Socks!

Alex's socks were finished last night, and they are already been worn (pictures when he brings them back from his work trip).
The most important thing is that it freed the 2.75mm, so yesterday I cast on for my socks as soon as I bound his off. Yay for socks!

Books and socks

On the first weekend of the new year, I bravely went into town, to the shopping area (I needed to buy a humidifier!). I went into the bookstore, and left with two books under my arm: The Stainless Steel Rat omnibus (amazon|wiki), and Sock Innovation (amazon|rav).

Of course, after buying Sock Innovation, I spent several days searching the web looking for sheep-less sock yarn. I should have thought about this little problem before buying the book and becoming obsessed with socks, but I could not resist its lure.

I have now found some yarn that works for me, and that is shipped from the UK: Cafe Knit sells some Crystal Palace Panda Cotton, and Martin at yarndamour is dying for me some of his cotton-tencel sock yarn!

The Panda Cotton is here already, and I just need to finish Alex's socks so I can free my 2.75mm needles, and cast on for Wanida!

Then when the new yarn arrives, I can do Milo and Kai-Mei. And Cauchy for Alex. I suddenly love socks.

Reality and fiction

It amuses me to be sewing at the same time as watching Coraline. At least I'm only fixing trouser seams, nothing that involves buttons!

Two finished projects with a side of snow

As you probably all know, the UK is under quite a lot of snow at the moment. It hasn't snowed over here since Wednesday, but given that the temperatures have not been above zero for the last week and a half, everything is still as white as it was on Wednesday.

The snow on Wednesday completely halted a lot of the country. Public transport wasn't running (no buses or taxis) and, as I wasn't going to walk to work (although some people did), I had a quiet snow day at home. I spent most of it knitting, and managed to finish not one, but two projects! They are the first projects I finish since October, so I am doubly pleased with them. I have tried not to flaunt my knitting too much: after going off knitting when I was so tired, I have tried to preserve what knitting mojo I have so it doesn't disappear, like preparing a fire.

The first finished project is the already-mentioned Peaks Island Hood. I selected the yarn when Ysolda was visiting Get Knitted, and it was a monogamous project: I didn't knit anything else while working on it (preserving the sparks). I took it with me during the holiday break, and finished it on Boxing day (the knitting part). I finally wove in the ends and blocked it on the Wednesday, to make sure that I had something to protect me from the weather on Thursday! (you may be able to see that I don't have buttons for it yet, but I'm holding it with a shawl pin)


It was a simple knit, but with the right amount of exciting to keep me entertained. I discovered I really like seed stitch! The only problem is in my choice of yarn, at least for now: Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton. It is absolutely lovely and soft, buy oh my Bob does it shed! My black winter coat as a subtle orange fuzz to it, and the entire house is covered in orange fluff!




The second finished project was cast-on, knit, bound-off, and finished off all on Wednesday! Now I have moustache! I have been wanting to knit Incognito since the latest Knitty came out, and it was the perfect opportunity. I used bits of yarn I had laying around: the blue-grey is my last ball from Wisteria (I have gotten a lot of mileage out of that yarn), the orange is left-over from above, and the black is from a jumper's worth of yarn I bought last year, for which I've not found a proper use for yet (it's Debbie Bliss Stella, suggestions welcomed).


Incognito was a very fun and quick knit, and I am very proud with the way the duplicate stitch came out.


I can wear both things together when it's really cold, and I have been keeping my moustache on at work (I have a cold and it's nice to have a warm throat). Sadly, my co-workers don't find it nearly as funny as I do. I love my 'tache!