Last present in the nick of time!

Woo hoo. I finished knitting my last Christmas present about an hour ago. It is now wrapped and under the tree. These socks are for my gran and match her shawl. I found a leaf, lace pattern in the book Country Weekend Socks by Madeline Weston. I love the pattern but didn't like the heal turn. I don't think it is sturdy enough to withstand time. The reducing of the sock once the heal is turned actually starts with pattern panel at the front before reducing as you normally would. It just felt a little strange. I also prefer charts rather than long hand knitting patterns. Not that it was difficult to follow. The instructions were simple and well laid out. It's just what I am used to.

I am going to go now and enjoy my Christmas. I will leave you with the return of the huge robin. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and that Santa is good to you.

One more down and one to go!

I finished another Christmas present. These socks are for my mum and are now wrapped along with her other gifts and under the tree. The yarn I used was Regia Jazz Color by Erica Knight. I didn't notice it was by Erica Knight until I had already began knitting with it. It didn't surprise me though as it reminds me of a lot of colours Knight uses in her patterns. I actually picked this yarn up for someone else only to discover that this person was allergic to wool. Not to worry, my mum will love these colours even if it isn't red. Once again I decided to go for the basic sock pattern. Like last time I thought it would show off the colour striping better and I think I was right.

I now only have one more gift to knit. Everything else is wrapped and ready. I have four days to knit my gran a pair of socks to go with her shawl. I found a pattern that matches and I just hope I have enough time in which to do it. I might have to get something else in just in case it doesn't happen.

Fingerless Mitts

I decided to knit my first pair of fingerless mitts as an extra for my sister. I have been meaning to knit her a pair of these for years but somehow always wind up knitting socks (it's an addiction). This year she will get both. The yarn has been sitting amongst my stash since I first started knitting socks. I thought it was about time I used that too. It's a sock yarn and is by Violet Green. It's called Equinox and is 75% Merino. Initially I was going to use a pattern I found on the Purl Bee. It's a simple enough pattern which I thought was ideal for my first pair.

In the end though what I really wanted to do was knit a pair with cables. I was sure I had a pattern that would fit somewhere but was too lazy to hunt it out. So I adapted the Purl Bee pattern to fit with what I wanted. As it's an adaptation of a pattern already free I am posting my version of it. Feel free to use it (or to let me know if there are any mistakes). What I do recommend is that you maybe use a double knit rather than sock yarn. These will fit my sister (and my mum who modelled them) as they have small hands. If I was knitting them for a friend or for myself I would definitely use DK for comfort.

Materials used - sock yarn

Needle size - 3mm

Cast on 60 stitches and divide evenly over three needles. Use a stitch marker to mark the start of the row if required. Work in rounds.

Row 1 - Knit 4, purl 2. Repeat until end.

Repeat until five round have been completed.

Row 6 - Place two stitches on to a cable needle and bring forward. Knit the next two stitches on the DPN, knit the two stitches on the cable needle, purl 2. Repeat until the end of round.

Row 7 - Knit 4, purl 2. Repeat until end.

Repeat until 10 rounds in total have been completed. These ten rounds will form the pattern.

Repeat last 10 rounds until you have done a total of 8 sets of the pattern.

Next row - turn, knit 2, purl four. Repeat until end of the row.

Next row - turn knit 4, purl two. Repeat until end of the row.

Repeat until five rows have been completed in total.

Next row - Turn, Same as Row 6.

Next Row - turn, knit 2 purl four. Repeat until end of row.

Repeat until full set of pattern is completed (10 rows in total

Next round - Do not turn, instead rejoin round (this will have given you the thumb hole). knit 4, purl 2. Repeat until the end.

Continue until a further two sets of the pattern have been completed.

In total the pattern will have been produced 11 times.

Cast off.

Repeat again for the second mitt.

Edit - The yarn I used was 100g and I still have quite a lot left. You could definitely get another pair out of it.

Crazy Stripe!

Another present down. Once again these socks are for my sister. I was going to put them in with her Christmas but have decided that they will be part of her birthday. Her birthday is the week before Christmas (some people are just so inconsiderate in having birthdays right before Christmas). Once again the yarn I used was Lorna Laces and the colour way is called Crazy stripe. I decided to do a basic sock as I was curious as to how this one would knit up. Glad I did as I think the striping would drown out any pattern. I love the effect of the pink and blue together and think my sister will like them. If you haven't used Lorna Laces before I highly recommend it. It's such a lovely yarn to knit with. It doesn't split, it comes in lots of colour shades and, more importantly, it's machine washable. If you do decide to try it you will need to buy two hanks as one hank is only 60g which isn't enough for a pair of socks.

I also decided to list these cotton baby socks on my folksy page. I was saving them and planning to do others for a craft fair but in the end didn't have time. Decided it was best just to have them on folksy as who knows when the next craft fair will be.