thumb gusset

Skating on thin ice

I can show you an FO, in the process of being blocked in 3D :)

 

There are two of them, as well! It's the greatest compliment when someone just puts them on straight away and offers several times to model them for the blog! The socks are knitted from Trekking XXL - one of the ombre shades, which I absolutely love. The heel is the 'strong' heel. I now can't find the link to the instructions. There's no great mystery however. Instead of knitting a heel flap and then picking up stitches you increase to the same extent by increasing each side of an imaginary heel flap. When you've got the full width of the instep you decrease for the gusset as usual. I can't see any advantage really, but it was interesting to try it out. I used the Elizabeth Zimmermann method of m1, by the way (it doesn't leave a hole).

Now, as you can see I've been bitten by the crochet bug. I'm making a blanket out of little squares. Each set of four will be edged in white. Then I don't know how I want to join the fours together. If I go for white all the way I'll have to buy it, whereas if I use colours in some way I'll probably have enough. Any ideas?

I like to have some rules when I'm being random. For these, I have to use 8 different colours in each set of 4 small squares. Other than that, anything goes.

Handspun hat

 

I'm so pleased with the way this hat turned out. The slightly wobbly texture is caused by the unevenness of my handspun merino yarn, but that doesn't matter because the hat is cosy and should keep George's ears warm in East Anglia. I think it gives character too! I followed the 'Challenger Hat' pattern on Ravelry, adding a few stitches because the yarn turned out more of a dk than a worsted. I knitted on 3.75 mm needles and knitted flat with a mattress seam hidden in the double ribs. Started on Friday, put in the post today!

For all you doubters...

  Here's the first argyle sock.

I have darned in all the ends, too! Second sock is started.

Here's the grey merino I have just spun.

 There's about 190g altogether. It ranges from 12 to 13 wpi (wraps per inch), which makes it roughly worsted weight. It's soft and rather stretchy. I think I'll make George a hat even though I've really too much for a hat. The leftovers can always be used for something.

Hello, Blog

First a proud boast: I haven't bought any yarn at all since 17 December! Notice I say 'yarn' not 'wool', for I have bought some wool for spinning. When I went up to P&M Woolcraft recently with some mad spinning Ravellers I bought 500g humbug bluefaced leicester top and 200g grey merino.

I have a plan. I am dyeing about half of the bfl in different colours to make a stranded colourwork waistcoat for myself. I am also separating some of the undyed bfl into light and dark, so I will end up with 3 natural shades and 5 dyed shades. I have decided on the colourwork pattern - it's one from Anna Zilborg's Simply Socks book. More on that later. In the meantime, here's where I'm up to with the dyeing. Another colour is in the pot as I type. It's a sort of snuff colour (Landscape 'Lichen').

My hope is that the colours will all be heathered and muted by the darker strands of natural wool. I've also got some white bfl, which I can add in for highlights.

The tricky part will be the spinning. I've had some beginner's luck with spinning, but now that I have my wheel and have got a bit more ambitious, I'm finding that it doesn't always go as well as I hope!