Tag Archives: review

Rosie’s Moments Yarn

Back in September at Bristol Wool Fair, I bought some yarn from Rosie’s Moments. It’s British, reasonably priced and she uses wonderful colours.

At the beginning of this year she started making limited (around 20) monthly mystery boxes. I managed to resist in January and February, but by the March box I realised I had to try one. I nearly missed out as she sold out before I had chance to buy one, but luckily for me and a few others she made up a few extra. This time I jumped on the chance and I am so glad I did!

Around pancake day there was a giveaway on the Rosie’s Moments Facebook page. All I had to do was tell everyone what my favourite pancake topping is. So I did (apricot fromage frais if anyone is interested). A few days later it turned out that I was the winner! Yay!

The spring box and the prize arrived together. The box was fantastic. In it was yarn, chocolate, some yummy lemon soap, a notebook, a stitch holder, some stitch markers, some buttons and a little electronic tea light. And of course attached to the yarn was a little bag of lavender as always. (Turns out I’m not so allergic to lavender any more, which is quite good really with the amount I now have!) Edit: There was also a coaster which I forgot as it was on the table when I was taking pictures!

Rosie's Moments Spring Mystery Box

The yarn is 4ply, 20% alpaca, 60% merino and 20% nylon so is very soft. The colours are very spring like, (the colourway is called ‘Cute Lambs and Spring Flowers’) and remind me of the crocuses and daffodils that are the first sign of spring.

Rosie's Moments Cute Lambs and Spring Flowers

The prize was more than I imagined. I was expecting a skein of yarn and no more. How wrong I was! Instead, she sent me yarn, a project bag, some lip balm, some KnitPro DPNs, a notebook and a bath bar.

Rosie's Moments Giveaway

The yarn is called Forest Floor and is 4ply, 75% merino, 20% nylon and 5% stellina sparkle. It’s really pretty and I’m thinking of pairing it with the dark green I bought from her at Bristol Wool Fair.

Rosie's Moments Forest Floorrosiesmomentsfern

So, if you want some yarn that’s bright and colourful, and want to buy it from a wonderful person, check out Rosie’s Moments. She also attends various events, and will be at the Bristol Wool Fair again this year.

In a final note, have you noticed that my photos are somewhat improved in quality (apart from the dark green yarn, that was taken a while ago)? My dad gave me his Canon EOS 50D after buying an upgraded model for himself, and although I am nowhere near knowing how to use it to its full potential I think it’s already improved my photos. It did take an awful lot of experimentation and manual reading to get them though!

Think Outside the Sox – A Review

So, Food Friday went a bit wrong, and the pie still isn’t made, sorry about that!

Today, seeing as I’ve been knitting and mentioning on Crafterways some of the socks from it, I thought I’d do a review of the Think Outside the Sox book.

The socks on the front cover are fantastic. They, along with the name, immediately inspire thoughts of colourful, unusual designs, and, for the most part, the book doesn’t disappoint.

Think Outside the Sox

The designs in the book (61 of them!) are the winners from a contest run by Knitter’s Magazine. The judges were Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby and Sandi Rosner, some fairly well known names in the knitting world. In total there were 296 pairs of socks entered into the competition.

Think Outside the Sox is divided up into five sections: Classic, Holes in my Socks, Twist & Turn, Playing with Color and Outside the Box. The contents page usefully shows a small picture of each pair of socks, their category and difficulty, as well as the page where they can be found.

The first few pages of the book are a quick guide on the anatomy and construction of socks. This is quite useful, and I think would enable even a beginner to get to grips with socks just from the information in the book. It explains toe up/toe down, different methods of knitting (DPNs, circulars, magic loop) and has a picture of the names of the different parts of a sock and how they are typically created. There are also brief notes on yarn, sizing and adapting the pattern for different types of needles/methods.

On each pattern page is the difficulty, gauge, yarn weight, suggested needles, and which yarn the socks are shown in. The patterns are divided into the different parts of the sock, and each pair has at least two photos displayed. I do find that some parts of the sock aren’t always shown in any of the photos, like the cuff or the sole, and I think sometimes it would be useful to have these shown. I haven’t knitted anywhere near all the patterns, but I found that on one, Split Reed, the stitch pattern of the heel shown doesn’t match the pattern instructions.

Edit: Apparently the photo for Split Reed is correct, I just completely didn’t notice that the picture is actually the bottom of the socks, not the back of the socks!

I also found that there were no descriptions included with any of the patterns. I think, especially on the more complicated designs, an overview of the construction would have been nice. I also think that, especially on the colourwork patterns, there should be at least a note about the reduced stretchiness of a colourwork sock. For instance I made part of Mirrored Fair Isle before realising that although the size and gauge was coming out as suggested in the pattern, the reduced stretchiness (even though I was leaving the floats fairly loose) made the sock impossible to put on. There is also no guide on how to work colourwork, although pretty much any other technique required is explained very well in the back of the book.

At the back of Think Outside the Sox many techniques are described. These include what abbreviations mean, cast-ons, bind-offs, decreases, increases, and all sorts of other techniques. There is even a section on how to double knit in colour included in one of the patterns, so it surprises me even more that there is no mention of normal colourwork at all.

The socks themselves are generally very appealing, and the patterns well written. There are a few pairs that I would never even consider making due to their impracticality, but I’m sure some people would find them useful. I like that all of the socks are made to be worn, not just to look nice. The feel of a sock inside a shoe is taken into consideration, and although a few of the patterns would probably annoy me when worn inside a shoe, I’m sure many people would have no problem, as I just hate any type of lump or seam in a sock.

At the back of the book is a gallery of other socks that deserved a mention from the competition, but didn’t make the final cut. Unfortunately there is no pattern included for these, which is a real shame as some of them are really quite wonderful.

The one major problem with the book is errors. There aren’t a huge amount, but they certainly exist, and in some of the patterns, such as the more complicated In the Peaceful Forest, would make me think twice about making the socks. The errata can be found here.

Think Outside the Sox provides a very good way of learning many different methods and techniques of making socks. It provides appealing patterns suitable for woman, men and children. Although there are a few minor points that could have been improved, such as a description for each pattern, better photographs and less errors, I highly recommend this book for both beginners and more advanced knitters.