Socktopus

For my birthday (in July), I bought myself the book Socktopus. I had a good nosey on ravelry and loved the patterns, had a flick through and liked the look of it, and got some birthday money for just such a purchase (I think the tagline was something along the lines of, 'buy something for yourself - though I know you have too much yarn!).

As is the way with these things, they tend to sit in the back of my head and then emerge months later, fully-formed ideas and projects I can imagine casting on tomorrow. This is what has happened over the past month or so. I now have four projects lined up from this book (and that's before I've let the yarn from Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show rest in my head for a while. I know that, alongside these patterns, my brain will sort something out before too long!)

The problem with these fits of inspiration is that it makes me want to cast on all of them. Right now. I can hold back the tide a little, but the problem is that as soon as I get stuck on one thing, I throw up my hands and just cast on something else. And as my maths lecturer would phrase it, these patterns are non-trivial. So now we seem to have two pairs on the needles and another than I am definitely NOT casting on today, if only because the needles I need are in another project.

First, I started 2luvcrew for my soon-to-be bridesmaid's birthday ion March. I saw the yarn on The Yarn Yard website in May, and knew it had to be used for her. The ideas fermented a little and voila! - yarn and pattern matched. It's a lacework pattern of hearts, in case you can't tell.

This pattern has five different lace charts, and I've got this far and got stuck. I'm meant to be working the Heel Transition Chart over some stitches and the Heart Pattern Chart over the rest, but I can't get the numbers to add up. One for a day when I have a lot of brainpower - fortunately I have plenty of chances.

So I decided to cast on something that needed a little less concentration. My mum's birthday is at the end of January and she does love socks so I cast on Caretta Caretta for her, in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply bought from John Lewis in Aberdeen. I've had my doubts about the lacework pattern - is it just me, or is there something slightly dodgy-looking about it? - but finished one sock regardless.

I've not done the beads which I think would lessen the dodginess, and I think the effect is also much reduced when done over the entire sock... or maybe I'm just hopeful!

Next on the list is Hundred Acre Wood, which is covered in little leaves (or are they trees?), so this colour of Yarn Yard Yarn seemed entirely appropriate - this time bought from The Yarn Cake, Glasgow, in earlly November. Wound and ready to rock for a while now, but planning to cast on as soon as I finish one of the others.

And then possibly one of my (weather-)geekiest projects to date - Vorticity Socks in this yarn: Storm by Wharfedale Woolworks (which the lovely Steph had dyed for me). In a nutshell: vorticity is a property that storms have by the bucketload. I am very much looking forward to using this yarn - it has a good lot of bounce.

So despite my knitting a LOT of socks in 2012, it looks like my 'sock thing' is going to continue well into 2013.

Festive 2011: Acquisitions

Hello again, reader, I hope you had a lovely time over Christmas and New Year; the right amount of rest, relaxation and of course, knitting. It has been a good one here, just the right amount of time with everyone and doing all the things I wanted to, though mostly offline. So there has been a slight backlog of posts for me to write, so there will be a little flurry. I hope for some sort of review of 2011 and a look forward with crafty resolutions for 2012, all in good time.

I seem to have been given a lot of crafty things this year! Though some of them I have scooped up in sales with Christmas money and got using Amazon vouchers, my bookshelf has become much more populated.

I have mostly only flicked through them, but they are looking promising. I am on a mission to collect the Harmony Guides and colourwork seemed like a good choice given my new-found love for it. The sock yarn one-skein wonders will hopefully help with the small mound of single skeins of sock yarn I just keep on buying (especially the Wendy Happy, mentioned in this post (point 4). totally stuck with that one). The two S&B books I intend to read from cover to cover having skimmed several interesting sections, but also contain some promising looking patterns. Stitch! and A Rainbow... are basically cover-to-cover with things I want to make and do, so I'm hoping for more chance to do as Ms. Kidston tells me to and stitch a lot this year.... and The Twelve Knits Of Christmas is being put away for at least the next 10 months! I will write more about each of them when I have used them.

I also treated myself to this beauty in John Lewis with Christmas money from Grandma (the most senior living source of The Craft Gene). I think she would approve.

I have been very much wanting to get a sewing box for a long while now, as my sewing stuff tends to just get shoved in the nearest knitting bag, but not seen a good one yet. I saw this in JL just before Christmas and when I got a little money I knew just where it would go. It even matches my knitting bag! So now my little crafty corner looks like this...

No, I'm not saying how long I tidied it for before that photo was taken.