Fishing ...

Whilst I was away knitting with the friendly knitters of Greytown, I observed their current passion, sock yarn blankets. Mostly these were being knit modular, in Domino square style .. but James has his own variation. I do have my own sock yarn blanket pushed to the background and this week I pulled it out and made some progress, I also finished the socks, a record I think for me, 10 days from go to woa. I was hoping to work them in a week .. but I had to return to work and that got in the way of my knitting time.


Since I have been back I've been finishing the socks for bear the MIUAIK socks (code for Making It Up As I Knit), I wondered if I could knit them in one week, but no .. they took until Friday, so from Wednesday to the Friday after the following Wednesday - I was back at work so didn't have the luxury of knitting during work hours. I'm pleased with them, and I like the effect of the rib around the ankle. I do have one more sock yarn blank to dye up and hope that I manage to make it a more feminine colourway. I was asked for a pattern .. and I'll work on that, it really only needs the chart and a few instructions for the toe, heel, and how to resolve the banjo cable into the cuff so shouldn't take long.

When I pulled out my fish blanket and laid out all the fish I had waiting, I had enough sock yarn fish to add a boarder right around the blanket. To at least try and make it look organized and not random .. I laid all the fish out around the blanket and re-positioned and re-arranged until I had a pleasing order, or perhaps the least garish order.

Then I stacked the fish in order to be sewn, and lined them up ready to sew. Now it is hard to stack knitted fish, the stack is precarious and needs to be horizontal .. and I realized that one small bump and all my careful planning might go awry.

I also noticed that each fish had two yarn ends that were needed to sew it into the blanket but that also had to be woven in. This is probably the point when I should set this blanket aside and finish it with a boarder and say it is for a small newborn baby and start a new one that is modular and avoids the yarn ends and sewing. But I like my fish and I like the effect of the blanket and I'm more than ready to sit down and sew them together once or twice a year.

I did try and organize the 'workflow' so that my fish pile was not at risk of tumbling. I used one of those long stitch holder pins that is like an over-sized safety pin, and was able to release the fish one at a time.

Now I have only a small pile of left over fish remaining, I've stitched in 53 more fish, (well I have 5 left to stitch but they will be stitched by end of day), so will need to knit more, many more to add. I do have a small collection of left over sock yarn to use .. and I like the idea of putting the left overs to use. I noticed that my sock yarn taste has changed, from the first socks in Opal and stripes to more semi solid and darker colours. I've decided to keep adding fish as a border around the blanket .. that way as the blanket grows it will represent my sock knitting history and illustrate my changing sock yarn palette.

The other bit of knit-news during the week was the latest sock club from Vintage Purls, installment one arrived. I've not photographed it yet but its pretty, and has beads (not too many), and comes with chocolate and knitting post it note. I'm fighting the temptation to cast on now ..... my interest has waned in the mystery Ravelry January Sock ... following 5 charts of unequal length isn't very relaxing. I'm also stalled on the Green sweater, I should re-swatch to try and get recommended gauge ... but I've not yet and until I do ... well its stalled.

not a very exciting post - perhaps I'll have a new project for the next post?
or at least a swatch
Stella