Wash day in a hand knit world

looks like this ... or at least it does in our household. Fifteen (15) pairs of hand knit socks. I do have to say the sock drawers were a little empty today, I'm wearing 'shop bought socks'. Bear told me to 'look at the line - there is a blog photo there', and he was right. Today I've got the KSG (Knitters Study Group) class report (slip and mosaic stitches), a thrice knit hat stalled, a finished object - my Nostepinne (yes really), and my Dads replacement hat really wasn't finished last week when I blogged it but it is now, I added a cuff to keep him extra warm.

Saturday was the Knitters Study Group (KSG) class on Slip stitches and Mosaic knitting. Colour and texture work with only one color worked per row .. but rows are often knitted several times with different yarns. Most of the Mosaic work instructions I have are for things knit flat .. and I don't do flat for colour work, so I worked my sample in the round. My most interesting yarns are sock yarns .. so I picked a variegated yarn and a couple of plainer yarns and had a play. My sample is the wee tube with the white background. There are some sections where I purled instead of knit ... or visa-versa as I forgot the instructions were for knitting flat. Going out to knit necessitates a sort of the knitting basket, moving the essentials and the current knitting project into a knitting bag or basket. I do this at least once a week for Thursday night knitting, but sometimes twice for KSG or workshops. Recently the little ball of hand spun hackle blended self striping yarn has been surfacing .. and I've been avoiding it.With only 60m of sport weight yarn I was unsure what was my best option. At Thursday night knitting I started a pair of wristers, 2 at a time, from both ends of the ball. Except the yarn was uneven, something I'm putting that down to the unknown and varied fibers in each colour section, so uneven that the wristers ended up completely different sizes. Back home I wondered about a hat, and so tried one. I cast on 16 stitches and started right in with 2x2 rib, working increases in each purl section every round until I could add in more knit ribs. Its hard to knit to fit without a gauge swatch, so I had to rip back half my work once I discovered it would be to big and knit it again. I'll use the tail to draw in the top hole and close it. For now I've run out of yarn .. so its on hold till I find, dye, buy, and or spin something of a similar weight and suitable colour to complete it.

My first finished object this week is my turned Nostepinne. All done and out of the lathe. Now its not the best turned woodwork ever .. probably on a par with beginner anything. But I'm proud of it. I really need to find me some wood turning chisels .. but for now I can start another piece and start to improve. The Nostepinne is in Rimu a fine grained reddish wood ideal for wood turning, and the walnuts are a gift from my dad. They were fresh from gathering so we washed them to remove the last of the blackened outer husk and now they are drying on the front porch in the sun.

The Robust Romney hat - aka Hat for a boyfriend / father /etc ... was done. At least I thought it was done, but it was single layer, and Dad works outside or in his unheated garage a lot. I had yarn left over so decided to pick up along the cast on edge and add a turn back cuff. I kept it in matching rib, and the pick up resulted in a neat turning line and let me knit until I had only enough yarn to cast off. Poppy offered to model .. but as you can see, she has a smaller head than her Grandad.

My Soctober sock grows, clue II arrived Friday morning, and by Friday night I had it all knit. I'm a little confused by the patterning. Odd how comforting and useful a photo or schematic is to a confused knitter and reassuring them what they have knit looks the same as it should. And odd how disconcerting it is when one can't see what it should look like. Now I had a search for progress photos on Ravelry and I see mine is out of sync with one other. Bother! I had my round set up exactly as the pattern directed and used the charts, but people are human, and erata happen. Easily fixed, and I will fix it. I've also cast on for the second sock ... as the clues are in such small sections that it seems silly not to knit two at once.

So I'm off to knit Soctober sock II, clues one and two.
Take care
na Stella