Sunday 22 February 2009

socks galore!

On wednesday at SnB I started a sock. This was the second time this particular sock had been cast on... I tell a lie. it was the third. The yarn is King Cole ZigZag in Cloudy and it was my intention to turn it from a ball of yarn into a pair of broadripples. After sourcing the DPN's I proceeded to cast on, cuff down. I didn't like that so went online to thisisknit and bought a 3.25mm addi. Once it arrived I cast on again, toe up. After a few pattern repeats, I realised that you couldn't actually SEE the pattern, so ripped it out.

Attempt number 3 was a plain sock. I'd had enough messing about with patterns and just decided to go for a plain attempt. I cast on Wednesday, took Thursday off work sick and turned the heel. Then I decided that I could maybe possibly do an easy pattern on the leg. Enter the Glacier Lake toe up socks! Nice simple pattern that even I can't get wrong... and for my first pattern it's going rather well I think.

Hopefully my first pair of patterned socks will be done by mid March... but I'm also knitting Emerald at the same time so who know if the socks will be done at all!

Monday 16 February 2009

Busy week!

During last week I was knitting away on a DreamSwatch headwrap for my sister as a sort of Valentine's present. Unfortunately, she wasn't here for Valentines but that didn't matter much since it was only stuck on the blocking boards at about 5pm on the Day itself, lol. Its nice, I like it and so does she so I think thats all that matters... plus I get to save 50p for a completed item!! Its the simple things that make me happy, lol


One headwrap in Sirdar Duet. Matt and shiny black!!

At Christmas, I decided to knit a hat for my granny. I first tried the hat thing for her in about 2007 but it was a diaster so I decided to try again for 2008. I knitted it up and realised it was a but too big but gave it to her anyway cuz basically I didn't think she'd wear it.

After Christmas, she said she's rip it out and I could reknit it. I said not to rip it cuz it would be a complete nightmare since its patons spirit and not the easiest yarn to rip (knitting it was bad enough) She called up to the house a few weeks later with a bag of bits... biggish balls, small balls and strings of yarn. I had another ball of the stuff here! It didn't need to be ripped out!!!

Yesterday she asked about the hat. I hadn't started it cuz I couldnt find a nice enough pattern but I went on ravelry, found a random bulky hat pattern and went for it. I completed it 5 hours later, and hope to all the yarn gods that it fits this time cuz I don't want to reknit it ever again!!!
Hat take 3.... never knitting her a hat again!

Sunday 8 February 2009

grrrr...

So after my determination to get the 3.25mm dpn's, I decided to cast on the broadripples yesterday. After 6 rounds, i decided i didn't like the looseness of the dpn's and this morning, I resumed the hunt for a 3.25mm addi.

I found them at www.thisisknit.ie and they are on their way to me now. I also got a 3mm addi and a 3.25 for Nicky who didn't know they came in that size.

Now that the broadripples are on hold, I'm going to knit some bedsocks in sirdar hug to keep up the sock momentum and as its snowing hard right now, they might be useful shortly!

Thursday 5 February 2009

About time too...

I have finally managed to get my hands on some 3.25mm DPN's so I can now start the broadripple socks. It's taken 3 days because the yarn shop in the town center doesn't sell decent sized needles, so today I ended up in CraftWorld who, incidentally, have a far better selection of needles that the stupid yarn shop.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Dinner time conversations

dad: I wore those socks today

me: and what was wrong with them?

dad: there's only one pair. How do I go about getting more and what do i do tomorrow? Wear thin socks again?

So he likes them, they fit and the only issue is that the cast off on one sock is too loose (but i knew that already)

he might get another pair after all, lol

Monday 2 February 2009

Bummer :(

I came home from work today with the intention of casting on the broadripples socks and another project but when I checked the needle size for both projects... I don't have them. How can I not have 3.25mm DPN's in my room?? I've every other size needle and what was the chances that both projects i wanted to start today required THE SAME needles????

Fate is against me.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Quite a day I've been having!


Wow! I just finished these a few minutes ago. These are my dad's socks that I started on 7 January. They're made out of Trekking and took a lot of yarn since he has big feet, lol. I don't have large sock blockers so I just threw them on the floor and took a snap with the crap camera.

Also today, I finished the rib and seaming on the jumper. So all in all it's been a dad knitting day!

In the sock club spirit, I've opened the next envelope. The process was scary - what evil socks would I get that I couldn't knit??? In the end, it wasn't so bad - Broadripple Socks in King Cole ZigZag followed by the plain KnitPicks that we dyed with the Kool Aid (I'll get a pic up soon)

I only have one WIP now (the evil Donegal blanket) and I dont want to knit it, lol. So onwards to bed followed by some casting on tomorrow!!!

Total time!

Well, the month is over and I can safely say that I DID NOT purchase any yarn, whatsoever.

I was gifted a ball of Opal but thats a gift and doesn't count.

So the total so far stands at 1236yards of yarn used in January. I don't know if this is good or not, but I'll take it. (even though it was less than December's total of 1581 yards which was 0.9 miles) Naturally I couldn't bring myself to refinish the rib on the jumper last night, so what would have been more yards will be carried over to today once I finish reseaming the thing. I hate reknits :(

So here we go:

Used 391g
Yards 1236
Bought 0g
Gifted to me 100g
Mileage 0.7 miles.