Catching up

Hello.  Once again it has been a long time since I posted on here so I thought I'd do a catch up post.

The usual things have been going on in life as they do and my days have been filled with crafting either knitting socks or crocheting blankets.  The garden is there waiting for me to get into when the weather warms up but for Melbourne this takes quite a while.  

We bought a second hand caravan from good friends several months ago so have been enjoying planning our first weekend away which is happening soon.  I'll hopefully have photos to share.  In the meantime here are a few of the things I've been getting up to.

Hubby and I enjoyed a day out visiting the Yarra Valley Dairy, one of our favourite places.

 

We saw the Wedge tailed eagle in the distance while there.

I made these bed socks for Mum.  Not quite a perfect fit.

Enjoying the colours of some sock yarn I ordered.

A skein of sock wool I hand dyed using camellia petals, melaleuca bark beetroot tops.

Knitting of socks in progress.

 

 

More socks.  This pair went to Genevieve.

  

Enjoying some colour in the garden.

Hubby and I cutting down branches from the old pear tree in the back yard.  Sadly the tree was diseased and all the wet weather didn't help so down she came.

Working on a stripey throw. Pattern found here.  Using colours from Lucy of Attic 24 cosy pack.

Five jars of yummy home made corn relish.  Delicious with a cheese melted toastie.

Rainbow lorikeets visiting this weekend.  The might be colourful but they are noisy and agressive, not my favourite parrot.

See you soon,

Anne  xx

My first pair of knitted socks

Where has the time gone since my last post when I mentioned I was learning to knit socks?  Well it's been taken up a lot by learning to knit socks, this pair in fact.

Now I'm sure if there are any experienced sock knitters out there you will see the mistakes and flaws but it really doesn't matter to me because I've learned a new skill.  My socks are comfortable and warm, a tad large but that's o.k. too.  

 

I must say that knitting these socks have been a life saver for me as I've been very much under the weather the past few weeks with a small operation and coming down with a nasty virus the next day that still wants to keep me company.  I've had to rest so much and sock making has certainly made this time pass more bearably.  

My thanks go to Christine Perry and her delightful blog Winwick Mum and her sockalong where she has posted in three weekly installments the sock making process.  The tutorials are explained in great detail in both written instructions and photos.  Christine has tutorials for knitting socks with either double pointed needles, large circular needles using the magic loop method or small circular needles either 30 or 23cm.  My first pair of socks were made on dpn's, my second pair are being made on 23cm circular.  My thanks too goes to all the wonderful ladies on the Winwick Mum Sockalong FB group for their encouragement and help.  Christine will be leaving the tutorials on her blog so if you want to join the sockalong or even just learn to knit socks, it's not too late.

So this is the yarn I'm using for my second pair of socks.  It's bright and out there, just my style and I'm really enjoying the process now I know a little bit more about sock construction.  I have quite a few balls of sock yarn (the stash) to use so I dare say I'll be knitting socks for some time.  :)

Stripey wanted to get in on the act in the very early stages of knitting my second sock.  He just wants cuddles all the time and I'm only too happy to oblige.  He makes a good hot water bottle on a cold day of which there have been many.

I can't leave without posting a photo from the garden.  Dew drops on the last of the autumn salvias.

Anne  xx

Socks

Have you ever made socks?  I'm giving it a go and joining in with the sock-a-long at Winwick Mum's blog.  Crochet is my preferred craft with wool but this looked like a really fun thing to do and the encouragement received from other people participating has been wonderful.  I've spent an incredible amount of time casting on, knitting, losing stitches, recasting on, many many times and getting very frustrated.  I finally set aside my first ball of sock yarn deciding it was jinxed and restarted the whole process with another ball of yarn I had.  I had success this time with a minimum amount of mistakes.

 
 I've chosen to knit with four dpn's which has been described as a bit like knitting with a hedgehog.  Hopefully progress will be good from now on.  If anyone is interesting in knitting socks (this pattern is from the top down), Winiwick Mum is leaving all the details, instructions and information up on her blog so you can refer to it at some other time.  There's still time to join in with the sock-a-long if you are interested.

Anne xx

New winter socks

When I started teaching myself to crochet last July, I never imagined I would be able to make socks.  But I can and I did.

As I was experimenting, I didn't want to use good quality yarn so I bought a 100g ball of acrylic yarn at the Reject Shop for $2.00, not quite using the whole ball.  The yarn is 8 ply and I used 4.0mm crochet hook.   The yarn isn't particularly soft but as an experiment, I am very pleased with the results. I found the pattern for the socks here.

I learnt how to crochet a rib effect for the upper part of the socks, how to make a heel (next time I'll increase the heel by a couple of rows) and shaping by decreasing stitches.

 I worked on the first sock over a period of three days as I wasn't really sure what I was doing.  The second sock took about 3 hours to make, not all at one sitting though.  Now that I can make a decent sock, I might just buy some lovely wool yarn to make a really comfy pair.  

Have a lovely day/evening,

Anne  xx

P.S.  If you are going to have a crack at making these socks, just to let you know that I started off with 40 chain instead of 30 as I wanted a longer sock.