FO: Hermoine's Everyday Socks

Hermoine's Everyday Socks

Just finished! It's a charming sock pattern but oh my goodness is it boring to knit! That second sock languished on the needles for ages until I buckled down and got it done. And really, I'll confess, only because I wanted those needles to start something else.

The yarn is Regia in a Lollipop colourway. I'm not sure how I feel about it. What I have found is that some people love it and some people hate it. I worried that the pops of colour would distract from the pattern but after a few inches I knew it'd be okay. One thing I do know is that Regia wears like iron, so that's in its favour.

What's next? After reading Dee's blog post today, I think it'll be a dishcloth. This dishcloth. I love the way Dee's yarn has striped up so I think I'll make mine a stash-busting striped version to wind up with something similar. I know, I know, yesterday I said no more dishcloths for a while, but today's another day.

Dishcloth daze

A set of three dishcloths, actually. The pattern is Double Bumps, which looks to me to be a variation of tile stitch. Very nice, I think. Although I like my very stripey version, I wouldn't recommend it ... unless you like sewing in ends. But it was stash-busting, and my intention was to make three the same but different, so ends it is.

Now that all three are done I'm left with less than 7 grams of brown handicrafter cotton. Maybe enough to add a stripe or two to another dishcloth? But that'll have to wait for another day. For now, I'm dishcloth-ed out. Knitting with cotton at a tight gauge is a bit wearing on my fingers. Time to go back to socks!

Thanks for all the good wishes. I brought Gavin home from the hospital this morning so that he can continue his recovery in more comfortable surroundings. The scar on his hip ugly - he gets the staples removed next week - but suffice it to say each day is better than the last. Now, I'd better get to work arranging that disabled parking permit ...

Surmount the Stash June Update

Double Bump dishcloth in stash-busting stripes!

Monthly budget of $50 for all knitting related expenses: Last month's running deficit of $160.00 kept me on the straight and narrow for most of May, however, I did buy some dishcloth cotton and I did impulsively buy a skein of sock yarn in the last couple of days. Retail therapy I think with all the stress around here, so I'm not beating myself up over it. All in all I spent $34 this month, so the running deficit now stands at $144.00. Not great, but better than it was.

Manage my WIPs: Last month I started and finished a dishcloth for my Just the Postage swap, and I have several more planned over the next week or so. Mindless dishcloth knitting is definitely my speed right now. I also finished one pair of gift socks and am nearly finished a second pair for charitable donation. Oh yes, and three 10x10 squares for a group blanket project. There's also some secret knitting done for a Canada Day swap that can't be revealed until my swap partner receives here package. And I knit through all the yarn I bought in April as well as most of the yarn I received from my swap partner. So not bad. This morning there is only my second of Hermoine's Everyday Socks on my needles - perfect for hospital bedside knitting.

Plan projects to work through my inventory of yarns in my Stash:  I'd estimate that in May I knit through about 1000 yards of yarn purchased in April, 500 yards of yarn received in an April swap, 300 yards of yarn purchased in May and an additional 500 or so yards of yarn from my stash. All added up like that it sounds quite impressive, doesn't it? Now I feel a bit better about my efforts in May, because until I totalled it, I was pretty much feeling like May was a washout. In June, on the other hand, I predict a great deal of progress. I'll be close to home for the next several weeks, fetching and carrying for the invalid, so expect a parade of dishcloths!

Finished Object Friday

This week seems to have been all about small projects. In addition to a secret swap project and a handful of crochet strawberries, I knit this little Owlet to use the last few yards of heathery-purple hand spun. For the body I use some unknown, unnamed beige yarn that was donated to me from the local community centre.

The pattern was slightly more challenging than I expected as a newbie crocheter - it's more of a recipe than a line-by-line pattern.  But given the simple shape and simple construction, I don't think you can go very far wrong with it. My modifications? I added the purple circles behind the safety eyes to make him look more owl-y. And I altered the final round of his head to make his ears pointier, working hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc for each ear.

As for today, I suspect that it's going to be a day of dishcloth and sock knitting. A coworker asked whether she could enlist me to knit some dishcloths for her, so I'm going to make a start on those. Because today will be spent mostly in hospital waiting rooms, mindless knitting is best. It's Friday, so have a look at Tami's Amis to see the parade of FOs in the links!

a strawberry festival

It'll be another week or two before local strawberries are ripe and ready to eat, but I just can't wait! After seeing these little crocheted strawberries on another blog, I decided to make a handful for myself.

Ahead of my end of May update for the Surmount the Stash challenge, it's a nice little project to use up sock yarn leftovers. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but I've opted to double strand fingering weight instead. Chances are these are the only little crocheted strawberries made from a mix of cashmere, merino, alpaca and nylon!

I'm very pleased with how the first one worked out. The texture created by continuous rounds of single crochet is very suggestive of the dimpled texture of strawberries, don't you think? And the size is ideal too. I only wish that I could find a quart of strawberries so perfectly sized, completely ripe and entirely unblemished!

Today I'm assembling small portable projects for the hours I'll be spending in hospital waiting rooms tomorrow. Gavin's surgery should take about 2-4 hours, and then it's expected he'll spend another 1-3 hours in post-anaesthetic recovery before he lands in a bed in the orthopaedic ward.

And the news from the vet was all good. She thinks that our cat was maybe bitten by some bug and scratched the bite. No fever, no infection, no sign of any trouble. So that's a relief.

Work-in-progress Wednesday

There's a second Hermoine's Everyday sock languishing on the needles while, for the past couple of days, I've been playing with ideas in red and white for my Canada Day swap. It's a secret, and my swap partner has acknowledged lurking for hints on my blog, so this is as much as I'm going to say for now.

The knitting is resting on my new custom made console table. It's solid cherry and it's absolutely gorgeous. I feel like we finally have an "adult" piece of furniture instead of a mismatched flea market find. But here's the problem: now that I see how lovely it looks, I want to get rid of the rest of my old furniture. Yeah, maybe if I win the lottery!

Just a quick little post today as I have to run off now to take our cat to the vet. She's developed a bald patch below her left eye. It doesn't look like a scratch, it's not weepy or scabby or red or swollen, she's an indoor cat so it's not likely a bit or a parasite, so maybe it's nothing. But better safe than sorry, right?

You know the drill, right? Click the link for Tami's Amis to see all the other WIP Wednesday updates!

Year of Projects: Road to Oslo 02

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

Not surprisingly this little pair of sockettes knitted on 3.5 mm needles took no time at all. Well look at them! There's really not much more to them than a simple colourwork cuff and a vanilla foot, is there? But they are cute and they will be practical for padding about in the house on cold floors. I also think this pattern - the Road to Oslo - would be a good choice for Christmas knitting, if there are people on your gift list who'd appreciate a warm pair of knitted house socks.

I've used SRK On Your Toes sock yarn held double. It's quite a nice utility yarn - soft, squishy, sturdy and not at all splitty. Hopefully it machine washes well too. For the contrast colour I held together two strands of similar sock yarns - Wollemeise 80/20 Twin and Mountain Colours Barefoot. The variegation in the yarns is subtle but there's just enough to add a little more interest to the colour work. I'm looking forward to trying more Fair Isle type patterns in the coming months. I'm a huge fan of the way Alice Starmore combines colour and pattern to create stunningly rich fabrics - here's my someday project - but for now, I think I'd better stick to playing with colour in smaller scale.

Next and LAST on my Year of Projects list is the pattern Uinta Cabin. I'll have to poke through my dwindling stash of sock yarn to find four colours that will play together nicely for that. A year ago, when I committed to knitting through an entire book I wasn't sure I'd do it. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm up for the challenge of another year. I think so. Maybe I can knit through Folk Knitting in Estonia while playing with colour combinations inspired by Alice Starmore?