A Name Change

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I have changed the name of my blog. This is because I have come to realise that when it comes to knitting, socks are my real passion. As I said recently I love to knit them and I love to wear them, so why not dedicate most of my ramblings to them? I also said that I would try to start a new sock each week on a Sunday, hence the Sunday Sock. This however does not mean I will be abandoning my other knitting, I will still knit shawls etc. it will just mean that I will attempt to share with you my latest sock knitting escapades along with my thoughts on the yarn I am using and the pattern, (if any) on a regular basis.

Dancing and Dryers

Knitting took a back seat yesterday evening as I went to my first ever Line Dancing class. Oh boy, there is so much to learn, not least a totally new language! I am sure I dreamt of grapevines and rocking chairs last night. Anyhoo back to the dancing. The teacher was great, she let us two newbies know that there would be dances we should not even attempt and she gave us her total attention when it came to teaching us the steps for ones she wanted us to try. I discovered that I can walk forward in steps of four no problem but going backwards and turning round by a quarter results in two left feet. At least I stayed upright although there were quite a few wobbles, just as well I am shaped like a Weeble so I won't fall down. I will admit I enjoyed the experience and will be back next Monday for more.

Now to my dryer, as you may remember I took delivery of a new dryer last Tuesday after having the option of the old one being fixed or a new one at a reduced price. Boy did I make the right decision. On the old dryer you had to choose an amount of time and just let the dryer get on with it. This one however you choose a programme, cotton, mixed or synthetics and it senses the moisture and adjusts the time needed to dry accordingly. I am amazed. Loads which I use to give over an hour to are drying in less than half the time. That can only be good for the fabrics and for my electricity bill.

Oh well time to get back to my sock which has just the leg to knit.

Dentist and Dancing

Monday again, where does the time go?
Today is a day of D's. I am just back from the dentist where the good news is I need no fillings :) I just have to go back for a scale and polish in a couple of weeks. I was also very good and walked rather than take the car.
This evening I along with some my neighbour and a couple of others will attend my first ever beginners line dancing class. I am looking forward to this with some trepidation. I have not danced in any form for many years and the only form of line dancing I have ever done is the Slosh. I am hoping that it will be fun and a bit of a giggle and not too serious. I wait to see.

Sunday Sock

As I said on Friday I want to start a sock every Sunday this year to give me, in theory, a new pair of socks every fortnight for "Operation Sox Box".
Today is the sixth Sunday of the year and here I am about to begin knitting my sixth sock.
For this pair I am using Knit Picks Felici in the Tea Party colour.

I am not using any pattern as such, just a mish-mash that gives me a sock that I love to wear.
If all goes well by Friday I will have a lovely new pair of socks to share with you.

Operation Sox Box

I love to knit socks. I didn't used to, I was scared to, but I pushed myself into learning 4 years ago and I have never looked back since. The amount of beautiful sock yarn out there is just one reason I got hooked, the other reason is that socks are the perfect portable project. They can be popped in any bag and you can whip them out anywhere and knit a few rounds. I always have some socks on my needles.
Today I realised that my socks need a special place to live and I need many more pairs to choose from. Operation sox box was born.
I have a lovely box which would make just the perfect home for my socks

and my plan is to gradually fill it with colourful socks.
The first pair is already making themselves at home.

I am about half way through my third pair of socks this year and I have a wild plan to start knitting a new sock every Sunday to fit in with one of my Ravelry group's "Start Something Sunday" thread. If I can manage to keep this up then I will beat last year's 21 pairs of socks and end up with 26 new pairs this year.

Review: Saints of the Shadow Bible

Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am not normally a fan of the Rebus stories and have not read one for many years. However this had me gripped from the off. Maybe it was the wonderful narration by James MacPherson, (Inspector Jardine in Taggart), his intonations really helped set the scenes and made me keep wanting to listen just a wee bit longer.
The story itself had just the right amount of twists to keep me guessing right to the end.
I will be sure to look out for more of the Rankin books read by this narrator.

View all my reviews

A Day of Deliveries

Today has turned out to be delivery day here at Chez Mary.
First to arrive was some yarn from the USA.. The package from Knit Picks, who at last deliver direct to the UK, had some gorgeous buttery soft sock yarn, Stroll Fingering in the colour Make Believe

and some more Gloss Fingering in Cranberry,

 with which I am going to knit a Hitofude cardigan (Ravelry link) for my cruise next year.

Next to arrive was something I have wanted for ages

a model stand to drape my finished shawls on. I have always struggled to photograph any shawls I have knitted in a way which properly shows their shape and beauty and I am hoping that having this will help.

Finally the big item arrived

our new tumble dryer.
Last November whilst watching the news I heard about a problem with certain tumble dryers which could cause a fire. I duly checked the model we had and lo it was one of the affected types. I put the details into the website and waited to hear back. At the end of January I got an e-mail saying that due to overwhelming demand it would be a while longer before our dryer could have the modification completed but if I wanted I could have a brand new dryer, delivered and installed within a week at a very reduced price with the old one taken away for free. Now our tumble was at least 10 years old and whilst it had given us no problems other than us having to replace the belt once it seemed a no-brainer to get a brand spanking new one. So here it is and a handsome looking machine it is too.