Father's Day Socks 2017

After a 5 month break from sock knitting (I think the longest period I have went without knitting socks since I first learned) I need excuses to knit some. The first was a pair for my sister just because I thought she would like the yarn. With Father's Day on Sunday I had another excuse.

Now my dad is quite boring when it comes to knitted socks. The very first pair I knitted for him was in a rather heavy black yarn. He loved them. Unfortunately I did not love knitting them and swore blind that I would never knit black socks again. Don't worry, I am sticking to my guns although my dad has been less than enthused at every pair of socks since.

I think he will like these ones though and I actually wish they were for me. They have this same thickness as his very first pair and the same texture. It's the colours I love. Still subdued and subtle but a lovely blend of greens into golds. I am so glad that I used the basic sock pattern to show off the colour changes.

It even worked out with the heel turn. Normally the colour change between the leg and the gusset looks unnatural or odd unless using a short row heel. This worked out perfectly and I was able to ensure both socks matched.

The yarn came with my fibreshare box. It's by Debbie Bliss and is a Rialto luxury sock. The yarn is a wool blend which explains the soft but tough texture to it. It is very similar to a yarn I used a few times back in 2012 called Regia Hand-dyed Effect. It's a little stronger but like the regia it breaks if pulled on too often. The Regia used to drive me up the wall because it happened all the time and I stopped buying it as a result. This yarn only did that to me twice. The first before I started and the second after I had finished the last sock. Luckily I had just enough left on the needle to weave in. It would be interesting to see what other colour options there are in this range.

I have another pair of socks on the pins but I want to compare it to another pair that I will start after so it will be a while before you see it. Next week I plan to show where I am at with my blanket club blanket.

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.

Mum's Garden - June 2016

Sorry for the silence the last few weeks. All those months of saying 'when I get my new flat' and now I am finally in there. I am pretty much settled. Just waiting on a carpet and a sofa for my living room to arrive and then I can truly get comfy. In the meantime I am kinda living out of my kitchen and bedroom. Both of which I love. I will do a post on that later (once the living room is sorted).

In the meantime you might have noticed that my red theme post appeared and has now disappeared. It posted before I was finished with it. This is why you should always hit save rather than schedule when you still have editing to do. I will post it later this week. Complete this time.

I may be on the other side of the city but I am still keeping an eye on my mum's garden. My dad has been sending photo's when plants have started flowering and he has been watering the garden during hot days. I was over yesterday to visit my dad and to have a look. I apologies for any weeds. My dad has let them go rampant for fear that they are flowers. I sorted that yesterday.

Believe it or not the first two photo's are of plants which are supposed to be poppies. The cover of the seed pack is an image of a field of red poppies. They don't look much like poppies to me. They are pretty though. I love the pinks and purples.  Fingers crossed the bees and butterflies like them too.

These little pink flowers from a bush near the back door are back on display again. I think they took longer to bloom this year. Although, maybe everything bloomed faster last year. I need to trim the grass around the plant or I would have zoomed out on that one. The bees always love this one.

The pink roses have started to bloom. Sadly I missed the prime of this one although my dad caught it as he sent a photo of it last week. There are more there about to come out and the roses at the front have a few buds too. I can't remember if the ones at the front are white or yellow so I look forward to finding out.

I have a pot at the back which I had been undecided for a long time as to what I was going to plant in it. In the end I decided to leave it for now and use it in the autumn. I haven't been watering it and it was full of what I thought was just weeds. I was then surprised when I saw this little flower which I remember planting for last summer. It's not in the best condition nor is it's neighbours but it was a nice surprise all the same.

PS Happy Father's day folks. That was the real reason for my visit yesterday. My dad got a coffee machine with capsules, sweets and a couple of bottles of nice red wine from both my sister and I. I'm also taking him out to dinner on Wednesday.

May Stash

Last month I was very good. I did not add to my stash at all. This month I have been very very bad. I am just going to enjoy it though as I get the keys to my flat at the end of the month and so there will be no more bad months. My bank balance won't allow it.

The truth is I wanted to buy some nice sock yarn to knit up for my dad for Father's Day. So I thought that Forest Moon by Mothy and the Squid would be perfeect. It's a dark colour but has that hint of yellow to make it a little bit special. The Summer Skies Rainbow I picked out for my sister as I decided that they would be perfect for a pair of summer socks. She loves the yarn and says it reminds her of care bears and rainbow brite. I have to be honest that I can't wait to knit with both of them.

The lovely Jillian also sent me a little mini skein of sock yarn in red. I thought that was lovely. Oh, and she also sent me more stitch markers which you saw the first time I purchased her yarn. I love this and I think they will become the heel and toes of a pair of socks for myself.

My good friend Lisa of For the Love of Yarn had a yarn sale on her facebook page. I picked up two of those yarns (I couldn't resist).  The yellow and white I picked up because the colours were so completely different to anything else in my stash. I generally find myself navigating towards the same colours all the time so this will make a nice change. The second I picked up because it's crazy enough for my sister to love. I have these earmarked for her Christmas. Although, she has asked me to knit her a pair of leg warmers so maybe I will use it for those.

Alas my sister has told me that the Forest Moon socks are too girly still for my dad (they have a sparkle to them) and so I have had no choice but to go with what my dad really wants which is plain old and boring - black. I picked up some heritage sock yarn from Wool Warehouse. I even have them on the pins already and I can confirm that it is lovely to knit with. I hope he appreciates it though.

He is not getting off entirely scott free. The black yarn gave me all the excusee I needed to pick up a pack of Lisa's mini skeins. One of these will form the heel and toes of the socks. He will have coloured socks whether he likes it or not.

I also indulged in picking up some stitch markers from Lisa. I really do have an obsession with collecting them. I couldn't resist sets involving my favourite things - mushrooms, ladybirds and owls. One day I will need to show off my collection.

Stripey Father's Day Socks!

All my photo's have successfully loaded onto my virus free laptop so I can finally share the socks I knitted my dad. Normally I'm not bothered about the socks that I knit for him. He likes plain colours and they aren't the most exciting to knit. Especially since it involves so much more knitting than when I knit for someone like my sister (who likes FUN colours).

The plan this time was to knit him socks that were actually fun to knit. I was aiming for a nice cable but in the end I came to the realisation that it wasn't going to happen. I didn't have enough time to search out a pattern I liked, that was manly enough and that could be adapted for his ginormous feet. Actually that was the problem. I spent too much time searching which didn't leave enough time to knit them assuming that I did eventually find a pattern. So I then decided on stripes. As I have stated a number of times I love a stripe and so I enjoyed knitting them.

I chose muted colours since it was for my dad. I picked out an ivory and a nice charcoal grey. I did think that I would be a little bored with these colours but I actually like them. So much so that I have some yarn left and I am hoping that I might manage a pair for myself. Just don't tell my dad we will have matching socks or I will never hear the end of it. He might take it as a sign that we are similar and I can't have that.

 

The downside to knitting stripes is that it doesn't travel well at the start of each round. You can see the result of that in the above photo. I was fully aware that this would happen so made sure it was to the back of the sock. There is a way to solve it but as I said earlier time was not my friend. So the next stripey pair I knit (and there will be more) will be done so that this doesn't happen. I have the tips in a magazine. I just need to find the issue it was in. Wish me luck on that one.

As for the yarn itself, it would seem that I didn't take a photo of it. I was probably too eager to get started. However, I do have the same yarn in other colours and you can see it above. The ivory is the same but the bright pink is obviously for my pink loving sister. The yarn is by The Women's Institute and is sold exclusively to Hobbycraft. Obviously I went with the 4ply since I was knitting a plain sock. Having said that it is a little thicker than your average sock yarn and so I had to go down a sock size. It's lovely to knit with though and feels almost like a cotton. It's so soft. It can be a little splitty to work with but that's easily managed and the end result is worth it. It's also not a bad price for 100g. I recommend it.

Pins I Love - Father's Day.

Do you know how hard it is to find anything on pinterest that is Father's Day related? Unless of course you are five and making your first father's day projects. Then there is an over abundance of ideas and tutorials. Once you hit your teens (and I am WAY past my teens) it just becomes embarrassing for the most part. I am basically scraping the barrel with this post. However, I didn't want dad's to be left out since Mother's day got a look in. To be honest it isn't just that there is a lack of projects. When you have a father who does not appreciate crafts anyway it makes it that more difficult to choose. I can safely say my dad wouldn't thank you for most of these.

He especially wouldn't thank you for ransacking his ties! Have to say these particular ties are ugly (in my humble opinion). If my dad had ties like this I would be doing the world a favour by preventing him from leaving the house wearing them. Having said that I do like the idea of it. Using old ties to create a fun pillow or cushion.  It looks like it's from a generic 'how to' site but the instructions on how to make one are all there.

These coasters are pretty nifty.  I would actually quite like them myself. Using scrabble tiles means you can spell out whatever you want within the confines of four letter words. There is even the minutest chance that my dad would actually use them. There is the even bigger chance that dad would get given something else instead as I keep them for me. It's another tutorial this time on a blog called Domestic for Dummies. It hasn't been updated in about a month but might be worth checking out anyway.

 Another shout out to the decorated mug. What I like about this tutorial is that it shows you how to get rid of those awful streaks that can occur when using pen. This blog seems to use pens made for porcelain which might work better than the sharpies (sharpies do no stay on mugs even if you bake them). Again not something my dad would appreciate. It doesn't matter how many mugs you get him. He still uses everyone else's and breaks them while his act as dust collectors. This particular blog hasn't been updated since 2011 so I'm not even going to link it. The tutorial though is linked through the image and you could access the blog that way if you are curious.

At last! Something my dad would actually like. Socks! It's a fairly simple pattern which can be found on the craftsy website. The pattern looks like little bricks and it comes in both male and female sizes. It is actually difficult to find pattern for men. Most socks found on line seem to cater only to female sizes. Possible because they are quicker to knit. Sadly the pattern isn't free but it was actually designed by a solo crafter. I always think it's worthwhile paying for a pattern you like if it means you are helping someone who is a solo designer.

Lastly, I quite like these printables for jar lids. I think they are quite cute and could be adapted for anyone. I happen to have a few female friends who love most things with printed moustaches. Plus you can fill the jars with anything you wanted. The printables are free and you can access them by clicking on the image. It comes from a blog called Popsicle which is still being updated.