goodies in the mailbox

Yarn pr0n indeed! Two parcels were waiting for me in the mailbox when arrived home from work a few minutes ago. Well, three actually, but one was batteries for my hearing aids, not exciting at all, even if essential.

The top three skeins are from Katie at Live2Knit. From the left, Lilacs, Spring and Voodoo. The other two underneath are from Daphne at the Knittery. Dark green is called Rainforest and the other is Daisy. Again I love these too. They are in the slim sock wool category of her website. By the way, both these shops are under "need yarn?" section in sidebar of this blog.

I'm particularly happy with both green skeins. I like green but somehow seem to have missed out on much sock knitting in that colour. I love these. The rainforest does not show really well here. It's a lovely rich green. Spring green from Katie is just that. A bright, chirpy spring green, quite a contrast to the Rainforest but again a colour I'm really glad I chose.

Wool from these two suppliers is always gorgeous to knit, so now I will let them tell me what to do.


The other day when shopping, I bought a copy of the ABC's cooking magazine, delicious. As a freebie there was a pack of the tiny post-it notes which can be used to mark pages in books. These came with cooking type labels on them like "desserts." Six sections. I used them to work my way through a couple of stitch dictionaries to mark possibilities for sock patterns. I've used about twenty and there are literally hundreds left. So perhaps not an intended use, but very useful for me. A pleasant way too to spend some time on a cold, wet and windy afternoon.

pass the slipped stitch over

I'll show this yarn who's boss

I decided I would not let my twisty yarn beat me. I cast on again and knitted slowly, taking care to avoid twist. This colour is so fresh, I really love it. As I knitted I was thinking of names for the socks. I had decided on Granny Smith socks because of the similarity to the colour of those apples.

I wear a lot of footlet type socks so that's what these were planned to be. New technique to me for the short row heels. I usually double wrap and pick up the wraps and knit them together with the stitch. This time I followed someone's suggestion of picking up the wraps from the knit side only, knitting the stitch by itself and then passing the loops over. Picking up from only the knit side makes both heels identical but was a PITA to do on the purl row.

Round the heel and back down the foot. Lovely even stripes. Then I noticed the pooling starting. I don't mind some, but not with those lovely, even, narrow stripes. So this yarn is going back in the stash, pronto. It may be a hat or scarf or something, somewhere well down the track.

I'll finish the second sock I'm doing for my youngest grandson and add to Christmas presents.

pass the slipped stitch over

Setting myself a challenge

I have finally signed up and thought I best set the challenges while the enthusiasm is high.

1. To finish BOTH socks of a pair before beginning a new sock project
2. To use what I have and not buy more sock yarn
3. To learn from my mistakes and not bend another Addi Turbo by yanking it out of the basket where it was stuck!

Keeping it simple.

New Sock Yarn! New sock Yarn!

Take a peak here.

I wandered over to Blue Moon Fiber Arts and ordered me up some yarn and it arrived this morning.

I am really really excited.