Sunday May 24th

Hello friends, I hope you are all well and staying very safe. I have had a bit of a mixed week with sciatica rearing its painful head which in turn left me somewhat overwhelmed with the knitting and crochet I have on the go at present. It left me almost in tears with the enormity of it all so, being a practical sort, I set out a plan. I have divided up my projects into a daily diary of sorts. Each day I will concentrate on just one project which will allow me to see real progress which I will share each week with you all.

Monday

I will work on my beaded shawl, Flutter of the Wings. Long rows mean very slow going but they are gradually reducing and the gradient yarn is beginning to show some changes.

Tuesday

Sock day today, nice and quick progress being made here.

Wednesday 

Cowls today these are commission knits using laceweight cashmere sent by my mum. I am hoping to do all 5 cowls in different patterns so I don't get bored. This is the Fern Lace Cowl.

Thursday

Baby knits or crochet day. Again I have some commissions to finish and 3 crochet blankets, on which I will work one at a time.

Friday

Back to socks.

Saturday

Sunshower shawl day. Making some very visible progress with this one.

Sunday

Of course, its socks again, what else for the Sunday Sock.

I think that's all for this week, the wind has died away and I can concentrate again. Time to cast on the second sock. Stay safe and stay home where possible.

Mary

Find me on

Ravelry - mazbil
Instagram - The_Sunday_Sock

Sunday May 17th

Hello friends, I hope you are all hale 'n' hearty this 8th week of lockdown. Things are certainly odd at present with the streets quiet and empty. We are both keeping our heads down and staying indoors as much as possible. I have never been so glad in my life to have a hobby that I can do safely in the comfort of my home, I am even delighted with myself for amassing a healthy, (ahem, huge), stash from which I can draw both inspiration and comfort.

I decided during the week that the time had come to do a little something for me so I rifled through the stash and picked out some yarn to knit myself a couple of shawls.

The first is in a combination of yarns from The Border Tart. Lindsay is a specialist in indigo dyeing and I have chosen two beautiful skeins to knit myself the Sunshower Shawl by Ambah O'Brien.

The top, pink, yarn is her new Lush, this mixture of Merino, Silk and Cashmere is so buttery soft and just pure lush to knit with. Beneath is one which has been marinading nicely for a while until it told me just what it wanted to be and is a blend of BFL, Silk and Cashmere. Together they are knitting wonderfully.

I am a little further along than this now but the rows are getting very long and taking a while.

Talking of long rows brings me to the second shawl. I have cast on Flutter of the Wings by Lily Go. I have knitted this beautiful pattern once before as a swap project and the recipient loved it. Now it is time for one for me. as I have mentioned it has very long rows as it is a bottom-up shawl which means for the size I am knitting it started with a cast on of 505 stitches. I have chosen a beautiful green gradient yarn for this which is a cotton - wool mix.

 Not the best picture as it was taken indoors in the depths of winter. I have teamed it with some beautiful silver lined blue beads which make the knitting very slow going at present.

As you can see I am using the tiny crochet hook to add the beads. I do have a Fleegle beader but have mislaid it as it has been about 4 years since I last beaded anything.

You can just about see the beads here.
Sadly the knitting doesn't look like much just now but hopefully, soon things will become clearer.

I think I have bored you enough for this week, next week  will have some sock knitting updates and of course some shawl progress shots.

Stay safe, stay home and stay healthy.

Mary

Find me on

Ravelry - mazbil
Instagram - The_Sunday_Sock

Sunday 10th May

Hello friends, it's been a while. Sadly things got pretty tough for me at the back end of last year and the start of this, lots of weird illnesses and such which took my mojo flying right out of everything including my crafting for a while. Happy to say now that things, albeit in the very strange circumstances we are now living under, are much better. Even happier to say my knitting is progressing apace and I am getting lots done.

My main focus is on knitting socks for Operation Christmas Stocking 2020, this is a wonderful cause dear to my heart where us knitters knit a pair of socks which are then given to a homeless person along with a free foot treatment from a podiatrist in Edinburgh. The charity Crisis coordinates it and my dear friend Carol is collecting the socks this year to pass on to them. So far I have completed 4 pairs and am about to finish the fifth.

I use a very easy free toe-up pattern, Milkshake, by Fiona Tulloch and team it with the highly popular Vanilla Latte pattern, also free, which seems to make it go faster than just a plain sock. I have tweaked the latter pattern so that it is centred on both the front and back. My plan is to fill a box with socks to give to Carol when we can next meet up.

Another major project for me is knitting cowls. Sadly my mum is unable to knit anymore so she has sent me a box of gorgeous laceweight cashmere which I am slowly knitting into cowls which I will send back to her to distribute as she pleases. The softness of this beautiful yarn is making my heart sing as I knit with it and I can only hope I am doing the yarn the justice it deserves with the patterns I have chosen.

Finally a bit of a fun knit

This is my Fiddly Bits cowl. It is again a free pattern which uses up all those leftover bits of yarn you have in your stash. It is a very simple tube and the beauty of it is no ends to sew in as they will all be hidden inside when the two ends are Kitchener stitched together.

That's all for this week, hope you are all well and staying safe

Mary

Find me on

Ravelry - mazbil
Instagram - The_Sunday_Sock

Sunday 18th August

Hello friends, many, many apologies for my absence in the last few weeks. We have had a very trying time as we sadly lost our beautiful dog Skye fairly suddenly on May 25th. She was diagnosed with a tumour on her spleen which was successfully removed but sadly succumbed to a heart attack two days later. It was so unexpected that it took the wind right out of our sails and I found it impossible to write anything until now.
I have also begun a new chapter in my working life becoming a volunteer in the PDSA shop in nearby Musselburgh. This was prompted by the wonderful care that the PDSA vets have given to not only our pets but also us when they sadly passed over the rainbow bridge. I am truly finding great reward in doing my two stints a week, knowing that my effort goes to help pets in need.

Knitting has happened, however, and a number of projects have been completed. You can find my finished projects on my Ravelry project page.

The Sunday Sock this week is my own simple 4-row pattern, knitted top-down using magic-loop and incorporating the Fish Lips Kiss heel by Sox Therapist. This short-row heel gives great results with no wraps or gaps and once you grasp the idea is so easy.

I used Drops Fabel sock yarn in the colour 916 and I am very pleased with the resulting sock. I am sure you will see many more of this design in future.

Our dearly departed Skye and Gibbs

This beautiful painting of our much-loved dogs was done by disabled artist Darren Ainsworth, you can check out his work on his Facebook page, Art by Darren.

That's it for this week. I promise I will try to get back to regular posts.

Happy crafting

Mary


I will try to remember when I want to cast on "all the things" that I have only one pair of hands and therefore can only knit one thing at a time!

Sunday 19th May

Hello friends, I hope you have all had a good week. We have been blessed with some lovely weather here in East Lothian this week and on Tuesday morning hubby, the dog and I headed out for a wee stroll along the shore from Cockenzie to Port Seton. We started in a beautiful public garden where we found this stunning sundial

And this colourful mosaic art

Continuing along the shoreline we came to this beautiful wee beach

Then on to the harbour at Port Seton

Where we stopped for a coffee and to soak up the sunshine.

It was a lovely wee walk and one I am sure we will now do whenever the weather is kind.

FO's

I have two finishes for you this week.

Firstly, I finally finished the cowl for my Aunt.

Again this is the Downtown Chicago pattern I shared last week. Finishing this project means I have now knitted this 9 times. It is such a good pattern for so many different yarns and always gives a beautiful finished object. The only modifications I make are to do 12 rib rows on both sides and I use 3mm needles.

Secondly, I have finished my socks from the sock blank.

I loved knitting these fraternal socks as I just never knew how the blank would knit up. I did treat myself to a biscuit when I finished them. As you can see I have a fair bit of the blank leftover to go into my Happy Scrappy Blankie.

WIP's

I have 2 main wip's this week.

First, is this colourful granny square, which I shared the start of last week.

I did say then that I was going to do two and join them together but during the week I received a call from a receptionist at my Doctor's surgery asking if I could do some lap blankets for a local elderly day care centre. So, plan changed and this will become the first of those lap blankets.

Next, some more socks.

This pair will be for my lovely friend Marillyn who was complaining of very cold tootsies just before the beautiful sunny weather arrived. She chose the colour from the huge bag of yarn which I shared with you last week.

I have also been doing a few rows on my Still Light tunic but have no real progress to show you.

Incomings

The lovely Aoife from the Stash Knit Down group on Ravelry sent me this ball of Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply to use for toes and cuffs when I start knitting socks for Operation Christmas Stocking 2019, along with the wee mini skein for me. 

Many thanks, Aoife.

Tour of Scottish Burghs

My two finishes this week bring us to two more Angus towns. Brechin and Forfar are both Royal Burghs. 

Off to the Frog Pond

I knitted this pair of socks in 2014 but have rarely worn them as they were just too big. I made the decision after wearing them during the week that I would rather frog them and re-knit the yarn to the right size, so when I finish this post I will be ripping them right out. I love the yarn and I am sure once the fit is right they will be a favourite pair.

In my Ears and On my Screen

This week I am listening to Jerusalem by Alan Moore, this is another huge book which I am really enjoying.

On TV we are still journeying around Italy with the Giro and last night we had a musical journey around Europe with the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly the UK came last but well done to The Netherlands who scooped the win.

I think that's it for this week. Have a great week and happy crafting,

Mary

Sunday 12th May

Hello friends, firstly let me apologise for my absence for the last few weeks. I have little excuse other than I had nothing finished to share and I was feeling pretty low. Things are now looking up thanks to two doctors at my surgery. The first doctor has started a health walk once a month and on Tuesday morning I trotted along to join the group. The walk was a gentle stroll along the shore of Cockenzie and Port Seton, stopping periodically for him to talk about various aspects of mental health and new ideas for coping with some of the stresses of life. It was so interesting and I discovered hidden gems of sanctuary that I never knew existed practically on my doorstep.

Looking towards Edinburgh

Port Seton Harbour

The Secret Garden

A Love on the Rocks find in the Secret Garden

The second doctor helped me on Friday, I had a telephone consultation at 2.30 regarding my medication. I happened to mention to him that I had a very painful clicking thumb which had been bothering me for around six weeks. He was concerned about this so asked me to come along to the surgery at 4.30 for him to have a look. By 5pm I was out and had had a steroid injection at the base of my thumb for trigger finger. Our NHS takes a bashing in the press and media but this past week my local surgery has been simply outstanding for me. Tomorrow is my chance to give back a bit as I go to the community centre to give my pint of blood to help save lives.

Also this week I have been forward planning. Last year I knitted 4 pairs of socks for Operation Christmas Stocking. This is an initiative where a podiatrist and a knitter teamed up to offer a free foot treatment, pair of socks and a wee chocolate treat to the homeless in the Edinburgh area. It was such a success that it is happening again this year. Lizzie, the knitter, asked her friends to knit the socks and I think she collected about 60 pairs. I wanted to do more pairs this year so when I discovered that Wool Warehouse has a Drops sale for the month of May I blew my yarn budget and bought 18 balls of Fabel and Delight.

This will enable me to knit lots of cosy socks for the project. 

FO's

At last, I have some finishes to share with you.
This first one, a Downtown Chicago cowl, is from March and was part of my Mum's birthday package.

The second, the same pattern, was part of my step-daughters package.

Third, is a pair of perfect socks for me.

You may remember that a few months ago I discovered that my favourite fitting pair of socks was done with 52 stitches, well, I did this pair the same and they fit like a glove.

Finally, I made another crocheted baby blanket.

WIP's

I have three current WIP's which are moving along due to me changing the way I am working on my projects. I am now working 10 rounds of a sock, 1 round of a bigger knitting project and 1 round of a crochet project then repeating. It is working a treat for me as I am seeing progress and not getting stuck in a rut.

Firstly, I am turning this sock blank,

into another pair of socks for me.

Next is the cowl for my aunt, again this is the Downtown Chicago pattern.

Finally, I have another charity blanket on the hook.

I have an idea about this one that I will do two squares and join them together to make a single bed size. I will see how it goes.

Incoming

As you have seen already I had a big order of sock yarn from Wool Warehouse. Since I last wrote I have also had the May mystery Beatrix Potter box from Rosie's Moments.

Being a cat lover this Tom Kitten inspired box sang to me. Sadly I missed out on ordering the June Beatrix Potter box but I have ordered the accessories box instead. 

Scottish Burghs

Four finished projects mean four burghs for you to investigate if you choose. We are concluding our tour of Aberdeenshire with Rattray, Rosehearty and Turriff and beginning our tour round Angus with the beautiful coastal burgh of Arbroath.  

In my ears and on my screen

The book in my ears at present is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I am loving this huge tome, (62 hours) and am listening to it at every opportunity. The story is giving me a lot of pause for thought and the narrator, Scott Brick, is excellent.

On the TV hubby and I are having our yearly 3-week tour of Italy with the Giro. We love watching road cycling and as we cannot travel far anymore these races give us the chance to enjoy a holiday from home. 

I think that is all for now, until next Sunday, happy crafting

Mary

Sunday 21st April

Hello, friends welcome to The Sunday Sock. A very happy Easter to those who celebrate. What a lovely week it has been here in East Lothian with the weather heating up nicely and giving us some nice sunny days. I have been scooting along with a new purpose in my knitting and crochet. I have joined in with the Stash Knit Down Ravelry group's Race to the Bottom challenge in which you give yourself a goal to have gotten through a yarn amount of your choice in the next 18 months. The categories have different yarnie names and amounts ranging from Dryer Lint, (1000 yards) to Yarn Shop, (150.000 yards). I have signed up to attempt Cashmere, (30,000 yards). This amount will make but a small dent in my stash but it is something to aim for and I have set up a ticker in the side-bar to track my progress.
Also, new this week, Lucy of the Attic 24 blog released a new crochet blanket pattern and I was smitten. The Dune blanket uses 15 different colours and is made up of rows of shell stitches. I immediately forgot all the other wip's and trotted off to stash dive and find some suitable yarn. I came up with this palate for a blanket of my own.

FO's

I have finished 2 items this week. First up is this fun wee tea cosy which was a commission from a friend. This item takes us to Oldmeldrum on our trip around Scotland's burghs.

It was so difficult to photograph without a teapot but I'm sure you get the gist.

Secondly, taking us back to the coast of Aberdeenshire, and the fishing port of Peterhead, is this baby blanket for charity.

Both of these projects were quick and easy and satisfied the instant gratification that crafters sometimes crave. 

WIP's

As mentioned earlier I dug out some yarn for the Dune blanket and have completed 5 stripes.

I am just loving how this is crocheting up. There are 100 stripes, (2 rows per stripe), in the pattern and I think I am going to aim to do one per day.

Next, on the needles is the Downtown Chicago cowl, (paid pattern), for my aunt.

I do have other wip's out there but have no photos at present to share. 

Incoming

Nothing this week, much to the delight of my ever suffering DH.

Outings

I will be out and about with my Knitty friends for lunch at Joli, Longniddry on Friday 26th April at 12 noon. I am hoping the weather stays lovely and we can have lunch al fresco and get some nice photos of crafting in the wild for next week.

I think that's it for this week, other than to say if you don't want a huge spot appearing on your chin a la teenage angst, don't read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Have a great week and happy crafting.

Mary