Blue sky baby

is the name of the sock in the sock kit in the first mailing of this summers Vintage Purls Sock Club, and it is pretty, so today I'm no longer embargoed and can tell you about the kit, I've completed the body of Owls, and started the first sleeve, which reminds me to provide a link to the cast on that I've used, and I may have found eyes for my Owls, I think, maybe ... maybe not.

Blue sky baby is a very pretty sock, she has a french toe, where the increases are in 3 points, and then a stitch pattern taken from a vintage pattern. I've wound my skein of hand dyed 75% superwash merino 25% Nylon into two 50g center pull balls and made a start. All Vintage Purls socks are toe up, and while she has presented this sock as a bobby sock, that is a short ankle length summer sock, there is enough yarn to knit a longer sock. Honestly I can't decide which version I'll knit, they are both pretty and I'm a sucker for cool blue colourways.


And the secret extra this time (there is always a secret extra right?), is the custom bag! Hand crafted, hand printed, and lined and a nice size for stashing the sock between knitting sessions. Now I have a confession - I was one of the bag ladies, the locals who were part of the team that spent a day cutting and seaming and pressing the bags ... but some how it was all different when I got my kit and the bag was all printed, with two colours and mine to keep, not to hand over for finishing and printing. Plus she kept the sock design and colour way very very secrete, despite having all us bag laddies all over her house as we manufactured the bags.

Blue Sky baby has been distracting me from Owls, but I've managed to complete the body to length and had no more frogging ...fingers crossed. I'm pleased with the shaping, I worked it quicker(fewer rows between decreases) from hem to waist than from waist to bust(more rows between increases), and replaced the last shaping round with two additional shaping rounds where I only increased under the bust. In theory it should be me shaped when done.


So I've set the body aside for now and started the first sleeve, I used the same cast on as for the body. The double start cast on groups the stitches in pairs so seems a good match for a 2x2 rib. Now I just have to decide how much longer the sleeve rib is than the body rib ... I assume it should be longer, but can't explain why.


Today at work I bought 64 buttons, these were spares one of the staff who has shut up her design studio was selling off stock, she had an advt on the notice board. I got them at wholesale rates, 15c each, which makes me pretty happy. They are olive green and semi translucent, and seemed a good match.

That was until I got them home and fitted them to my swatch Owl .... these may be a tad big. Its not easy finding smaller than 10mm buttons around here, so I might just play with sizing up the Owls. they are made using a 2 stitch cable, but if I use a 3 stitch cable ... they will be bigger right? I'll let you know how that goes ... or maybe my Owls just have large eyes? Thanks to my co-Owl knitter on Ravelry, Magpie, I do have other options, and I've been remiss and not trolled thru my own button stash ... I should do that now ...


so take care, while I troll my button stash ....
na Stella