Finished !

Yes, two more socks done and blocked and put away awaiting a new owner. Salto is finished, the birthday girl is now 6 and continuing to annoy her big brother to bits, and I've finally made a start on my 2nd twined mitten. Today was a public holiday in New Zealand, Queens birthday weekend. Two interesting facts, its not her birthday, but apparently her fathers (or grandmothers - I forget exactly which), and they don't have that holiday in England - odd. no?


So Salto socks, all done, now these are a very pretty sock and while needing a certain amount of attention whilst knitting to get the cables all equally spaced, the socks themselves are actually quite straightforward. One warning - the sock pattern is for a quite small foot, and the numerous cables 'eat' yarn. Because of this, and my stubborn-ness in accidentally knitting the very frugal 1"rib at the top of the sock a generous 0.5" to long, I ran out of yarn, and I refused to frog. With hand dyed yarn this causes problems. So there was some juggling and some helping out and some fudging and even a little frogging around to get these two beauties to match perfectly at the toe. So because they are done, and turned out better than OK, nearly perfect in every way at the end, you get two celebratory photos of my finished Saltos. And no - they are not for me .... its a mystery who's foot they will grace in a month or twos time.

Sock Stats:
Started March 20th 2008,
Finished May 29th May 2008.
Needles dpns, 2.25mm,
Yarn = Sock by Vintage Purls, St Clements (plus a extra grams of a special blend -thanks :-D).


Now with Salto finished, I've dug back into the UFO pile and so I've been twining away again, working the 2nd of the twined mittens. The days draw in, the nights are colder and we have had at least one icy frost. I have mittens, but there is something about 'new' mittens. The second time around - I'm discovering that I didn't note down all the details as I knit the first, but since I have it here, I can work out what to do, and I'm amending the pattern, with a view to posting it here.

and news, I'm all exited, I'm off to the nearest bigger smoke at the end of July, a girls spin trip. Three of us, to an Anne Feild workshop "refine your spinning". We have our places confirmed, our accommodation booked, and our flights all organised. All I need to do is find a suitcase or box my smallest wheel fits into - and I'm good to go. they will lend us wheels, but .... once you have your own wheel tweaked, and running perfect, and the thought of a spare unloved guild wheel .... is not enticing. I've also got another knitting based road trip coming up early July - for which plans are falling into place. More about that at the time. And a conference in August - I am going to have to give Bear a bit of child free time, once all my tripping around New Zealand is done.

Take care - Stell

pssst I did start a new project today. For Pops, in Pink, but with night falling at 5pm, you will have to wait a few days before I can make a photo to show you.