Super-speedy socks

I seem to have fallen off the tank top wagon almost before I'd got started.
I knitted the swatch and before I'd even managed to measure the gauge I was getting, the Koigu in my (currently sonewhat limited) stash had wound itself into balls and cast on for a pair of socks!


Five days later, here they are! They are the fastest pair of socks I've ever knitted - the first was done in two sittings (though some back-to-back matches in the rugby world cup helped that along) and the second in a few evenings. The fact that they were for me and not the resident radiologist helped too - his feet are several inches longer than mine.

I can safely say that the RR is never going to receive a pair of Koigu socks - there just isn't the yardage! I only have average sized feet (UK 6 - US 8) but there was only a metre of yarn left over from each skein after the grafting. Using 3 skeins for a pair of everyday socks would just be too much! Having said that, the Koigu is lovely to knit with and the colours are beautiful - I think that this is colour P313, bought from Get Knitted and these shades will look perfect inside my Crocs for the winter. Some new skeins might just have to find their way into my stash once we've moved house.

A new start...

Here's my next project - the tank top from Twilleys Freedom Spirit book.


The colourway is 'force', the same as the one on the left of the photo in the book and it's been in my stash for well over a year now.
I'm going to fiddle with the pattern a bit (as always) to knit it in the round, but otherwise it looks like it's going to be pretty straight forward.

And here's a bit of knitting eye-candy: sock blockers.
The resident radiologist made me some out of coathangers a while back but they just weren't quite right so some Fibre Trends ones were procured from Get Knitted in knitter's size (UK 6) and RR size (UK11). They're great!

Wispy bits and pieces

Wisp is finished, about which I'm really pleased. I really did not 'feel the love' for this project when she was on the needles but the finished product is pretty and will be a useful addition to my Christmas gift stash. She's knit in Kid Silk Haze on 5mm needles.

Here she is in her fluffy pre-block state...


And now she's all pinned out.


I can't believe how many mistakes I made in her, normally I'm really fastidious and rip back as soon as I find a mistake, but with the fluffyness of wisp, I didn't spot them until it was too late and she was blocked, at which point they became glaring. Hopefully, once the pins are out, she'll relax a bit and they won't be too obvious.

Here are a few more shots with some detail:




















And here are some of the products of a happy hour or so on Sunday afternoon.


We were up on Royal Deeside recently and on the way back, we stopped at Blairgowrie, the best raspberry growing region in the world, to pick up some semi-squished 'jam rasps' that the producers sell at the side of the road for a pound per pound. They went in the freezer at the time, but as it will be easier to move house with jars of jam rather than bags of semi-defrosted, dripping-red-sticky-juice raspberries, on Sunday I jammed them. Result - yummy!

More Socks

Another pair of socks hot off the needles for the Resident Radiologist.


The yarn is Regia Crazy Colour, bought at Woolfest in the summer. I've gone back to my standard feel flap pattern for this pair as the afterthought heels didn't fit him too well.


The regia yarn is lovely to work with - this is the first time I've used it - it's springy and smooth and gentle on the hands (which is something that couldn't really be said for the Lana Grossa in the last pair).

I've currently got Wisp on the needles but the progress is slow as I'm using Brittany birch needles and the KSH tends to stick a bit on them. I want to make two Wisps as Christmas gifts though so I need to keep plodding on with them...

Something a bit different

I've been making fairly regular forays into the world of beads and jewelry for the last couple of years but never think to photograph any of it. I aim to change this in the near future (and use it to make up for the dearth of interesting knitting while I organise moving house).

This necklace is one of my latest ones:


It's semi-precious beads (I temporarily forget the stone) spaced with 'rice' freshwater pearls and glass beads. It's strung on monofilament with a screw-barrel clasp.


I'm actually planning on restringing this to take out the freshwater pearl pendant as I don't think that it fits proportionally with the rest of the beads.

More from the bead stash (which incidentally predates the yarn stash) next week...

Socks.

At last, a finished object!


A pair of socks for the Resident Radiologist (autumn is not that far away in Glasgow and soon the time for wooly socks will come round again). These are my usual stocking stitch pattern with an afterthought heel (the first time I've tried it for the RR - it doesn't really fit him so well so it will probably be the last time).



The yarn is Lana Grossa Mega Boots Stretch which feels like it will be pretty hard-wearing. The needles were 2.25mm DPNs.

Another pair of socks is on the needles for him as I type - it's all I can manage to concentrate on at the moment what with buying and selling houses. We've arrived at a price and move-in date for our new house now and just have to get the old one sold!

Still here...

... no, I've not dropped off the planet altogther but you would be forgiven for thinking so. No knitting at all has happened in the last week (NONE AT ALL - eek!). I have however, with much help from my mother, (the resident radiologist was in Greece for a conference) painted three ceilings, repaired the wall and tiling round where our new boiler was fitted, painted the front door (thanks mum - I can't really claim the credit for this) and generally cleaned and decluttered the house. We now have a whole storage unit full of boxes and extra furniture and our house is on the market. Oh, and I think I've bought a new house! I saw it while the RR was away and it was too good to miss, so I put in an offer subject to survey. The RR has now seen it and we're surveying it today. I'm VERY EXCITED about it. It really is just what we were looking for, about half a mile from where we currently live, and just the right price too. Wish us luck...