Socks – monkey or otherwise!

I decided to knit some socks recently as a present for my sister.  I bought two hand dyed skeins of wool from Violet Green ( http://www.violetgreen.co.uk/ ) which were both fabulous, after much deliberating I decided on ‘Red Hot Sox’ a mixture of red and orange and ‘black rose’ a kind of purple and pink.  I also bought some addis turbo doublw ended knitting needles – beautiful to knit with.

As per usual I got bored after knitting the 1st sock in ‘red hot sox’ and was too impatient to knit another before starting with the ‘black rose’ colour.  So my sister ended up with two very unmatching socks!

To make things more interesting i also tried my very first patterned sock – and found ‘monkey’ via ravelry.  You can find the pattern for Monkey here – http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTmonkey.html

Here is a picture of my sister wearing the socks…

My sister wearing Monkey sock and red hot sock

The socks!

The socks!

Juliet!

 

I decided recently to knit my very first top down cardigan, after a bit of searching on ravelry I came accross Juliet, a lovely, fun, and chunky knit – with enough patterning to keep me occupied whilst still being a quick and easy knit.

You can find the pattern here… http://www.zephyrstyle.com/catalog/item/2367447/4944404.htm

Here is a picture of me in the result – I wear it all the time!

My Stash!!

This weekend I decided to go through my entire basket of wool, and sort it all out (there was a bit of a large tangle going on in there).  Now I know exactly what projects I have to finish (*unravel, half finish, think of something else to knit halfway through etc).  I thought I would share what I found with you.  So here I present – my stash!!

I’ve also got some lovely projects that I am working on at the moment.  As I haven’t updated my blog in ages I thought I would show you pictures of some of the different things I’ve got going.

First, a picture of the jumper I am working on (see the last blog post).  I’m really pleased with this – but its quite a difficult knit.  Its hard to do the decreases and keep in pattern at the same time.  Its taken a fair amount of brain power so far.  I am quite determined to finish this, though its been put on the back burner for now.  Heres a picture:

And here is a close up…

I’ve also started a lace scarf.  Its my first piece of knitting using laceweight wool.  I am enjoying it so far – its quite different to what I am used to.  Its not so easy if you make a mistake if you drop a stitch to knit it upwards.  Here are some pictures of the small amount I have done so far.  (this is my second attempt, the first attempt had to be ditched after I lost a couple of stitches, and couldn’t see where or how!).  You can find the pattern for this scarf here:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall07/PATTjunoregina.html

And here is the ball of wool I had to wind – I didn’t realise that buying wool in a skein was such a hassle!!  If anyone has some handy tips that mean you don’t have to unwind the skein – then I would love to hear them!!

This isn’t the only scarf I have been knitting recently. 

I have also been knitting a scarf for my friends daughter – I hope its OK… the hat was a bit of a disaster!

I’ve also knit a nice blue scarf for me!  I’ve had my eye on knitting something from this http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/kategori_oversikt.php website.  The pattern for this particular scarf can be found here http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=86&d_id=32&lang=us Plus, the wool for these design’s is really very reasonably priced.

I have also made a scarf for my boyfriend.  The wool was Sirdar BIGGA and it was half price – so i had to have it.  Everyone seems to love this scarf – though its just a simple 1×1 rib with some tassels put on the ends.  Its a very thick scarf!

I do have a couple of other things that I could show you, but I will save them for another blog post – this one is getting pretty long!  If you have any comments on the above things then i would love to hear them!

Not just for babies!

I thought I would show you the new jumper that I am knitting for myself.  I went to John Lewis on Sunday, and had a browse through their wool selection – which isn’t very large in the one near me (though they are building a new one soon – I can’t wait!).

I bought this pattern:

Which uses Patons Diploma Gold DK – unfortunately the only colour that they had in stock was an ugly brown.  So I had a dig around, and found myself drawn to the baby wool – it was so soft and lovely.

I bought Sirdar Snuggly baby bamboo DK instead.  Its lovely to knit with, really soft and gentle.  I have to stop myself stroking my knitting.  This is the colour:

I’ve had a lot of problems with the pattern – I kept making mistakes on the first run through the 16 rows of pattern, and getting frustrated.  Now I am in the flow it is much easier, as I can now feel and see the pattern as I go along.  This is however the 4th time of trying!

I’ll get some proper pictures up as soon as I have my camera and a space to put the knitting to photograph it.

Adventures with Kool-Aid!

So, recently I decided to try some adventures with Kool-Aid. It has been lots and lots of fun, and I am sure that I will try it again! Here is a step-by-step process of what I did:

1. Buy some 100% wool yarn.

2. Buy a selection of Kool-Aid packets:

3. Wind the wool round something (camping chairs work really well, as you can collapse them slightly to lift the wool off!):

4. Tie tiny figure of 8’s around the wool using some cotton to stop the wool from tangling up:

5. Soak the wool in room temperature water for 10 minutes (mmm spaghetti):

6. Mix the Kool-Aid – I used 2 packets per litre of water (again I used room temperature water… careful not to felt your wool!). I also put one cap of distilled vinegar in – but I don’t think that this is necessary, and it doesn’t smell great. Then depending on how you want your yarn to look – place in a variety of pots and pans:

7. Arrange your yarn in the pots and pans as desired:

8. Set all pans on a very low heat, and then set your timer for 30 minutes. The water does not need to boil. All the colour from the kool-aid should now be on the wool, and the water should become clear:

9. Leave the water/pans to cool completely, then take the wool out and rinse well in room temperature water.

10. Lay out to dry on a towel for a few minutes to absorb excess water, then hang up on a dryer:

11. When dry – wind into a ball of wool and admire your creation. You may even want to try knitting with it!

Unfortunately, my wool looked like a load of tutti fruttis have all thrown-up on my yarn. But at least I enjoyed dyeing it!

This is my second attempt:

Which I am making a pair of socks out of – like this:

Loads and loads of fun – I would really recommend trying it!