Christmas Advent Socks

Over Christmas I had two yarn advent calendars. The second was by Bluebell Yarns. I could have added these yarns to the blanket I was making with the other advent calendar. However, this yarn had a completely different texture to it. It felt a little tougher and so I decided to use them for scrap socks. Each new yarn would be added to the socks as I opened them so that I wouldn't know the outcome until that last yarn is opened. I managed to make two pairs from them. One for myself and one for my sister.

Mine came first. Only a few of these colours I would actually pick out for myself. It forced me to experiment with colour and I actually quite like them. The colours are muted enough that they don't really clash with each other.

My favourite pair is actually my sister's. I love the colours that came out for her. The mustard is my least favourite colour. However, it adds pop to the socks and is one of my favourite things about this pair.

This is also a good way of using up scrap sock yarns. I highly recommend it. The downside is all the ends you have to sew in. Part of the joy of knitting socks is that there are so few. However, you have two ends with every change of colour. This is what took me so long to pull them out of my WIP back to finish. Persevere though as it is wort it.

The last parcel produced 50g of this lovely green yarn. I plan to get some cream sock yarn and use them together. And yes, for another pair of socks. I'll finish some more projects before I do that though.

I would definitely get another yarn advent calendar. It's a lot of fun. I have actually signed up for one for this year although it's a little different from last years and starts 16th Decemember rather than the 1st. You'll have to wait for that one though.

My stash June/July

A bit of a cross over for this post. One item is from July and it arrived this week. First of all I signed up for an exclusive with Owl About Yarn. She did a special set based on Wonder Woman. With it I got two hanks of Wonder Woman inspired sock yarn (sparkly sock yarn), a gorgeous Wonder Woman project bag which has a little hook with matching stitch markers, some post its (love me some post its, badges and a cute sticker. Although I haven't been to see the film yet I love Wonder Woman. I used to watch it when I was little. I had a pair of sunglasses that I wore while watching it and I was convinced that this turned me into my idol. Therefore I could not pass this by.

This months Little Box of Crochet is very cute and very summer inspired. It contains everything you need to crochet a little phone cover and keyring. It has a little rose motif which I love and will be a challenge for me to do as I have never done anything like that before. My mum would have loved it so I need to make an attempt. It also came with a cute rose stitch marker and a strawberry shopper bag.

I received two of my West Knits KAL parcels since my last post. June's was a yarn by Qing Fibre. It's beautifully soft and is a little thicker than some sock yarns. I can't wait to knit with it. It came with a cute little needle guide.

July's parcel arrived today. I have yet to download the ravelry pattern but I love the yarn. These colours make a nice contrast. The yarn is by Undercover Otter and again is super soft. It came with these badges and patch. I have just one more parcel to receive and I look forward to discovering another new yarn. I will get round to knitting with it.

I also received by parcels from the lovely Lisa of For the Love of Yarn. She is busy preparing for shows and still found the time to send out her club parcels. I am loving this months speckle yarn. Beautiful colours. It came with a sparkly wax melt which gives me all the excuse I need to bring out my candle burner.

I won't be showing off the blanket club yarns. I want to catch up and give it a post of it's own. However, here are this months mini skein club yarns. I love these colours. I think they would make a lovely pair of summer socks.

Christmas Stocking Blanket!

Last week I hunted out my WIP bag. I had a few projects in there that needed very little to complete and it has been bothering. Although not enough to do anything about until now. One of them is this lap blanket. All I actually needed to do was sew in the ends which I finally did. Actually didn't take long at all. I just hate sewing in ends. Most boring part of any craft.

This blanket was actually started at Christmas. You might remember that I purchased two yarn advent calendars. One of those was by For the Love of Yarn. Lisa provided a shawl pattern but I quite fancied the idea of a small blanket. Perfect for over the lap while working on a project.

I love the fact that I didn't know what the next colour was going to be. Despite my lack of will power I was actually very good and didn't open them in advance. Not like me at all. As I wanted to make the blanket slightly bigger I used leftover sock yarn. I chose a slightly thicker sock yarn for the edging to give it a nice drape and used my favourite fan pattern.

It's sitting in my living room for now but I might eventually move it to my little book nook. Can't wait for next years calendar.