The Final Three

I have finished the last three pairs of socks for my knitting for nurses challenge. I have a wee collection and want to move on to other things. I am waiting for a few things to arrive and then I’m making up little care packages for my nurse buddies.

This pair is one of my favourites and I have a person in mind for them. The yarn is by Eaden yarns (not to be confused with Eden cottage yarns) who sadly haven’t dyed yarn in a few years. I think this may be the second and last yarn I purchased from the dyer. It’s so pretty. A very delicate colourway which is unlike me. It’s been in my stash for years just waiting for the perfect project. I thought the socks would look perfect with a contrasting to and heel. I initially wanted to do a tan contrast but I have every colour of mini skein but not tan. Thankfully I did have a nice pink which goes nicely. The mini skein is courtesy of my good friend Lisa of For the Love of Yarn.

The second pair is a sturdier sock. Although the yarn is 4ply it feels a little thicker. The yarn is by Knit Picks. I took advantage of their free delivery to the UK many moons ago. Sadly I have lost the ball band so I have no idea of yarn type or blend. It is beautiful though and lovely to knit with. I have quite a bit of the yarn left and I think I might hold onto it for little ankle socks.

Finally, this pair is among my favourites and I am half tempted to keep them for myself. The yarn is by Callum of For the Love of Yarn. He designed this yarn as part of the SJW awareness. He called the colourway “Respect is for Everyone” and the proceeds from the yarn went to his chosen charity, SAMH. The photo really doesn’t do this yarn justice. I love all the colours. I especially like the hints of yellow and green. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen that I posted a photo of the reverse of the sock and I loved the effect of that on the yarn. I’m tempted to knit up a pair of ankle socks in the reverse but would love to do a contrast heel and toe in the dark green. A possible project for the future.

Here are the three yarns still in their skeins. I think this photo shows up the Callum’s yarn better. Next post I will show you this months yarn purchases. I am really excited about that and have already started knitting with one. I am currently working on a sock design with it which wasn’t planned. I also finally got the needles I needed to get on with the cardigan for the KAL. The morrow of that tale is to not assume that you already have the needles that you need.

I hope you are all safe and that you are taking care of yourselves in body and spirit.

Dad's Christmas Socks 2015

My dad's Christmas socks are finished. I am actually organised for once. I thought for sure that I wouldn't get them done. It helps though when you decide to just use a basic pattern. After my dad's insistence that they not be feminine I decided against a pattern. He wasn't deserving (I don't hold grudges). Actually, I quite like the way they turned out even though it's a solid yarn colour done in the basic pattern.

I am truly gutted that I didn't take a photo of the yarn on it's own before I started knitting with it. I obviously thought I had and the yarn was definitely deserving of a solo selfie. It's one of the yarns I picked up from Knit Picks. It has a merino mix base. Now anyone who has knitted with merino yarn will tell you how lovely it is to knit with. It's super soft and knits up beautifully. Doesn't matter that it's for big foot as you don't mind that the knitting seems to go on forever. You want it to go on forever.

Plus look at the colours! Different shades of purples and blue. A lovely yarn and I would happily knit with it again. I'm a little jealous that this is for my dad. Not to worry I have my own Christmas socks which I also managed to get finished and you'll see them in my next post.

November Stash

I think that it's safe to say that I am well and truly now on a stash ban. Or at the very least a sock yarn ban. I went a little mad. I follow quite a few yarny people on instagram and I often envy the yarns they display. Particularly of the sock knitting variety. I then saw that Knit Picks was advertising free postage to the UK for orders over £40. Any sock knitter will tell you that is an easy target. I managed almost a month before I went online, had a look and subsequently filled a basket. It would have been too rude not to! 

I decided to mainly go for the more solid colours as I wanted yarns that would highlight patterns. I really need to go through my books and try some that I haven't done before. I also might want to try designing my own at some point next year and of course I would want a solid colour for that (maybe). All but one of the yarns have a merino mix base and are super soft. The dusky pink at the bottom is a highland wool mix. For anyone in the UK look for sock yarn it's called fingering weight in the US.

As for my shopping experience, I can safely say that it was worth it. Their website is filled with hard to resist goodies. The yarns I received are lovely and the colours very much matched the images. It was also very fast. A lot faster than I expected.

I splashed out and got some yarn from another US seller (again one I follow on instagram). This time it's an indie dyer called Orange Jellyfish Dream. The seller has an etsy page which is filled with lovely yarns. I had trouble narrowing my choices down to two. I also picked up a stitch marker holder which you can see at the bottom of the image.

Both yarns have a merino base and as you can see the purple has a lovely sparkle to it. My favourite though is the blue and I have decided that it will become socks for myself.

Of course I would rarely have a stash post without having something from my good friend Lisa. You will have seen this yarn from this months WIP page.  This is a double knit yarn in the donegal base. I asked Lisa to send me some to finish a blanket. It's super soft and lovely to work with.

Lisa also posted an image of this colourway on her FB page a while back. I requested it in sock yarn as I thought it was about time that my dad got some socks from hand dyed yarn. I thought it the colours would be perfect for him and I wouldn't mind knitting large socks since I would be using Lisa's yarn.

I thought wrong. My dad thought it was too girly! How is blue and grey too girly? Anyway, he picked out the purple as a much more manly colour. On the bright side I get to knit myself socks with Lisa's lovely yarn (the colour of which I happen to love).

I have linked all of these stores to my craft shopping page.