Could you be... the most beautiful sock in the world?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I give you this.

I'm in love.

This is, without a doubt, the most stunningly beautiful and surprising sock yarn I have ever knit with in my life, and it's so addictive that I already have half a sock done, having brought this home yesterday at 6pm. I love the way the stripes fade beautifully into each other and have such variegation in themselves - the colours are so rich and saturated the whole thing seems to glow! I really don't even want to tell you what this is, because then you'll buy it and there will be less of it in the world for me... but I do believe in promoting skilled artists who produce quality products, so I'll have to whisper that this is Fyberspates self-striping BFL sock yarn, which looks quite unlike a striping yarn in the skein, but knits up to these gorgeous deep fading stripes. This is 'funfair', and for a 100g skein (it actually weighed in at 108g), it has supreme yardage. I think that this would actually make a pair of nearly-knee-high socks, even on my large feet and very chunky calves. These ones won't be knee-high, because I didn't realise how much yarn I had until I had knit enough to not want to unravel it, and as I said, chunky calves, so no way is this going to fit higher up my leg. Never mind, this time around there will be stunning socks and (happy accident of inspiration whilst I had the stitches on thread to try it on and decide how high up my leg the existing section could go), matching mitts! These will definitely cheer up a dreary British winter.
The yarn feels quite firm and tightly-spun, but is knitting up to a lovely smooth and soft-feeling fabric that I am sure will be comfy and hardwearing. And the best bit of all? Machine-washable! Machine washable 100% BFL in these colours? there is definitely more of this yarn in my future. Jen, you're a genius!

My star quilt patch is nearly done, just needs another border of blue to complete the cushion front, then I will quilt it slightly on some cotton batting before making it up into a cushion. Not today, though! Today we will be emptying this: My craft room, from 2 different angles. Trust me, there is a lot more you can't see. This room is FULL. And next week, it's being recarpeted... so we have to empty it. Along with all the other upstairs rooms... so most of this has to go into the loft. This will be a big job. Still, it'll give me a chance to redecorate and to decide how I want the room to be in the future: this arrangement just sort of evolved and it's very cluttered. I'm sure we can do better if we plan it all out carefully. I'm going to try to set up the computer downstairs for now, but service may be patchy for the next week or two! Meanwhile, I will be knitting the most beautiful socks in every spare moment!

Oooops...

...there may have been naughtiness. I met a friend or two for lunch and there may even have been a trip to a wool shop first...
...but this was it. Total purchases: 3 skeins (2 of the miski baby llama) and a bottle of woolly wash. Total cost: £30. For me, this is huge progress. Getting out of Get Knitted with only one bag? And enough cash left to pay the mortgage? This is new to me! It wasn't that bad a slip... was it?
Oh, and all photos must now be taken on plain white background, not my French homework. Unless I want Mlle. Wilson to mark it for me, it seems...
(Apparently it was all correct).

Alas, poor Nugget... I know her, Attila...

(apologies to the bard for the mangled quotation). There have been some strange animaly goings-on today chez knittingsheep:
Willow decided to go all clingy and use me as a climbing frame...
...and cute as she is, it's hard to get anything done like this.
Or even like this! I headed outside to escape and get some posed pics of my new ribbed neckwarmer/cowl to show you...
...only to discover that Nugget is bored of being a chicken and would really like to be a hawk instead, she thinks they have more fun. I did point out that hawks rarely get bought sweetcorn to eat, and have to find all their own food... she's going to think about it. She does like corn...
Back to the cowl. It's lovely and cosy, as I said the other day, and the rib is so nice and stretchy that it doesn't matter if I wear it over a polo neck (as here) or on a bare neck, no draughts can get in - and yet it doesn't feel tight at all, no throttling going on here. It is in fact big enough to get over a hairdo without messing it up - not that I ever have one!
And as you can see here, it's wide enough at the base to tuck into a coat or jacket securely. No draughts at this end either!
I quite like the hint of Elizabethan ruff that comes from the very tall neck, but it would need extra stiffening if you wanted to wear it the other way for fancy dress...

Quite fetching, don't you agree? Rather suits me...
In other news, there have been rare sightings of a blue stripey thing that could be the cuff of a knee-high sock...
...and a patchwork star which is destined to be a cushion f0r the spare room. It's annoyingly fiddly, but turning out well so far. working out the pattern pieces was was a whole other story...

wooly silky goodness

All knitting round here seems to be in 50/50 wool/silk at the moment...
This hat for the SIL is done: it's a replacement hat, an exact copy of one knit a couple of years ago, which normally might annoy me to re-knit exactly the same, but this time I was very happy to. The original got lost on a ski slope (artificial), and she seemed to be genuinely sad: a request for a replacement hat seems like a very good indication that the first one was a favourite to me. It's always nice to know that handknits are appreciated, and not just something your loved ones have to tolerate from the mad knitter (best not upset her, she has pointy sticks...)! It's in Lorna's Laces Lamb and Lion, can't remember the colour name. This was going to be my new handbag knitting. I think I may have to find some more. I finished the hat sooner than I thought and Sunday was wetter than expected, so there was more knitting. Now there's this:
I'll post a better, modelled pic tomorrow. I feel too scruffy to model it now. It's lovely and cosy, just to tuck into a coat to keep my neck warm in the car on chilly mornings, when you need a warm neck while you're outside but not a whole extra layer once you've got indoors. It's squishy and cosy with just a hint of elizabethan ruff, but in a good way. This one is in Manos del Uruguay silk/wool mix, again no idea what the colour name was. I think I might write up the pattern to go on ravelry... I quite fancy being a designer. Anyone fancy test-knitting?

What to do, what to do...

Ok, so the list of 6 UFOs is finished. What? Where's the picture of the finished dreads hat? Well, I haven't finished sewing on the dreads yet, but all the knitting is done, so it's no longer a knitting WIP. No, it's not! It's a sewing WIP. And I can't decide if I like the dreads... maybe I'll post pics tomorrow and solicit other opinions. I should really ask the brother... anyway, I'm out of things to knit. Well, not really.... I had a little look in the stash that is slowly being put back in its niches, post-freezer. There are a couple more UFOs there...
Another pair of Monkeys, in Lorna's Laces shepherd sock - I snapped a needle knitting these on a school trip to germany, so had to abandon them... that was 3 months ago. I have other needles this size. I'm just not using them...

A lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today, started in some Malabrigo laceweight, never made it past the first inch. Not sure why, maybe I wasn't in a lace mood.

One sock with chickens on, plus the alpaca and handspun to make the second: this one's been waiting a while! Try 2 years....

Again, at least a year ago I started another FCSS... never got far, though, this rowan tweed yarn was far too stiff on 3.25 mm needles, no drape at all. Needs frogging and repurposing, but as what?

One thrummed sock and the second ball of wool (which I found knit up as half a Baby Surprise Jacket... I'm odd sometimes).

A glove and three-quarters, in some of my first ever handspun... don't know where the last bit of yarn is to finish these! If I ever spun enough to start with...

A glove, started on a train in Germany when I lived out there 5 years ago. Never finished: the little finger is too tight and needs frogging.

My Cleite shawl, started a few months ago. I think I made a few mistakes on the last row and wasn't brave enough to try and fix them... so it was abandoned. A neckwarmer in Manos del Uruguay wool/silk in 2x2 rib. this will now be my handbag knitting. Mindless, no pattern needed, just keep at it till you're sick of it then do a load more! I hate ribbing. But it works well! Last night I cast on the SIL's hat I need to make for a xmas prezzie (this was a named exception in the rules, anyway) and by lunchtime I had a few inches done...By this evening it's nearly ready for some decreases. Don't you just love fast-gratification knitting? Especially after a long project!

So why is it, with all of these WIPs to choose from (and the rest I couldn't be bothered to take pics of), why is it, I ask you, that all I can think about is making some knee-high socks?

I've even hunted through the stash and found some yarn that needs using up that might work. Blue stripey knee-highs. I'd like that...

Posing in the sunshine...

...with my beautiful finished shawl. It turned out just as I had hoped: wide enough to stretch out to the tips of my fingers, delicate and light but not flyaway thanks to the hundreds of tiny glass beads that were such a pain to knit in. They were worth it. They give the whole shawl just a slight shimmer in the light, exactly what I was aiming for. It's rare that you get to complete something that turns out so perfectly in accord with what you had imagined. I love it.

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence. Yarn: Mama Ocllo Alpaca laceweight in Peacock Heathers, from Knitncaboodle, purchased at the Knitting and Stitching Show at the NEC, 13th september 2008. (Start to finish in six weeks. Wow! Can't believe it!) 2 skeins (9g left). Pattern mods: I made the shawl larger by knitting lots more repeats - 26 repeats of chart 2, 27 repeats of the leaf motif in total. I also added small clear glass beads at the end of each leaf motif on row 2 of the repeat, the plain knit row, and on each knit row of the edging chart on the points.
Here it is in the garden: compare this with the same shot of the first FCSS shawl I made, in August 2007. This one is quite a bit bigger, and much finer yarn, so there are millions more stitches in this one! Some details:

... and the point...

And that's not all! I had to have something to knit last night while it was blocking, didn't I? That got the second of these monkeys to the toe, and I finished it up and grafted it this morning! I also had to fix two moth-created holes in the first sock: one at the end of the toe by unravelling and reknitting 4 rows, and the other, on the gusset decreases, by darning it with duplicate stitch as neatly as possible. I made quite a good job of it, actually. And now they're blocking...
Is anyone keeping count? That's five of my 6 UFOs from my list! Plus it's all 4 of the pairs of socks I wanted to finish in Socktoberfest! Overachiever, me! Sadly it may be down to not having enough work, but even if we can't afford to eat this winter, we'll have warm feet.

Maybe I'll just have to grow some feathers... these guys never seem to feel the cold! You can see them looking confused as I dance around in my new shawl though. Humans are odd creatures...

The wonder of lace...

This morning, I got up and got ready for work, then sat about waiting for the phone to ring (Supply teacher: I do a lot of this at the moment). Then, as it didn't ring, I began to knit. And knit. And knit. An hour later, I was ten stitches away from the end of the last row and about to begin casting off my gorgeous shawl, when the phone rang. Typical. I had to go to work, and wait to finish my gorgeous shawl. And now, this evening, after that cast-off row that took a whole hour to complete, it is done. Finito.
Heap. At this stage, it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. And then it went for a little dip, and got pinned to death. On three bath towels. This thing is big.

Best shot I could get in my small room, and I had to stand on a box to get this! Remember how I was aiming for about 6'6" (78") to match my wingspan? Blocked, it is 80" wide. It will probably relax a lttle when I unpin it. I feel so smug right now. And I didn't run out of yarn! There's 9g left. I could maybe have done another repeat, but I'd have had a heart attack with worry and this thing is already huge!

Modelled shots tomorrow, hopefully. Gratuitous chicken pic:

A moment of sanity

... at 10.30 last night, I accepted that I was not going to finish the FCSS. With one row and the cast-off still to go, there's probably still at least a couple of hours of knitting left in this thing, and sleep was more important. Now I'm awake, and ready for the final big push! Blocking pics later!

Will it or won't it?

The FCSS has been having an anxious time of it lately... it's not so portable, so it's had to see several pairs of socks finished whilst it languishes in the lace wilderness of huge-shapeless-lumpy-wool stage, waiting to be finished so that it can have its glorious blocking moment... Plus, I've been a bit unsure about how many repeats I can get out of the yarn. I bought two 50g skeins (no idea how many metres, bought this at a show and don't think it was labelled), and thought it looked like endless miles of laceweight, especially when I was winding it into balls! Slowly slowly it has been knitted up into this large bluish blob, scattered with beads, but just in the last third I've been worrying about how much I've got left, and if I'll be able to do the whole 27 repeats I planned, plus the edging... I've been weighing the ball obsessively after each row, but my head just won't do the maths, as each row gets a little longer than the last one! However, the 26th repeat took 7g, and two rows into the 27th I've still got 22g left, so fingers crossed I'll be ok. The maths look like it would have to work, but I know that in knitting weird and terrible things can happen to eat up yarn if you're close to the end! Send me good knitting karma, please!
A little while ago, I showed some freakishly neat pics of the stash, post-freezer. Just so you don't get the mistaken impression that I'm a tidy person, this is what it looks like now, and probably for evermore... mess! Some of the stash that's been in the freezer (in bags) hasn't been unpacked yet, there's yarn on the floor, on the worktop, everywhere. There's a basic level of organisation (neat bookshelf, plastic boxes, drawers) then a (fairly thick) veneer of mess over the top. This is the state it seems to revert to, no matter what I do, so I've given up trying to force it. And there's someone who loves it...
She's in the top drawer you can see in the above photo, tucked up under the worktop, and no, I didn't put her there, she climbs up the front of the wire drawers and toothpastes over the top. A lot of the time I don't even know she's there until I try to get some wool out! I measured the gap at the top: it's 3 and 1/8". Now that's a skinny cat!

Now, about those finished socks....

The endless blue and yellow socks were done at last. All I had to do was graft the toe, and present them to a grateful and adoring husband. All those hours of knitting size 11 socks on 2mm needles in dark blue yarn (with yellow heels and toes to stop me going completely nuts) had finally paid off - this was the moment of gratification!

Oh. How did that happen? I always shape toes the same way - always - I do a wedge toe, ssk and k2tog 1 stitch in from the end of each needle every other row. Apparently this time I hadn't. And I can't work out what I did do on that first toe. Now that I look at this photo closely, I can see a kink in the toe on the rght hand side , like there was a change in the rate of decrease there, but I couldn't see that in person. Oh, no. Do I have to rip out the toe and knit it again? Worse still, if I couldn't work out what I'd done the first time, would I have to frog the first toe and re-knit? Then I wouldn't even have one completed sock! I sat wracked with my deadly serious knitting dilemma... to frog or not to frog... that is the question.
Happily I have a sensible husband who made me see that knitting stretches, and warm feet are forgiving feet. You can't tell, can you? You can't if he wiggles his toes, anyway! Willow did finally let me have these back, and the second sock now has a heel and its gusset decreases done - it's officially more than halfway there. This one should be done by the middle of the week, if I get a decent amount of work this week. There was a penalty for retrieving the sock, though:
I had to have cold feet, as Willow nabbed my JJJ socks to lie on instead. I thought about making her a knitted blanket to lie on for xmas, but it wouldn't work, since the thing she really likes best to lie on is whatever I'm currently trying to knit or wear. Not interested in the ones you're not using...
I had a busy friday: all of this is extra dreads for the hat. I also decided I don't like the blue fleece and went to get some black. I'll work on assembly later in the week.

The FCSS is also slogging along, though it's still in the unblogworthy, big crumpled heap stage of lace knitting. I've now knitted 24 repeats - I have to decide soon if I have enough yarn left for three more repeats (as planned), plus the 8-row edging. I currently have 36 grams left. I'll weigh again after this next repeat and see what I think.

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, but my list of 6 UFOs is looking good - 3 done, and three looking like they're nearing completion! Soon I'll be done and free to cast on another million things! No, wait - There are many many many more WIPs in the stash!

What's that? Surely... not socks?

Another pair done... 3 UFOs crossed off the list, 3 to go!
That's if I can get the next one back from Willow.....