Showing posts with label jaywalkers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jaywalkers. Show all posts

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Sockpalooza-by-the-Sea

I ventured out at lunchtime today to my normal knitting spot, in the sunshine by the BBC screen in Birmingham City centre. Look what I found - a beach in Birmingham


I got to sit in a deckchair and knit my sockpalooza socks for 30 mins in the sunshine (yes it really was sunny for about 30 mins today). How cool is that? Yes, I know, lots of people have a real beach to go and sit on - but I live just about as far away from the coast as is physically possible in this country so it is a real novelty!
Here are the said socks. In The Yarn Yard June sock club June colourway.
The pattern is my first go at sock designing. I wanted a sock with a cable pattern down each side of the leg and foot. I liked this design I found on Ravelry but thought it would look much better in a solid colour. I was also keen on slip stitch designs, as I think they look good in variegated yarns. My Harmony Stitch dictionary turned up this 9 stitch fishtail cable design, I've added two reverse stst stitches to either side. I'm really liking it so far. It is very fast to knit and the pattern keeps a bit of interest. I still can't get the hang of cabling without a cable needle though!
I'm going to do a short row heel (as with the Jaywalkers below) and then continue the pattern down the foot. Fingers crossed it works!
Here are the finished stripy Jaywalkers - toe up - I love them. And they nearly match! Yipeeee.


If that was not enough excitement for one day I got home to find my prize from Wendy had arrived!Some more yummy Yarn Yard sock yarn. Wendy also sent me some beautiful little green earrings and some delicious chocolate as a belated birthday present. Thank You so much!
Talking of Wendy, I started relaying a story to Tony the other day about one of my friends. I realised half way through my story it wasn't someone I had actually met or knew, it was someone whose blog I read. Is it strange it is that I really feel like some of my fellow bloggers are friends even though we have never met and mostly only communicate through our blogs? I find it a little disconcerting when I think about it, because no one puts their whole life on their blog, so can you really "know" someone this way. I'd like to think that people like Wendy and Bryony and I would all get on fabulously... but you never know do you? We might fight over wool and stick knitting needles in each other :0)

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

If in doubt....

Make some Jaywalkers. I knew as soon as my SP10 sent me this yarn it was destined to be Jaywalkers. Aren't they just the best?I started the toe last night and followed the instructions for a Turkish cast-on and the pattern for toe up socks from the Summer Interweave knits. I'm not sure if I got the cast on right, but it looks ok. The rest of the sock is commuting knitting from today. I love them already. Thank you secret pal... you sent the perfect yarn!
I was allowed to start new socks because I finished the RPM socks last night.
They are still a bit wet, so no modelled pictures. A quick trip over the Ravelry tells me -
Started : April 07
Finished: 2nd June 07
Pattern: RPM from Knitty
Yarn: Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Farmhouse
Needles: 2.5mm addi turbos and 2.5 mm Brittany birch dpns
Comments: I liked the pattern, it works really well with this yarn. I did make "proper" spirals with no jogs as I found this easier to memorise (basically I did the pattern with 1 stitch less)
I'm just hoping they fit as I think they might be a big big after blocking. I'm also hoping the colour doesn't fade too much, lots of dye seemed to come out when I handwashed them.
Finally we have the progress on the made-up cricket pullover for Toby. The back is done, and now all I have to do is figure out the decreases on the front! Not bad so far for a completely made up pattern.... Let's just hope it fits
P.S. Ravelry is the best, don't worry if you haven't got your invite yet, lots more are going out every day... and it is worth waiting for (even though you get sucked in to uploading all your old projects and don't do any knitting).