Finished 1.
Soctober 09 - all done, both socks, two at once, and it was fun. Slightly unnerving casting on and knitting just by instructions without a photo or image or drawing as a guide. I will knit these again - they are pretty, and I do like the neat little zig-zag lace between the cuff ribbing and the leg patterning. I'm also pleased with the yarn I choose -- there were lots of photos posted of Soctober progress on Ravelry and while all were nice .. I wasn't so keen on the socks that were knit in stripy yarn .. it hid the lovely lace. Details - Vintage Purls Sock Yarn (Tamhi from the last sock kit), 2.25mm needles, knit size 64 stitches, cast on 6th October and cast off 30th October 2009. A frugal sock 32g of the 100g skein left over - but I would knit another repeat of the leg pattern (or two) next time .. and yes there will be a next time.
Finished 2.
I seemed to be on a sock-roll or fest this month - perhaps there really is a Socktober. I was fired up and keen and ready to knit each clue for Soctober as it was released and when I had knit all each clue contained I would turn to my 'other' sock, Frankensock and knit that. End result is that Frankensock was finished only one day latter .. Saturday. Details - Started 16th September, finsihed 30th October, Vintage Purls Sock in Bears Bunker (I adore this colour - it is like licorique), 2.25mm needles, knit size XL (ok - either I have big feet or SA has a weird sizing system), left over yarn = 23g and again next time I would add a pattern repeat to the leg section just to make it a little longer. The first sock was hard going .. but the second sock just flew off the needles .. quickly and easily with none of the stress of getting the right stitches on the right needles to knit the next section or tracking the right size. I did garter graft the toes .. so worked an additional half round to finish with the sole knit and the instep stitches purled before grafting the toe closed.
Once the ends were woven in - Frankensock looked fairly ordinary .. and I was in two minds about adding the decorative scar-stitching or not. Bear like them as they were, he admired them .. so I knew I had to add the stitching to make them mine .. else I'd be tempted to gift them to him.
Green or Orange? Those were my stitching choices, I went for orange, which seemed a little Halloween-ish but was more of a contrast than the lime green I had. I added the scar stitching whilst the socks were on the blockers ... and I like it. I'm not sure what shoes these will go with .. or where I will wear them other than deep within my various pairs of knee high boots .. but I do like them.
Finished 3. is batch of Orange Romey from Tally Ho that I hackled. I've not measured the skeins either for wpi or wight or length yet .. but there just might be enough for a sweater for Poppy. Or several hats for Grandad. Hackling the fiber made the spinning fairly easy - it removed all the tangled bits and a lot of the vm .. and left smooth straight long fibers which were easy to spin. I am thinking a top down raglan with long sleeves and the body as long as the yarn lasts, so it could be a cropped sweater. I started with 500 g but hackling leaves a lot of scrapy waste .. so I've no idea what weight of fibre I actaully spun.
Finished 4 is a wee 3 ply skein of Alpaca Cria (thanks Jenni), 85g and 144m. I divvied it up into 333g piles to spin 3 singles .. but some where I spun one ply much thinner, so had 15 g left on that bobbin when the other two bobbins were empty .. one day my spinning will be consistent, one day. I plied this and skeined and set it .. but it looked like string, and the skein twisted a little, so I ran it thru the wheel again to add a bit more twist and skeined it up a second time, and set it in hot water before dunking/shocking the skein several times between ice cold water and hot water. With all the handling of being skeined and plied twice, and the shocking - the alpaca has bloomed beautifully. I've not had much success with Alpaca before, its all looked pretty much like string unless blended with something with bounce .. but have read about the hot/cold shock treatment. It worked so will be my treatment of chocie next time get that same nice bloom.
Lastly there is the photo evidence of cubs school disco. Poppy went as Wendesday from the Adams Family and Toby as Indiana Jones (not an axe wielding maniac). Bear had decided to dress up this year .. and as a Punk. So with some minor clothing modifications (adding a Union Jack in the shape of a bottle cap to a white tee shirt) and some styling (turned up jeans, big boots, chains) he was nearly ready.
but there was
a few last things .. Bear wanted me to add a tattoo to his recently shorn head - A for Anarchy (eye liner pencil in black - the chemist didn't have tattoo green).
and a tat to his arm (I couldn't resist the 80's style z ..)
He won a box of chocolates for his trouble - and was the talk of the playground the next day when I collected the cubs.
Take care na Stella
3 comments:
Is it really fair to knit socks in "Bear's Bunker" and then determine that they are not for Bear?! :)
see, you are a prolific finisher! ;-)
You've done well! I wish I was ss good at finishing but starting is so much more exciting.
Both pairs of socks looked great! I must get my plain pair finished so that I can get the Socktober ones done.
Your orange romney is really nice - hackling was a really good idea and gave such good results. So much better than struggling with a sub-par preparation. The alpaca looks lovely, too. Good on your for finding a way to get the results you wanted!
I loved the costumes but where was the safety pin through Bear's nose?
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