ripples Crafts Burras a gorgeous single-ply merino yarn dyed in the northwest highlands of Scotland. The colours are Peat, Moonshine, A Slice of Lime, Crushed Blaeberries and A Cerise that Demands Attention.

As I mentioned this is my second time with this pattern, the first one I gave to my Mum for Christmas.

Dustland Sweater

Bill's sweater is now at the most amount of stitches on the needle stage and is slow going. I make myself knit 4 rounds each day and I enjoy seeing my progress when I take my Sunday photos.

For the yarn details see When it all Goes Horribly Wrong.

Dust of Snow

The wrap is going very slowly, partly due to my concentrating on other things and partly as it has still been a bit on the warm side to work with mohair. There has been some progress though, and I am about to start on colour 6.

Heel Toe Do Si Do

These socks for a friend have only just passed the heel turn on the first sock. This is my only real deadline project as they need to be done by the 28th of the month.

I do hope this system helps keep me on track and that my enormous pile of WIPs sees some reduction over the coming weeks.

Remember to Be the reason that Someone Smiles Today, and have a fun week.

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

Yummy Yarn and a Couple of Mysteries

 Hello friends, I have a couple of mysteries to share. First up is the new MKAL, Slipstravaganza, from the talented and fun designer Stephen West. This is the 11th year that Stephen has designed a Mystery knit along for October, and whilst by no means have I done them all and certainly not during the KAL, I have knitted a few. This year I have decided to bite the bullet and take part. So being somewhat thrifty I dug through my stash and came up with this yummy quartet.

As you can see I have gone for some luxury with the Cascade Heritage Silk. My main colour is the Marine with, Snow and Sunflower. This brings me to the second mystery, the wound ball is a gift-a-ball from Rosie's Moments in the Flower Power Fund Forget-me-Not colour. This beautiful ball of yarn has lots of lovely surprise gifts hidden inside and was sent to me by a mystery benefactor. I have absolutely no idea whom it is from but needless to say I am very thankful. Having this special gift will make the KAL doubly fun as I find the gifts inside along with seeing the shawl develop, and every day I knit I will be thankful for the surprise yarn.

Slipstravaganza begins on Oct 9th so there is still plenty of time to join in and knit along with me and hundreds of others, there is a group on Ravelry which can be found here to join in all the fun.

Until next time, stay safe

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 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 7th April

Hello friends, welcome to The Sunday Sock. I do hope you have all had a great week. My week did not go according to plan. Yesterday I had been hoping to go to The St Abbs Wool Festival in Eyemouth but a conspiracy of bad weather, really bad headache and really, really poorly bank account made it an impossibility. Not to worry, I think I have just enough yarn to keep me going for a while.

As it is the first Sunday of the month I have an Around the World update for you.
In March I knitted 1316 rows and have moved along the A2 a little.

 I am now just a few rows short of 10,000 since I started this mammoth journey.

FO's

I have one FO this week. The Minecraft Socks are finished and have been gifted to their recipient.

I have it on good authority that they were well received.

Close up of the pattern.

This free pattern was knitted with RipplesCrafts BFL sock in the Smokey colour, toe-up on a 2.5mm circular needle using magic-loop and a Fleegle Heel.

This finished project, of course, takes us further on our journey round Scottish Burghs. This time to the Aberdeenshire fishing port of  Fraserburgh. This finish also takes me to 9 projects completed so far this year. it also adds £4.64, 1p per yard, to my yarn savings. 

I did have one other finish this week but being the numpty that I am I parcelled it up and posted it off completely forgetting to take a FO picture. I will ask the recipient to do a picture once it has been opened.

Wip's

I have two main wip's this week. One I can share and one I can't. The one I can share is my Good Vibes shawl.

I have finished the main section and am now into the stripes. This is a lovely pattern and not at all boring to work on.

Forward Planning

I have a wee list of things I have to do for gifts and such and now that I am nearly finished the WIP that I can't share yet I went stash diving for my next project. 

This gorgeous skein has been in my stash for many years and was part of The Orkney Collection of skeins dyed by Ripples Crafts. Helen did this collection after she and her hubby visited Orkney for the first time and she was inspired by the colours she saw there.  This particular colour is called St Magnus Cathedral Floor Tiles and is destined to become a Downtown Chicago cowl This will also be gift knitting but I will be able to share progress photos as the giftee, my aunt has no online presence. 

Incomings

Just one wee thing came into my possession this week.

Another gorgeous project bag from Sew Ray Me. As you will know I have quite a number of one skein project bags from Rachael but I needed something bigger for my shawl knitting so I ordered this beauty. It is plenty big enough for a three skein project and is deliciously well made. 

I think that is all for this week. Have a great week everyone

Happy crafting

Mary 

Sunday 17th March

Hello friends, welcome to The Sunday Sock and a happy St Patrick's day to all you Irish out there. It has been a very quiet week here with really not much happening at all except some knitting and clearing out of excess stuff. How on earth just two of us have accumulated so much is a mystery. I have even, shock-horror, put some yarn into the bag for the charity shop.
Preparations, however, are well underway for my expedition with Yvonne to EYF next Saturday. To say that I am excited about this event is an understatement. I missed out last year as hubby and I were holidaying on the beautiful island of Mull, but I have been to every other EYF since the beginning. A meet-up has been planned on Ravelry with some fellow knitters from the Ripples Craft group and we shall be meeting at Helen's stand, E4, at 2.30 pm on Saturday 23rd then heading round to the marquee for coffee, cake and a blether. Anyone is welcome to join us and I will be wearing my Ravelry badge so if you are there and want to say hello, please do.

Now for some knitting.
I have been, very unusually for me, totally monogamous this week as I really want to wear my Sorrento shawl on Saturday. I have finished the body of the shawl and am about 2/3 through the picot bind off.

This has been pure joy to knit and I am already thinking of doing another one in different colours. I made one small modification to the pattern in that on the last section the lace and my yarn were not playing kindly, so about half-way through I switched back to the pattern of section 6. This made me much happier with the result.
I do have some other super secret knitting on the needles but you will have to wait a while before I can share these projects with you.

Books In My Ears

This month accompanying me as I knit I have been listening to A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor, narrated by Zara Ramm. This is the third book in the most enjoyable and at times hilarious time travelling historians series, The Chronicles of St Mary's. The scrapes the contemporary characters get themselves into whilst travelling back in time, in this instance to Troy, lends itself to some very entertaining listening. I would recommend starting this series with the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, as I did, and continue chronologically as there are references to the earlier books and it helps the story to flow.

So that's it. a very short post this week. I am hoping to get lots of photos and maybe even a wee bit of video next week. 

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Happy crafting

Mary

Sunday 10th March

Hello friends, welcome to The Sunday Sock. I do hope you have all had a good week. I am very pleased to say I am now pain-free in the back department and hope that I never have to go through an episode like that again. I was, however, horrified to find out that for the last week or so I have been wandering around with a black eyebrow! This stunner of a bruise was caused by my food processor launching itself at me from the top of the fridge freezer. It has lived up there happily for many years and I can only presume that one of the cats had been up there too and had moved it slightly which resulted in it falling off when I opened the freezer door. Anyhoo, I have a beautiful bruise.

As I had said last week I was out and about for brunch with Sheena at Archerfield Walled Garden on Wednesday. We had a lovely time enhanced by the company of my hubby. Brunch was delicious, Bill had the full breakfast,

Sheena had poached eggs on toast with avocado,

and I had the eggs florentine.

All three of us declared the food delicious and I would highly recommend a visit if you are in the area. The Walled Garden is a fantastic place to visit, it has the cafe, a shop selling local foods and beautiful gift items, a micro-brewery which offers tours and a bar. Outside there are various trails, including a fairy trail for the little ones and an adventure playground. One thing I love is that dogs are welcome and they even have a doggy deli where you can buy treats for your pooch to enjoy.

Moving on, it is less than two weeks until EYF 19. I am getting very excited about the whole thing. I missed last year's event as we were on holiday on the beautiful Island of Mull, so this year I will have to make up for it. Of course, I am doubly excited as my friend Yvonne is coming from The Netherlands to enjoy the event with me. I don't have much spending pennies but I hope to use the event to see yarns I might want to buy in the future and I hope to meet up with some knitting friends. There is an informal meet-up being organised for coffee and chat on Saturday afternoon and I hope to be able to share with you the details of time and place next week.

Now at last on to some knitting.

FO's

I have two pairs of finished socks to show you.

First up is a pair I started way back in May last year and finished in February this year. I have no idea why I put them in time out but at last, here they are.

Project name Kintore, an Aberdeenshire Burgh, which happens to be where one of my Sisters-In-Law lives.

Pattern - Vanilla Latte Socks, a free and popular pattern with over 12K projects on Ravelry.

Yarn - Drops Fabel in 916 Grand Canyon

Needle - 2.5mm

I knitted these toe-up as is my usual way using the magic loop technique.

Next, are a pair of socks I knitted for my friend to give to his daughter as a birthday gift.

Project name, Ballater, another Aberdeenshire town.

Pattern - Foot, Rye Light, Leg, Molecular Orbitals Socks, both free patterns on Ravelry.
Yarn - RipplesCrafts Reliable Sock in Crushed Blackberries
Needle - 2,5mm
These were also knitted toe-up using magic loop.

Finally a FO from last year which I hadn't photographed for some reason.

This is a wonderful squishy shawl which I knitted last spring and wore for the first time when out on Wednesday.
Pattern - Op Art, again a free pattern on Ravelry
Yarn - Ripples Crafts Merino Sport, (sadly discontinued), in Syringa, A Cerise Which Demands Attention and Maiden Loch although the pattern is written for DK weight.
Needle - 4mm

WIP's

As always I have a few things on the needles.

First, are my A2Z KAL socks,

These are the Aramis socks, again a free pattern and are knitting up beautifully. I am sad that no-one has decided yet to join me in the KAL but hey, it is ongoing and you can join in any time.

Next, are the Minecraft socks, you guessed it, a free pattern, (boy I love the freebies).

Now for a couple of bigger projects. First is the Downtown Chicago Cowl. This is a paid for pattern but not expensive at around £4.30. I have gotten great value from this pattern as this is the fifth or sixth time I have knitted this beautiful cowl.

Finally this week I have been naughty and bought and immediately cast on the gorgeous Sorrento shawl. This beautiful sampler type shawl pattern is less than £3 to buy and is knitting up so quickly.

Top section 1, left section 2, right section 3

The bottom colours are a bit washed out the top picture is showing a better colour.

So that's what has been in my paws this week. I have been loving every minute of the knitting, in no small part as I have been watching some wonderful podcasts as I knitted.

First up is Little Big Knits with the lovely Selma broadcasting from Ottowa, Canada. This lovely lady is responsible for my knitting the Sorrento shawl as she featured it in one of her earliest shows when she test knitted it for the designer and I fell in love with it there and then.

 Next, I caught up with Kate at Hawthorn Cottage Craft. Kate is in Northern Ireland and has such an easy welcoming way that you feel you are right there with her.

Last but by no means least, I spent a couple of hours with The Grocery Girls. These bubbly sisters from Edmonton, Canada are always a great laugh and their colourful podcast is always great for living vicariously.

If you have a few spare minutes check them out.

Incoming

I have a few new things to share with you this week.

On Monday my postie brought me my March Beatrix Potter mystery box from Rosie's Moments.

Once again I was blown away with the contents.

The theme this month is Jemima Puddleduck and the contents are just sublime. 

Tuesday saw an Amazon purchase arrive.

I am forever mislaying my stitch markers so bought this box of 150 locking markers. They are great and are smooth and snag free and just around £4 for the box.

Finally, I bought some yarn. Sheena had mentioned last month that she wanted to destash some yarn and I asked her to bring it along on Wednesday to let me see what she had. I ended up buying it all.

All these yarns with the exception of the middle one in the bottom right corner are now in my stash, that one was already there. The bottom right picture is my colour palette for my Sorrento shawl with the two destashed yarns and yarn from La Bien Aimee.

Gosh, I have rambled on this week, I hope you made it to the end.

Until next week, happy crafting

Mary