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Work in Progress Wednesday 11th June

Quite a few updates this Work in Progress Wednesday!

I finished my Tonight socks and got through to Round 6 of Sock Madness. I’m pretty happy with how they came out, although I do have to lengthen them a little in the foot to fit me properly, and make the toe more rounded as usual. They’re fully reversible which is pretty cool.

Tonight Socks 2 Tonight Socks 1

I was all prepared for Round 6. I had tv queued up to watch, yarn and needles at the ready. The pattern arrived on Sunday, Chill Thrill, and I liked the look of it. I then spent 12 hours straight just getting to the heel flap on the first sock. As pretty as the pattern is, I wasn’t enjoying knitting it and it had some errors that were putting me off. My wrists were already aching a little, so I decided to sleep, rather than stay up until they were done. Overnight, I realised that there was no point in me continuing. Not only did I have the above problems to content with, but it was another heel flap sock, and they just don’t fit me very well, plus I wasn’t that happy with my yarn choice. I decided that it would be best to drop out. Even if I got the single place on my team to get to the next round, I couldn’t guarantee being able to spend the time solidly knitting to even attempt to win the overall competition. Someone else on the team had also already finished their first sock, and would have much more of a chance in the next round too.

The sock so far was frogged, and I’m still pretty happy with my decision.

Chill Thrill

I found it difficult to decide what to knit next. I decided some summery socks were a good idea. I chose some bamboo yarn (Wendy Happy) that I previously tried to knit into a cardigan back when I first started knitting. Because of tendency to stretch and stay that way, bamboo yarn doesn’t generally work well for socks, yet is a wonderfully cool fabric perfect for summer. I thought if I knit them fairly tightly on my smallest needles (2.25mm) the lack of stretch could be overcome. I’m using the pattern Seasonal Socks and am going to use my favourite Fish Lips Kiss heel, so hopefully I’ll end up with a pair of socks I’m happy with.

Seasonal Socks

I’ve won two knitting related prizes recently. The first was a pattern from PolarBears (on Ravelry) which I won as I dyed my own yarn for Sock Madness Round 3. There wasn’t a great deal I’d knit from the selection, but I chose Playtime Colors because it looked like a fun knit and I’m sure I’ll find someone who wants to knit it. The second was a random prize from a group in Ravelry, where there is a monthly sock challenge. I happened to be one of seven lucky winners for May. I won two skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and I’ve never used it before so I’m looking forward to that.

Finally, some sad news. Beshley’s Wool Shop, which I wrote about a while ago, is closing. Apparently it’s because Beshley has an opportunity she can’t pass on, but it unfortunately means she won’t be able to run the shop anymore.

It’s just under two weeks until we move house and we’ve barely started packing, so I doubt I’ll have a huge amount of knitting time for the next few weeks. However it does mean that once we’ve moved, I finally have a bit more freedom to make the house and garden look nice so hopefully I’ll be able to post a lot more crafty projects other than knitting!

Work in Progress Wednesday – 21st May

This Work in Progress Wednesday it’s back to normal. You may have noticed that I only got up to Thursday on Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. I ran out of ideas and then got busy, so I didn’t finish it. I hope you found the posts I did write interesting and something a bit different.

I haven’t done a great deal of knitting this week. I don’t think I’ve written about my new Sock Madness socks though. These are Shakertown Fences. They’re way too small for me so they may be a gift for my mum, if she likes them. The next round isn’t out yet. Only seven people from each team can get through that one though so I’m not holding out much hope of getting through unless the pattern happens to be released when I have nothing to do, which is highly unlikely as we’re moving in a month and currently don’t actually have a house to move to.Shakertown Fences

I may have not done much knitting, but I did do some sewing over the weekend. I’m on a mission to create the perfect knitting storage set (large bag, small project bag, notions pouch(es), needle cases etc.) and decided that a weekend to myself was the perfect time to begin. Once I’ve done one for me and ironed out all the problems I hope to make more.

A couple of weekends ago we were in Winchester and C&H Fabrics were having a 20% off everything sale. This was my opportunity to buy some fabric I liked. There was still a little of my birthday present from Nick left (go to craft shop, buy some things I really wanted) so this was the perfect time to spend it. Seeing as I love knitting socks so much, for my storage set I chose a fabric with socks all over it!Sock Fabric

And Nick pointed out this lovely fabric for a dress for me, which I’ll make when I’ve found the perfect pattern.Dress Fabric

I got a third fabric, but that one’s a secret.

Nick mentioned the other day that I had stored up a lot of old jeans to re-purpose but have never touched them. Turns out the various colours of the denim went brilliantly with my sock fabric. As did a pale blue fabric I bought a while ago for something I never got around to. The only thick denim-suitable thread I have is bright red, but that goes fantastically too.

So I started planning, cutting, ironing and finally sewing a little notions case to start with. All went well for a while, until I broke a needle. Typical. I gave up for the day and went back to it the next, finishing it off. I need to sew on the buttons though. (I have some bright ones that are perfect that I had in my Christmas stocking). It doesn’t look like it because of the angles in the image, but the buttonholes are the same length.Notions Case

I continued on to the DPN case. All went well for quite a while. Surprisingly so actually, as usually something goes wrong quite often when I’m sewing. Then I broke another needle trying to top stitch around the edge. My machine just doesn’t like thick fabric, even though I was being really careful. It’s almost finished though and I think with a little more careful sewing I’ll be done.DPN Case InsideDPN Case Outside

Obviously there are some things I could improve, but I’m pretty happy so far.

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Work in Progress Wednesday 16th April

This is only  a really quick one as I’m in the middle of a round on Sock Madness and I need all the time I can get to knit. So here are my socks! The pattern for this round (Round 3) is Rainbow Pipes and Linen. I dyed my own yarn for the colours, and I’m loving how it’s coming out. More on that once I’ve actually finished knitting them. Here’s what I have so far:

Sock Madness 8 Round 3

Work in Progress Wednesday 9th April

Surprisingly I don’t have anything to show. Since last Wednesday evening I’ve been dog-sitting (two very lively flat coated retrievers) with my boyfriend at his parents’. I’ve been knitting on my Serpentine Scarf, but apart from that haven’t been doing a great deal of knitting. It does however mean I am in walking distance of a rather nice craft shop.Rosie

I started trying to design my own sock pattern, but the yarn (this, that I bought at Unravel) is being very stubborn and no matter how I use it, is pooling in a way I really don’t like. It would work better in pretty much any other yarn, but I’m trying very hard not to use any of my sock yarn as I need it for Sock Madness!Easy Knits DW Toughie

Talking of Sock Madness, round 3 is taking ages to come out. Some people still haven’t finished with round 2, and a lot of people are getting a little impatient now.

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to show you round 3 progress and some other interesting things.

Work in Progress Wednesday 26th March

The round 2 pattern for Sock Madness over at Ravelry was released on Friday evening, so that’s all I’ve been working on for the last week. It is taking a very long time to knit because it’s quite a small gauge, and there are 80 stitches per round! They’re looking really nice though. I’m using the John Arbon Exmoor Sock that I bought at Unravel, and because it’s slightly thinner than usual 4ply  it’s working really well for the small gauge. This is just a peek at what they look like. I’ll show them fully once I’ve finished.

Sock Madness 8 Round 2

I’ve finished one sock and am half way through the other, and I hope to be finished tomorrow. That may not happen though. Once I’ve entered them into the challenge I will rip back some of the toe and make them slightly shorter, but apart from that they fit well.

I also did something non-knitting related! I made a case for my tablet. It’s pretty simple, and I need to add buttons, but it does the job. Some of the top-stitching isn’t straight because my sewing machine understandably wasn’t too keen on sewing through eight layers of cotton and two layers of fleece! I’m happy with the result though.

Tablet Case