Zig Zag Lace Socks Pattern

I promised I would shut up about my Zig Zag Lace Socks pattern until I had published it. Well, I have finally done that. Over the last few weeks (between other projects) I have been working on the final pair for my pattern and gave it another read through. Tweaking  it here and there. Sunday night I did the final tweaking and it was ready to publish. My intention was to wait until Monday morning or until I was ready to write about it here. However, I couldn’t hold my water (as they say). I went ahead and did it. I now have my first pattern for sale on ravelry. You can find it here. Or you will notice at the top of the page I have added a new tab labelled designs. You will also find a link to it there. Please be kind as it’s my first but also do let me know if you have issues with it. I can’t fix what I don’t know about. It is fairly simple though so hopefully I have written it to show that.

For the actual pattern I decided to go with a yarn that most people will have access to or will have heard of. I picked Cascade Yarns Heritage 4ply. It has nylon in the mix which is perfect for the heels of socks. It is also beautiful to knit with. I am in love with this blue which is called turquoise. It feels very soft and knits up well. Please feel free though to use any sock yarn. You might find though that the pattern is better suited to a solid colour.

You can see above that I have knitted this pattern many times and I have used a different sock yarn in each. The bright pink is yarn by Hedgehog Fibres, the centre is the only striping yarn I used and is by Orange Jellyfish Dream. Finally the pale pink and the paler blue at the bottom are both by my favourite indie dyer For the Love of Yarn. Please have fun with it. I can’t wait to see others knitting it. Also, feel free to prove me wrong with the striping yarn. 

I have more patterns at hand but it might be a while longer before they are published. Two need tweaking and one needs written from scratch. In the meantime I am getting back to my 2020 challenge.

November WIP

It has been quite a while since I did a work in progress post. Mainly due to the fact that recently I've been doing the sensible thing and working on only one thing at a time. I'm back to multiple projects now that I am able to manage my time. This might seem like a boring image to start with but I love it. I love the crisp cleanness of it. This is the Heritage Cascade sock yarn I showed you in my last post. As I mentioned then it is being used for the final images for my birthday diamonds pattern. I love how it is knitting up. I very rarely knit with white on it's on but it's lovely to work with. This is the cuff completed and I am about to start on the pattern.

I have also made a start on this months socks. The yarn is from For the Love of Yarn. It's a complete change in colourway for me and I love it. I thought it would be very autumnal but it's actually brightening up my mood as we move into winter. I am also using my favourite pattern New England from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. It's knitting up fast.

Just to prove I am not just knitting or just working on socks. This is the stylecraft yarn I showed you in the last post. As mentioned then I am using it to work on a blanket for my living room. I went with the African flower pattern as it's been one that I have been wanting to try for a long time. I'm also joining as I go which will save one big headache later.

November Stash

All of these yarns in my stash are for a specific purpose which I will be using in the next month or two. Hence my breaking my yarn buying embargo. This beautiful yarn I saw on an instagram photo from one of my favourite knitting designers. I came across Ysolda through reading Clara Parkes book (which I reviewed a while ago). I have followed her since and loved all of her images. The image of this yarn was related to a sock pattern she was releasing and this yarn by La Bien Aimee was dyed especially for it. I also purchased the collection, Knitworthy 3, which contained the sock pattern. This yarn is just my colour and I thought I would end the year with it. So this will be my December socks. I'm looking forward to combining a skein of yarn with a mini skein. I've added Ysolda's website to my craft shopping page.

I am hoping to write out my first sock knitting pattern soon. For that I wanted to knit the pattern for a third time and this will be used for the images in the pattern. I wanted a colour that would suit the title which is Birthday Diamonds. I was initially thinking ice blue but changed it to white. I wanted to pick a yarn that most people would be able to have access to. Initially I was going to use Lorna's Laces but there was no white and so I went with Heritage Cascade sock yarn. I've used it before and liked knitting with it. I picked this up from Wool Warehouse.

I also decided that I needed a blanket to pull over myself in my living room when I want to snuggle up watching TV or reading a book. I picked these colours as it matches my living room and I've got to work on it already. You'll get to see that on Friday. The yarn is by Stylecraft and again I got it from Wool Warehouse.

Last but not least I thought I would show off this months mini skeins from Lisa's mini skein club (For the Love of Yarn). I like the variety in the selection. My favourite is right in the middle there in white, blues and purple. Although, I also love the yellow and purples next to it. Thank you Lisa.

Father's Day Socks 2016

Father's Day was on Sunday just past. I was working early on the Monday and so my sister and I spent the Saturday with dad. We got him a coffee machine that he's been wanting, some pods for it and two bottles of wine. So I don't think he will mind that these socks are a few days late. Although, I am taking him out for his Father's Day dinner tonight so maybe it's not too late.

My dad has become increasingly picky over the socks I knit for him. He basically wants just plain black. Anything else is too girly which I find ironical considering some of his choices for other things. I don't do plain black. I did it once and that was enough. So I compromised and added colour in at the toe and the heel.

The yarn I used for the bulk of the sock was a sock yarn by Heritage Cascade yarns. I got this from Wool Warehouse.  It's a Merino/Nylon blend and it was quite nice to work with. It felt quite sturdy and I think it won't wear thin any time soon. Perfect for hard during socks. The heel and toe is actually red! I know the images scream pink but it's red. It was from the mini skein set I got from Lisa of For The Love Of Yarn. I love all of Lisa's yarns so I don't think I need to say too much about it. It's slightly thinner than the Cascade yarn but it's not noticeably so and I think the two worked well together.

The problem with knitting socks for big feet is worrying about having enough yarn to knit with. I had ordered two skeins of the black because I know from past experience that 100g isn't enough for one pair. I didn't think I would need both though because I was using a contrasting colour for the heel and toe. I was right too. Which is good since I will be able to knit a second pair should my dad approve of these.

However, I worried about the mini skein. After I did the first heel (which is a short row heel since I was changing colour) I thought there was no way I was going to have enough. I knitted up to where I would change colour for the toes and stopped. I think started on the second sock. I thought if I could at least get two heels out of it then I could finish off in the black but I didn't want to have to unpick it all. This is why it's always handy to have two sets of DPNs the same size (and has nothing at all to do with me constantly losing them).

Thankfully I did have enough and I actually have a tiny amount left over. I'm actually quite pleased with the way they turned out. I love the contrast heel and toe. I think I'll do more of these. Although not in black. I quite fancy the idea of mixing and matching colours.

Oh and in case you are wondering the sock is just the basic pattern. I suppose you could do a pattern for the bulk of the sock but I wanted the contrasts of the yarn to stand out.