Minisox

I think I'm one of the slowest knitters I know! Apart from the recent wedding, the gardening, the little girl's first haircut, reading Tara Moss and "Eat Pray Love" and my book about Grameen again, and watching Australia blitz the Commonwealth Games (between cartoons) I've had nothing to do except these tiny socks, and it's taken me almost 2 weeks!
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Slack. (The three kids and 6 other pairs of socks are no excuse.)
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I do like the multi-tone effect caused by accidently dyeing the skein while twisted up (where is my brain?) and despite how huge they seem to me, they somehow fit Byron's feet well. Sigh.
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Also bought 200g of fingering handspun from overseas somewhere. It was more multicolored in the picture, I thought, but I just plan to ply it together and knit some soft hats or something.
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35g knitted, 200g bought. Hmmm.

8 toes

Here's a pic for DrK. Eight little sock toes on two circs. Each sock is only 22 stitches around, so they're not much work each, though it takes a while to get around them all. Bit of fun. L-R: a grey/pink/blue bamboo sock yarn from Wired for Fibre, multicolored sock yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills (bargain room), green Dream in Color smooshy, Elizabeth (by Wired for Fibre) in Waterlillies, BWM luxury 4ply handdyed, grey Koigu, handdyed 4ply sock yarn (?Sullivans) in rainbow stripes, WFF Rita (sock yarn) in Opulent.


A little blue and yellow stripey 10ply sock yarn for quick and easy socks for my 3yo.

One finished blue sock that will probably suffer SSS for the rest of its life. The afterthought heel worked well, though I should have made it bigger, I think.

Zach in his little fat hat, which is just a tube of Jet, two strands held together, kitchenered at the top. Why make anything complicated when he looks so cute in the simple stuff?

Here they all are in the back seat. Three baby seats are going to be squashed in there for a while, as you need a kids seat until they're 7, now. Note Byron's new jumper from Grandma :D

Socktober

I joined Soctoberfest on Ravelry this year. Then, in a seizure of startitis, I started 14 socks. I have 14 toes on needles (not on the same needle, like one man I mentioned a while ago), though I do have 8 on a pair of circs..

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But first, here are my sister-in-law's socks. My brother got married on Saturday, and poor Kylie, who used to live up North, has just experienced her first Ballarat Winter. So Kelly made them (her) a blanket to wear while she sits on the couch. And I coordinated (kind of) to make them socks. I used the Mulga and Eucalyptus (as in Kelly's project) of Bendigo Woollen Mills classic 8ply, and threw a dice to randomize the stripes. :D

Here are Matt's. He is about 6'4, so his socks were a bit more work!

These last few days I've cast on

1. Socks for me in the new Casbah

2. Socks for me in some old EGMTK in a brown and green that makes me thing "Peppermint Crisp!"

3. Blue and yellow hand-dyed 10ply to make some for Byron, because he says he wants them.

4, 5, 6 and 7. Socktopus. LOL.

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I'm not sure any of them will get finished, but it will be nice to have some sock-choice! :)

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Now, I swear I tried and tried, but when I finally got Jasmine to put on her wrap, she Would Not Stand Still. See?...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ObdJlm42fw

Yesterday and Tomorrow

Yesterday was the end of the month :D. I basically spun/bought 500g and also knit 500g. (The difference was about 10g in the right direction). So I'm stash steady on 17.8kg.
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Some finished objectlings:
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Fingerless gloves for Nathan, which he requested many moons ago for work. I got... sidetracked... from the boring black, but I whipped up number two in time for our 11th anniversary. (I'm old. I know.) They are Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 10ply, two strands held together, knit on 5mm needles, so pretty tight and thick. The pattern was something like "garter stitch 3, stocking stitch 15, garter stitch 10" until it goes around, then sew up the cast on/off, leaving a thumb gap. Basic but warm.

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Garter stitch wrap. Green acrylic (that I was given last month) on 4mm needles. Difficult to contain my boredom. Should look cute on this, though...

...if she can just smile a bit! Tomorrow she is going to be a little flowergirl at my baby brother's wedding. The wrap should keep her arms warm, and match the bridesmaids. Mum made the one for her 10yo cousin and fellow flowergirl, thank goodness. And it only seemed to take her a week. lol.

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Then I whipped up this. The perfect project for a nice 100g skein of worsted weight yarn.

Burberry Inspired cowl. Big loose cables. Katie's perfect yarn. Somehow it's now pink instead of red, but I still love it.

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Oops...

...My credit card slipped...





Do not know what to make with this, but it's Handmaiden Casbah cashmerey goodness.

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Got 100g of Koigu in greys, too.

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Then some Dream in Color Smooshy fell into the cart. Sigh. Tempted to copy this project... with the same amount of the same yarn.

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Have also finished two small things. One new phone sock

and two for the feet. I'm wearing them now. Thick and warm :D

August

So this month I finished two "Second socks" (the first socks were knitted a while ago, and therefore not counted in the big stash-weigh), a pair of thick socks, a knitted ball and another big Milo. I was given 100g of acrylic (in a color that will match the bridesmaids) by my future sister-in-law, to make Jasmine a wrap. I also bought 650g of yarn. I gained 88g of stash :D
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Let's call it 100g, so my total will be 17.8kg, and 12g off for September.
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Here is a knitted woven ball, which was fun.

It's just 6 strips of stocking stitch. I did a 10stitch icord, with the yarn laddering loosely across the back, so I didn't have to purl. lol. That part is easy. Then you follow the instructions, weaving it together and sewing the ends together. It doesn't even need to be stuffed. Zach loves it.
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Then, to stash bust, I knitted a size 18month Milo but with 6mm needles and two strands held together. Thought it would be big enough for Zach. It's actually a bit too big for Byron. LOL. I ran out of black, so I carried on with some yarn from a different colorway. I test-dyed a piece black, and it comes out just like the first yarn. Even the non-wool flecks refuse to take up the color, so it's nicely heathered.

Of course, I don't have any more black food dye until I go shopping, but it's knitted and therefore counted!!

This isn't mine. It's Jasmine's made by Grandma (my Mum), who has taken up knitting lately. She's made a heap of charity hats, and is now doing the 'grandma thing' by knitting some jumpers. It's a nice soft acrylic. Cute color on Jasmine, too.

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And now I'm off to increase my stash by plying some G&G spun singles :D

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edit: Here we go. 112g and 112m of navajo-plied wool with nice long green and blue color changes. Should be stripey :D

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Wired for Fibre

Katie is my favorite indie dyer and sells my Luxury Yarn at Wired for Fibre . So when I got some tax back, I decided I'd better honor my recent Stash Pledge (lol) of Quality over Quantity. So, before I could spend up on barrels of bargains, I headed to WFF and filled up my trolley with very nice stuff.




Here they all are again, L to R...


This one is Tidal, which I used once before, I think, on Zachary's little kimono sweater. He was wearing it today, but he's almost grown out of it, little chubber. I got just a bit of "Lauren", which is 10-12ply/ heavy worsted, because it was beautiful to knit up my Paper Moon hat with.

Haystacks. The photos made it seem mainly green and yellow, and I bought it for it's Springish colors (it's very wet and yukky-grey here lately). But there are a lot more colors in there, and they're all mixed so well... sigh. I'm glad I got two.

This one is such a color-mix. No plans for it yet, but I love it. It's mostly rusty reds, but it's also got some grey-blue and some gold... hmmm.

Elizabeth is a fingering-weight merino. In spite of my hatred for all the grey clouds, I love the grey color range, so I bought some 4ply. It's not the cashmered-up one, but I'm still thinking a shawl or lace scarf...

Also thought I'd try some 100% silk in a semisolid gray. What shall I do with 230m of silver silk? Hmmm... :D

Fate would have to be my favorite colorway from WFF. It's just a dark green semisolid, but I love it a lot. This one's an 8ply, because I already have one, and decided I needed another (to have enough to make anything). I'm thinking of mixing it up with another skein I have of... hmmm... elusiyan, I think, and making Jasmine something.

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And now I have to knit knit knit, or my stash-weight is going up this month. Can I knit half a kilo in a week? :D hehehehhe.