Being a saintly sock saviour

FO: Monkey saviour socks for my second sock pal, finished yesterday. Now her original socks have turned up! D'oh! Having spent so long making these for her, though, I'm going to send them anyway. I think she'll love them. They're going in this bag I've made:

It's a simple drawstring bag made from patchwork fabric from my stash, with sunflowers because I've seen them on her blog and I think she likes them, and they're my favourite flower. It's made to the same pattern as this one I made to carry round my sock in progress in my handbag. I hope she finds it useful as well!
Strangely, although I've still not got any socks myself, I've been seized with the desire to make up for everyone's delinquent pals and signed up to rescue another abandoned knitter! This Lorna's Laces wool has been sitting in my stash for a while, now I think it'll be perfect for my new pal. I'm going to try Wendy's Cabletini pattern, just because I like the look of it. I've never done cables, but these look small and simple, so here goes!

I've made this pincusion from my latest craft book: Last-minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

It's a gorgeous book I saw over at Grumperina's. There are lots of lovely projects to make, from very simple to quite challenging.

Rainbow pincushion. I love it. Quite proud of this, actually... quite fiddly, all curved seams, and small pieces. Think I made a good job of it.
When your mother goes into a toy shop to buy a birthday pressie for your one-year-old nephew, she sometimes goes a little strange... and buys you a wind-up walking Shawn the Sheep. Bless. I really don't want to admit to how cool I think this is, I'm supposed to be grown up now!

Believe it or not, today is my one-year Blogiversary, so I suppose it's strangely appropriate. Happy Birthday, blog! The wind-up sheep can be your mascot for the next year.

Looking up... and down.

On the downside, I didn't get the job. I've already bored everyone who knows me by being incredulous that they gave it to a woman who turned up to the interview 45 minutes late, so I won't even mention that here. Ooops. Sorry! But I really think I wouldn't even have bothered to interview her! I mean, I got there 30 mins early! Grrrrrrrr......

Um..... where was I? Oh, yeah! Upside: supply work has started to trickle in. Downside: I'm going to a pupil referral unit next week! For those of you who don't know what that is, you remember those kids that got expelled from school, cause, like, they can't be in class without screaming and biting people? Ever wonder where they all end up? Yeah. Fun! I think I may be going through the following mantra in my head: 'You're being paid for this. Earn money, buy wool. Earn money, buy wool...'

I'm happy because I've just finished the second sock for my rescue sock pal: they're finally done, with colours I'm happy with, and when this one comes off the blocker I can post them and make her happy! I love spreading the socky love... :-D

This is not a sock pal sock. This is a thrummed sock. My first thrumming attempt! And it's warm. Cosy feet! well, foot, actually, as I've got sidetracked as usual and haven't done the second one. It was easier than i expected, though thanks to the monster sized thrums I was using it was pretty hard to turn the heel with all that fluff in the way!Oh and the thing about thrummed socks? The cat thinks the thrums are some sort of small furry animal and keeps biting them when I'm knitting! Odd sock monster from Mars.... Knitted to my generic make-it-up-as-you-go-along heel flap pattern, top down, but I had to go back, cut off the rib and knit back up as it was too loose, in Wendy fusion with thrums made of some merino that I dyed about a year ago and was sitting around doing nothing. There's a lot of that around here!
To join in the thrummy madness, hubby has requested a pair of fingerless gloves with a thrummed mitten flap. They're going quite well...

Much smaller thrums, in white BFL, but as usual I've kind of lost interest for the moment. I'll get back to all the UFOs one day, I promise. It may be when I'm 80, but it will happen.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... cosy.......

Things are looking up...

It's been a fairly depressing time here lately.... The initial excitement that I passed my PGCE was quickly dimmed by the fact that I don't have a job, and despite combing the jobs pages and registering for supply work, I have been getting up each morning to a distinct lack of any work to do. The way supply teaching works seems to be that when a teacher phones in sick, you get a phone call saying 'go to this school NOW and teach these lessons...'. So you have to be up and ready for that call at 7am. You spend the next two hours doing buggerall, messing about on facebook or reading a book, not wanting to start anything in case you have to leap into action. Then at 9 o'clock you accept that the phone hasn't rung and you try and find some purpose in the rest of the day. It's strangely exhausting doing nothing, not having a purpose. I haven't even done a lot of knitting, I just don't seem to be able to settle at anything. I feel guilty knitting or sewing all day, cos I'm not earning money and we're skint, but I can't go out and get a temporary job, as I need to be available to take the teaching work whenever it finally appears. Basically, I've been feeling totally useless and worthless for not having a job, even though there aren't any jobs out there for me to get. Not a happy bunny. Last night, though, I got a call to come for an interview for a maternity post I applied for last week: yay! Although I'm slightly worried about teaching an interview lesson with year 10, particularly a fasttrack yr 10 group who are taking GCSE this year! Ouch! I'm going to have to work hard at this one!
(should I be freaked out by the fact that they called me on a Sunday?... not sure...)

Anyway, knitting! (what little there is of it). The last time you saw the Kauni it looked like this:

...and things have pretty much not changed since. I wanted to get different colour combinations in the sleeves, so I started with red on purple... those who have used the Kauni wool will know that red and purple are next to each other. Ooops. You guessed it! Three pattern repeats later, the purple had become red before the red had become orange and I was suddenly knitting a lovely pattern of squares in red on red. D'oh! So I got cross and threw it into a corner, where it has languisehed for a couple of weeks being used as a kitty bed...
Do you see those claws? I'm not trying to move her!
There has been a knitting struggle between me and the socks I'm knitting for an abandoned Sockapalooza pal (I've been abandoned as well! But I'm holding out hope... I've heard from my sock saviour!) - they are monkeys in Socks that Rock Fire on the Mountain... which is a gorgeous mix of colours in the ball... ...but which seems to want to pool into unattractive vertical stripes of light and very, very dark.
Not. Having. It.

I should mention that this wool had already had one chance as a vanilla stockinette sock with a different stitch count, when the colours striped prettily round the sock until I got to the instep, then this stripe appeared on the top of the foot. All the pretty colours on the bottom. Needless to say, it was frogged. I abandoned this monkey and started another with the other ball: exactly the same happened, just below the heel. I was starting to get quite cross. The heel itself was lovely: just the mix of colours I wanted in the whole sock. Pretty heel! But the socks had to go. Frog, frog, frog, and I once again had two balls of wool and no saviour socks for my pal. Grrrrrr.........
I almost gave up at this point and used a different skein of wool, but these colours will be perfect for my pal if i can just beat them into shape and stop.them.pooling.

Ta dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Two days, and much gritting of teeth later, I have a finished, blocked, beautifully multicoloured sock with no ugly pooling. (some pretty pooling, but that I can live with!)

How?

I followed the manufacturer's instructions.

Well, not actually that manufacturer, but general advice for handpainted or variegated wool that you knit with two skeins and alternate every two rows to mix the colours up. A pain to do, but in this case, well worth every minute.

I'm even motoring down towards the heel of the second sock already! Panic not, O abandoned sock pal! You shall be saved!