Hello again! It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. What with Sock Madness and other projects, there has been no shortage of things to write about, just shortage of time to write it all up! So here I am, cup of tea at the ready, munching easter egg remnants, hoping you and your knitting are all well where you are in the world.
After finishing the Cable Madness socks for Round 2 of Sock Madness, there was a week or so where I had the noble idea of working on some WIP’s. This didn’t last long. I made a little progress on my Hespa shawl, but then I found myself getting twitchy to knit MORE LOVELY SOCKS. So I cracked open a skein of Little Wolf Yarn’s Squirrel Sock in the “Flower” colourway- dyed especially for this year’s competition. I wanted to make a good old pair of “vanilla” socks, but have a go at putting in a different heel from my usual afterthought. I’d heard rave reviews about Lara Neel’s book Sock Architecture , and am finding it brilliant for helping me to do something a bit different in my sock design! “Dragon Socks” are the result (cos the colours look dragon-y i think)
Round 3 has just begun for Sock Madness knitters, and this time we are knitting Longing for Spring by Caoua Coffee on Ravelry. I have to say, I really love this pattern. I love the name, the pretty design, and the pattern itself is written very clearly with both written and chart directions. I got really excited! My skein of superwash merino in Bluebells from Old Maiden Aunt Yarns seemed the perfect choice for pretty lace socks. I unwound the lovely well-wound skein and hastily looked for the ties to break. Unfortunately, I broke the yarn where I shouldn’t have, started winding awkwardly from the swift, and pretty soon got a tangled mess! Oh dear… but a mere afternoon of grumbling and untangling later, I was good to cast on!
My knitting thoughts at the moment are caught between seasons. Spring has certainly arrived here, so I’m looking forward to taking my bluebell socks to see some real bluebells in a few months, and I’m starting to think about summer projects. As for the winter WIP’s- the 3 scarves at various stages of completion, my Flax sweater waiting for sleeves- well, I’m thinking of stashing these until later in the year, when I’ll use them. One exception to this rule is a new project, Northdale by Gudrun Johnston, which is a lightweight fairisle sweater. It’s one of my dream projects to knit lovely complex-looking fairisle sweaters, and I like this design very much.
I’m using Rowan Fine Tweed for this project. It’s one of my favourite yarns, but a little beyond my budget usually for larger projects. I’d recently been lusting after some Kaffe Fasset designs which often use Rowan tweeds, and wondering if I should take one on as an epic project, but it seemed like a bit of an investment. So I couldn’t believe my luck when I bumped into a friend of my mum’s last week in the LYS, who said something along the lines of “Do you like knitting? Oh well then, I’ll donate my unfinished project to you. It’s a Kaffe Fasset jacket I started in 1986”. My eyes lit up! I had no idea if and how I would be able to complete the jacket, but I figured I’d be able to make something from it anyway.
The next day, a bag was dropped off at the house. A sizeable piece of beautiful colourwork knitting, together with the pattern, needles, and a whole bag full of my favourite Rowan tweeds in different weights. I couldn’t make head or tail of the jacket, so the knitted piece will be turned into a bag, and I have sorted the yarns to be used for different projects. To cut a long story short, I have taken the fine tweed to use for the Northdale sweater, and supplemented it with a few newly bought 25g balls in different colours. The aran weight tweeds have been saved for use with some similar donegal tweed I got in a yarn swap last year. Maybe that will turn into a Kaffe fasset jacket later in the year…who knows?
It feels like this has been a pretty long post, but I just wanted to share one last project with you. This is the completed magpie-themed Color Affection scarf. It is super long! I had to stand on a chair to take a photo! Here it is :)
Until next time, Happy Knitting!
Rosie x
Gosh, you’ve been busy! :) Love the OMA colour and the Little Wolf socks looks great. How lucky can one be to be gifted all that yarn! Your magpie Colour Affection is beautiful, too.
Thanks! :) Did you get some of the multi little wolf yarn too or did you go for the tonals?
Ups, I didn’t realize you’d replied to my comment. Sorry! I bought all of it! :) I really do hope the Little Wolf multi coloured yarn turns out like your socks when I knit mine. They’re just so awesome.