L&V Sock Marathon: Sock Hop(ish) RPMs

L&V Sock Marathon: Sock Hop(ish) RPMs, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

These were dead quick. I've mostly only been knitting them while playing Guild Wars...

Pattern: RPMs from Knitty
Yarn: Handspun from Crown Mountain Farms roving - 'It Takes Two Baby'

I was aiming for sock weight but it turned out more of a sport weight (my excuse - my first time spinning merino!) - which actually worked out quite well cos I didn't have to adjust the pattern at all to fit my monster feet. Also my first time using bamboo needles!

Stash!

stash, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Here's my yarn stash incumbent in its new home after the move. Yay!

Boob!

DSCF1019, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Yay!

Lime n Violet socks

I started these several months ago however they were relegated to the bottom of the To Be Knit pile after I messed up the heel. I finally got round to undoing and redoing the heel about a week ago, and finished them off today.

Pattern: My own devising, with minicable stripe down the side.
Yarn: Lisa Souza's Lime n Violet (of course)

I'm counting 220 yards towards my Sock Marathon total, as I think 2/3 of them were knit since Jan 1st... Although this is my second pair of socks finished for the marathon, I suspect my sprint start will quickly be overtaken as I start having to knit entire pairs of socks... :)



Yarn day! Today not only arrived the first installment of the Fyberspates sock club (my first alpaca! Lush) but my long overdue Christmas present, 2.5kg of soysilk sock weight yarn.

My brain can't even begin to calculate the yardage on this lot. Maybe later :P

Starr's scarf

Starr's scarf, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Crazy crochet scarf. Why yes, I am trying to use up novelty yarn.

This thing turned out in excess of 7 feet long. Terrifying.

Caps to the Capital

littlehats01, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Little hats for the Save the Children Caps to the Capital appeal (now closed).

Miss Shine's Sock Yarn Stash

Miss Shine's Sock Yarn Stash, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

My starting picture for the Lime & Violet sock marathon - a comparatively meagre 4.36 miles in total.

But I'm still waiting for my Christmas sock yarn (hmph) and my first sock club package from Fyberspates...

Jaywalkers in Lisa Souza Little Devil

Jaywalkers in Lisa Souza Little Devil, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Finished on New Years Day! Made as per the pattern, but with 1x1 ribbing instead of 2x2 (it's still a bit loose). Otherwise I love this yarn and pattern :)

Christmas knitting...

...is done and suitably appreciated.

My lot:


Chaos machine knit scarf, with random stripes decided on by rolling a couple of D6. This was a bit of a test project really, but Tim asked if he could have it.


My grandma (who is 85 next week!) modelling the Shelly scarf from CrochetMe. She's been wearing it ever since...


My mum, another happy Fetching recipient.


Christmas gnome from Simply Knitting, for my dad. This took ages, even though I substantially altered the pattern to do most of it in the round. Made from some of the Mountain of Handspun, some of which I dyed. This little guy looks a lot more disreputable than the picture in the pattern, he reminds me of a pirate gnome, whatever that is.


Ubiquitous curly scarf, for my BCUK Secret Father Christmas partner.

I've just realised that's two FOs in a row that include fun fur. I'll lose my membership to the Snobby Knitters Club at this rate :D

Tim's lot:

Yet another curly scarf for Tim's mum.


Sweetpea shawl from the Happy Hooker for Tim's grandma. She really liked this, Tim and his mum went to see her at the nursing home the next day and she was still wearing it :D




Crochet scarf for Jess, Tim's sister, made from recycled sari silk. She seemed to really like this too, she wore it all Christmas day :D


Tychus hat for Tim's little bro, Tom. Modelled here by Tim.

Phew! Glad that's over.

Now all I have on the needles is the pair of Little Devil Jaywalkers (which are nearly finished with all the travelling we did in the last few days) and the L&V socks (which need the heels ripping out and redoing, cos I'm a spatchcock*).

*new word discovered over Christmas

Giftmas knitting,...

Made great progress, only the curly scarf left to be done.

Sweetpea shawl is blocking and has gone HUGE. I hope it doesn't eat granny.

End in sight

My holiday knitting is (shhhh) nearly finished...

I have left -
about half a row on a curly crochet scarf
A couple more inches on Shelly from CrochetMe .
About eight more rows and the thumbs on a pair of Fetching
The fringe, wash & block Sweet Pea shawl from the Happy Hooker

and I have given up on
Anything for Tim's step-dad. The only clue Tim gave me for what he might like is a beret, and while I am sure my skills are up to the job, I will not knit a grown man a beret.
Ravenclaw scarf for Tim's brainy bro. Although not as daunting a task as this one sounds (as I'll be machine knitting), the wool I bought on Ebay, while very nice, turned out to be just too light and girly a shade of blue. So I'm going to have a go at overdying it, but no way is that going to happen before Christmas.

So the end is in sight! And then I can knit socks, nothing but socks forever! Mwahahaha!

Sad story about frogging!

Here's a sad story about frogging, but don't worry, it has a happy ending.

Here is a pair of Purl When Ready 2x2 ribbed socks, toe-up, short row heel, complete to the ankle. They are made from Lisa Souza's Little Devil Sock! yarn, which is fabulous, and stripes beautifully.

They were languishing in my knitting bag because, despite being nearly finished, I wasn't happy with the texture, they were kinda lumpy.


So after putting off the inevitable for a month or so, I finally frogged this weekend...




... and cast on some Jaywalkers, cuff down, as Great Cthulhu intended. I love the way this is striping, these are going to be some seriously eye-catching socks. Yay!

Spinning pron!

I had great fun spinning the 'Gemstones' roving from The Flying Ewe's Etsy shop! I'm definately getting the hang of pre-drafting now, and I'm getting a bit more consistent. I plied some of it with itself and some of it with some grey long staple fluffy wool that came with my spinning wheel. I haven't decided what to make with it yet though...

Penguin!

First of all, here's a crochet penguin I made for Adam's birthday.

I seriously made this in about an hour and a half, having the bright idea of making him a gift a few hours before his birthday party!

I used the free pattern here. He is apparently safely sitting atop Ad's Christmas tree.

Squid!

And here's some pressies I made for my friend Angyl and his mum's birthday:


Pink fluffy squid, by request. Pattern here, but I crocheted most of the tentacles instead of knitting them, due to lack of time.


Yet another curly crochet scarf, with a great big purple goth flower :)

Fetching!

OK, now I see why everyone likes this pattern so much :)



My first proper cabled project (I've been doing mini-cables on my L&V sock). The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino is lush.


... and I only had to redo the picot bind off three times :) I've got another ball of dark green so I'm going to make a pair for my mum for Yule.

Hello!

This is a diversion of my infrequently updated real life journal at http://perditaxknit.livejournal.com . There's a couple of reasons why I decided to start a dedicated craft journal - all the cool kids seem to use blogspot and I don't want to feel guilty about inflicting mahoosive pictures or really over-excited squeeing about yarn on my Friends list. Too much.

I did consider transferring previous posts from my LJ over here, but have come to the conclusion that this would be an unnecessary and Herculean task when one could be fashioning string out of sheep, and string into stuff.

As people probably know, I'm currently out of work and have no money at all. This is why it is Very Very Bad that I have just bought this roving -


The pretty colours made me do it.