Koigu pair!!!

All I can say is.... Hooray!!!!!!! The second sock is done!!!!! I have a gorgeous pair of Koigu socks!
I'm really pleased with the fit of the heel flap - I usually knit an hourglass heel, which is a lot quicker, but always seems stretched to fit. I like this - I'll be knitting it again.
On to the next!

Second sock syndrome and birthday pressies

This is my temptation. These gorgeous things are looking at me all the time I'm battling on with the foot of the second Koigu sock, begging to be cast on as something gorgeous..... But it's so close! Only another 12 rows till the toe begins! I can do that... can't I? This prompts a disturbing question though - if I find a second sock dull marking-time knitting, what chance does the jumper I started have? Uh oh......
This was a surprise birthday parcel from my best friend from Uni, who I haven't seen since the day we graduated (I can't quite believe that, even as I type!) I do have some excuse, though. Last time I was in contact with her, she was in France. We lost touch for a few months, then I get a birthday card from Finland. Finland? Last time I heard, she spoke French, German, Italian, Latin, a bit of Spanish, Russian, Welsh and fluent gibberish, but I didn't think Suomi was one of her languages! I'm seriously behind, here! I might have to learn Mandarin or Greek or Magyar or something to gain a bit of respect. Bit busy at the 'mo, though. I've almost abandoned my plan to learn French this year as well as everything else. I just don't have the time!
The parcel which dropped through my letterbox the other day (redirected from my Mum's) contained a birthday card, a letter and 2 Moomin lollies! Where on earth do you find Moomin lollies? Finland, apparently! Soooo cool! Can't possibly eat them. Not on the diet, anyway.
Yes, I have given up and joined Weightwatchers again. I weigh as much as a baby elephant (or possibly more). I'd like to lose a stone by Christmas, which might be possible? I'll let you know.
Next birthday pressie? A scarf, plus this little chap: From my Auntie Jane. The one who wrote the poem! Could it be a more perfect mascot for Knittingsheep? And I haven't even told her about the blog! Spooky psychic link........ or Mum might have told her, I suppose!
Willow says "What do you want? I'm sleeping!" She has been an exemplary moggy ambassador today... She was out with the chickens wandering round the garden for 3 hours and didn't chase them! She got quite close, nose to beak about 4 inches away, and came to investigate the sweetcorn I was feeding them, but seemed quite happy to just sit and watch them clucking around the place unmolested. Good cat! I gave her lots of praise and treats, because it'll make my life so much easier if I can leave them all to it without having to be there to referee!

A couple of attempts to chart a pattern for chickens... look a bit more like ducks to me. Back to the drawing board...
And last but not least, a fabulous birthday pressie from Carey, the not-quite-sister-in-law up in Scotland: Real Aran wool! It's fabulous, so thick and warm and I think when I've knit it up it'll be so strong and hardwearing! I think I've got 4 100g balls here, but it's very chunky stuff. Does anyone have a clue if it'd be enough to do a jumper? I'm a large lass, so I'm thinking almost certainly not! Maybe a bodywarmer?
Dunno. Anyway, this is how it came, straight from Scottish sheep with no gauge or weight suggested, but it seems to knit up into a beautifully heavy fabric on 5mm needles. Think I'll have to make up my own pattern though! I love the colours, must do some gorgeous pattern, stripes or squares, something to mix up all the colours but not use up too much extra yardage, like fairisle. It won't be a traditional Aran jumper, because I don't like the look of cables on my large torso, but whatever it becomes, I bet I'll still have it in 20 years! Thanks, Carey!

Sock update!

My attempt to felt half a sock (the ankle, not the foot) a little smaller has been a mixed success.
The ankle is definitely a little tighter than before, I think it may need a little more shrinking to be perfect, but as we all know (and have found out to our extreme exasperation - don't ask) felting is a one-way street! So it's better to have to do it again than to go overboard the first time and end up with an incredibly thick baby sock. The koigu has fuzzed a bit, don't know if you can see that clearly here:

If you look at the difference between the fabric on the far right of the photo where the heel flap begins, you can see the colours are sharper. That isn't my camera, it's the sock. It doesn't really bother me, plus I think that the wool will probably fuzz a little during first wearing and washing anyway. Everything else I've ever made in merino has! And they are, at the end of the day, just socks. If you gasped with horror there, get a grip! I love socks too, but you probably need to get out more.

Sock 2 has been started, with 80 stitches cast on instead of 100 (it was quite a bit too big) and is looking like this:

We'll see. I think that by the time I knit the next pair in the purple koigu I got on the same naughty shopping trip, mmmmmm.... koigu...

...the pattern should be perfect. Oh dear, I might have to have another pair of koigu socks! How will I cope? Sooooooo soft......

I was a bit naughty this afternoon though. I started yet another sock (the benefit of many sets of DPNs) in some gorgeous Lorna's Laces.

Pretty colours! I'm just like a magpie really. I can't help it. Just had to see how the colours would come out. From what I've read round and about, lots of people hate it when they get odd pooling effects in handpainted yarn - I love it! I'm far too much of a free spirit to want identical handknit socks. Identical is for bought things, for suits and work clothes and dull. Live a little! Embrace the mad possibilities of wackily different socks! I actually have a 'pair' of house socks of which one is yellowy orange english 56's wool, and the other is turquoise and purple merino - it drives my Mum nuts whenever she comes round, but it makes me smile, and was intended for a perfectly sensible purpose - to see which kind of roving would hold up best as handspun for socks. I'll let you know which one wears out quickest, if you're interested? I bought more of both, of course. Fleece stash is more than equal to yarn stash in terms of sheer volume, although both are still dwarfed by the fabric stash! (It's a great excuse to have a craft room - that's right, a whole room! - because darling hubby knows that if it wasn't in there it would be all over the rest of the house!

That's all for today, except for a purr from this gorgeous little madam who has just jumped on the desk and pushed lots of papers off on to the floor to make room to sleep...

I heard you all say 'ahhhh........', you big softies!

Koigu sock finished!

My first ever completed koigu sock. Yippee! (Yes, my ankles are chunky. So is the rest of me.)

There is, I will admit, a little more to this story than meets the eye. The actual first shot of the finished sock looked like this: You may not be able to tell from the photo, but the foot was too short. By about a quarter of an inch. This may not sound like it matters, but as a woman with size 8 feet (European 42), I have been wearing mens' socks since I was 12 because womens' socks are made to fit sizes 4-7, and I can't stand that feeling of the heel slipping down under the foot. So. I went to bed, slept on it, then got up on Saturday morning feeling calm, and did this:

It's a good job darling hubby was out. He's frighteningly enthusiastic at unravelling knitting. he loves to see all the loops pull out of each other. Now, it's lovely to have your husband interested in any aspect of this loopy girly craft, but a little scary to hand over something that you only want unravelled a little bit. A month's work can be undone in 30 seconds, if you're not careful. Not that he's ever destroyed any of my hard work that I haven't asked him to, but I'm still a teensy bit scared....

Anyway, sock reknitted with a far pointier toe, and I decided it was time for my first attempt at grafting. Deep breath.....No, I fluffed it. so I unpicked it, and consulted the internet. I don't know who put video clips of knitting techniques here, but whoever you are, I love you. Don't ever take them away or I might have a nervous breakdown. This has saved me from screaming sooooo many times.

Sock toe grafted. I dunno about you, but I was pretty impressed for a first attempt! And with the pointier toe, the foot is now a perfect fit:

Now all I have to worry about is that the ankle is a teensy bit loose. Can you felt half a sock?? I'm going to give it a go! I just couldn't bear to rip the whole thing back! I'll let you know...

I'm a bit scared about the second sock, since all the yarn I had left over from this one was about two and a half metres! Ouch! I only bought 2 skeins, one per sock, and just set off blindly, hoping I would get a sock out of each one. Knitiing top-down, I guess that was quite a risk! Please, knitting goddess, don't punish me on the other sock......?

Good news for today: Willow is very nearly back to her old self. She's finally been let out this week, for short runs at first, but now her cat flap is open and she can come and go as she pleases. She's very interested in the chickens, keeps sitting on their run and dangling a paw through - I think it may be awhile before we get an egg! They're a bit on edge. Still, I had them all out on the lawn together yesterday, and so long as I stood between them, she didn't chase them, they all just watched each other carefully. I'm sure they'll get along eventually. My Mum's never had any problems. The very clever thing Willow has done, though, is get her tail moving! The vet said that only 2% of cats would ever recover movement, even though she had feeling in it, but after 3 weeks of it being limp, 2 days before we had to take her back to the vets to see if she would have to have it amputated, she twitched it in front of us! i shrieked so loudly that she ran away! It's getting stronger every day, and yesterday I managed to get proof:

It's a little dark, but that is a cat with her tail in the air! she had it almost straight up when I went downstairs this morning. I'm so proud of her! I think she must be the luckiest cat in the world.

Koigu sock progress / hooray I'm on Yarnival!!

I think darling hubby is a bit annoyed with me. Not only was he not expecting me to shriek right in his ear with excitement when he showed me the email saying I'd made it into Yarnival,
but I really don't think he was expecting me to totally ignore him for the rest of the evening, elbow him off the computer and read all my new comments chuckling happily to myself. I know, I'm odd. I'm also happy. The counter has been zipping round tonight (UK time right now- 21.00), and I'm so glad that you've all dropped in for a visit! Please come back soon and let me know what you think, even if it's that I'm a loony (I know this already, but I don't really want to be normal. I equate it to 'boring').

Gratuitous sock photo:
Mmmmmmmm...... koigu......

Hubby looks more concerned every time I say how gorgeous this stuff is, since I spent quite an obscene amount of money at the wool shop on my visit a week and a half ago. I think he's terrified that if he doesn't keep a sharp eye on me, I'll remortgage the house to feed the yarn habit and we'll end up homeless with tons of wool. Hey, we'd be warm, wouldn't we? What's the problem? No, I couldn't let all that gorgeous wool sit out in the rain and mud. Got to keep a house just to keep the wool safe.

It was my birthday on Friday (as if I didn't feel old enough spending the day in a school full of people born in the nineties, my Mum phoned to sing Happy Birthday at me, and kindly referred to my age as a fraction of a century. Thanks, Mum.

What would you do if halfway through a lesson you were teaching, the 32 eleven-year-olds in front of you figured out that it was your birthday and spontaneously burst into song? Let's just say that the last ten minutes of the lesson were somewhat unstructured, as I couldn't stop laughing. And do you know something interesting? It is impossible to stay mad at people who give you three cheers, no matter how mad at them you were the rest of the lesson!

As my birthday treat, darling hubby took me down to a small theatre in Lyme Regis last night to see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - of which more tomorrow. Fantastically mad bloke, inspired us to get the chickens, (and signed a photo of them for us yesterday - top bloke!). All I will say here is that you get a fair few funny looks queueing up to get a book signed whilst knitting a sock. Well, could you waste 20 minutes standing in a queue? I couldn't!

To celebrate my inclusion in Yarnival, and the knitting world becoming aware of my loopy british rantings, I thought I'd explain where the title of this blog came from.
When I was sixteen, my Aunt, who is very crafty and lives alone, so can be as messy as she likes, wrote me the following poem. I've kept it carefully ever since as a fantastic excuse for my messiness, and it now graces the wall of my craft room. It is rather heavy on the praise, having been written by a doting Aunt to a sixteen-year-old, but it makes me smile. Having a whole house to mess up, I should add, has merely magnified my ability to create mess on floors and all other surfaces.

But he still loves me. Luckily.

It is simply titled:

Lucy P.

and it goes like this:

Lucy likes to work things out
Find out what they're all about
Tapping on computer keys
Chopping down unwanted trees
Papier Mâché, Mosaic table
Lucy P. is very able.
Knitting sheep, threading beads
Growing lots of veggie seeds

She's now passed GCSEs
Seems she's even good at these
Quilling and some paper folding
Damn that bedroom!
Who keeps scolding?
It's in her nature to create
That bedroom floor will have to wait.

I think it would be fair to say that I have never let my creativity be stifled by undue considerations of mess. And I think my Mum would agree.

Shopping trip stash acquisitions

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. My weekend in pictures:

Koigu! ooooooooh.................... why have I never had any before?




Pretty colours..... Couldn't wait! started knitting in the pub on bonfire night. It's in the village I grew up in, they're used to me.

Off-roading on Sunday into an astounding sunset...

....and the man who forgives me spending the mortgage money on wool, darling hubby himself, in his element with a muddy Landrover. I love him - he didn't scream when I told him that I'd spent about a week's wages on wool in an hour. And he buys me chocolate when I've got PMT.

Shopping trip

Uh oh. Went a teensy bit over budget.
Will post details tomorrow. Right now, I have to go and hide some of the evidence and find food in the freezer for the next month. If I don't spend any money on food, we might still be able to pay the mortgage. Whoops! Somebody take my credit card away!!!!
I'd just like to say for the record that I love my husband very much and he is a very understanding man. Hopefully.

Warm wooly parcel to Scotland

Remember the pixie hat?
Well, there was about a ball and a half of the merino handspun left, so two evenings saw a pair of chunky oversocks, knit flat with a seam up the front, on 5mm needles with a bit of chunky- spun turqoise English 56's from the stash to fill in the heels and toes. There was about a metre of the merino left over when I'd finished. Perfect!
Those should keep the toes warm on cold Scottish nights in front of the telly. The joke is, she's bored up there so is learning to knit! She's found a friendly lady in a multipurpose yarn / haberdashery / craft shop who has cast on a scarf for her and shown her a few rows, and now she is bravely going it alone! I can't wait to see the scarf! First ever piece of knitting - it's a rite of passage! If she finishes it, I'll have to reward (tempt?) her with some Koigu or Lorna's Laces (my spree on Saturday now has another excuse!) - have to start the addiction as soon as possible! In the meantime, until her scarf is finished, i sent her this one that I knitted about six months ago in handspun merino, simple 2x2 rib. I was enjoying playing with the colors of the stripes. It's been waiting in a drawer for cold weather and to have its ends darned in, so two minutes with a needle and off it went to the cold North! Oh and another hat that was completed about the same time as the scarf as some 'something to do in the car' knitting. May as well keep a head warm as sit in a drawer!

See? Who says I never finish a project? Loads of FOs there! She received the parcel a couple of days ago and I think she loved it. I'm especially proud of the socks, not so much the hat any more as I was asked, very kindly, 'why does it have a nipple on top?'

Um. That's not quite the look I had in mind. Still, if she layers it with the other hat, she will have a very warm head.....

Hooray! It's finished!

No, not the sock. In fact, not any piece of knitting. My YP assignment! Finished at 1.15 this morning, handed in at 10 am. I've got time to knit now!
Speaking of which, I've started a new project. I've been looking at Rowan Tapestry for months now whenever I go near a wool shop, stroking it and wishing I could come up with an excuse to buy some. Winter has given me my excuse! First frost on the ground this morning, I must need another jumper. Hooray! Now, I have to state for the record that this is my first ever attempt at knitting a jumper, so be kind and don't laugh if it all turns out a bit wonky! The colours are gorgeous.... stripes without the effort of darning in ends! Yay!

...and somebody, who I think has been feeling a teensy bit jealous of the chickens, got the very rare priviledge of curling up on my lap this evening whilst I was knitting. Normally I shove her off after thirty seconds, because she pounces on the wool and tries to bite the needles as they wave about, but I've been feeling so sorry for her having to be kept in for so long convalescing that I tolerated minor attacks on the WIP this evening and kept breaking off to stroke and fuss her. Everybody? Ahhhhhh.....
Yes, I know, I'm a soft beggar. Please ignore the mess in the background. It's been over a week since the parents visited, so standards have slipped again. If my Mum visited every 2 days, my house would stay tidy! (this is not because my Mum tidies up, although sometimes I do find she's snuck off and is hoovering my stairs, but because she nags me if it's not tidy so all the mess gets hidden before she arrives!)

Another gratuitous kitty shot, because she just came to see what I was typing and to scrounge some kitty biscuits. Darling hubby keeps some on his desk. When she wants some she jumps up, walks in front of the screen (and occasionally across the keyboard - sometimes accidentally sending emails that read 55243i8732egklfdu6465&U^%£%££.... to random people in the address book -hopefully not Keir's boss!), and pushes the pot of biscuits over with her nose to get his attention. So he gives her some biscuits. Has he trained the cat, or has the cat trained him? Interesting philosophical question...

Do you see Darling Hubby's new toy next to the cat? Do you notice something else? Just behind it? I'm sure there is a third one somewhere too.... Now, I'm not even thinking of complaining. It'll make it harder for him to object to me going on a spree on Saturday! I'm going to Get Knitted's open day! My first chance to get my hands on some Lorna's Laces! Do you think I should warn him? Nah! I can make meals out of whatever's in the freezer for a while - that way I can spend the food money on wool!

Now I'm off to see if I can chart a pattern for some chicken socks for somebody's xmas present.... or maybe some mittens.... or a scarf...?