Clearing the backlog #2 - Little Hats

These all started when DD needed a new hat for the winter. She's getting to the stage where she has an opinion about what she wears (especially the colour) and would generally prefer pink. I'd generally prefer anything but pink (especially in large quantities), so I reckoned that a compromise could be reached.

Years ago, I signed up to a Lorna's Laces sock yarn club from Get Knitted for a year. Two skeins every month... and at the very most I've used a couple of those skeins. I keep saving them for special. One of the colourways, Fandango, struck me as the perfect compromise for this hat. It contained pink, but was nicely balanced by purple and a white/pale grey.

I chose the Charlie's Sock Yarn Hat pattern by Aimee Alexander and knitted the toddler size in the round on 3mm needles.

The pompoms were made on my new pompom makers ( I decided that two circles of cardboard like I used to do as a child was way too fiddley for adult fingers, especially when the pompoms are only 1.5 inches in diameter). These pompom makers are definitely the way to go and I now own a collection of them from minute to huge.

Shortly after I made the DD's hat, a good friend of mine had a little boy who obviously needed  a hand-knit hat, so I knit another in the baby size using Regia Galaxy in the Saturn colourway...

and then I made another toddler one in Regia Sock Yarn in the Zanzibar colourway for his big brother who is a little older than DD because his little brother couldn't have all the fun.

This pattern is excellent. It sizes up well, and the turned brim is lovely  and warm over the ears. I also think that it looks better than ribbing. I made a minor modification in that I used a three needle bind-off at the crown instead of lots and lots of kitchener stitch.

A Year in Yarn

About this time last year, I signed up for the Get Knitted Lorna's Laces sock yarn club. The deal was two skeins of a limited-edition colourway every two months.

The last installment arrived this month. To my eternal shame (as I'm meant to be stash-busting, not aquiring), I've not knitted any of it up yet, but I have plans...

Fandango - possibly destined for a Swirl Scarf.

Irish Jig - not sure yet - maybe socks for the Resident Radiologist?

Christmas Congo - definitely socks for the RR.

Laendler - may also be used in the Swirl Scarf.

Hula Kolili - this is the one I'm least fond of - I can't think what to do with it.

Three Drunken Maidens - socks for me.

There are several colourways here that I would have walked straight past in a shop and never have picked up myself, but they've all grown on me and each has it's own charms. In addition - as the club was from Get Knitted, they all arrived beautifully wrapped with a little extra (often edible) surprise.


Despite this blatent stash aquisition, I've actually been quite good over the last year. Any other yarn that I bought was knitted up straight away and on the whole, I've got less stash this year than last. I've also been having a clear-out so there is yarn available on my destash page on Ravelry. I may be about to make up for lost time though as the RR and I are off to the Lake District this weekend for some hill walking and a trip to Woolfest!

His and Hers...

... new socks for winter. (And most definitely not matching! The Resident Radiologist and I are not really matching sorts of people.)


In this case, the only real overlap (besides both items being hand-knitted socks) is the pattern, my standard fall-back, top-down, heel-flap sock pattern.


Hers: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in 'Girly Stripe'. 68 stitches around on 2.25mm needles to fit a UK6.5 foot. A fantastic injection of colour to combat a very dark Glasgow November.



His: Schoeller + Stahl Fortissima Colori Socka Color. 68 stitches around on 2.25mm needles to fit a UK11 foot. A lovely soft heathered colourway chosen by the resident radiologist himself.

Irish Jig

This is mainly a visual post. The yarn is the latest installment of the the Lorna's Laces Sock Club from Get Knitted 'Irish Jig'.



It's probably not going to be my favorite LL colourway as the yellow is a bit muddy, but it's nice and spring-like so makes a good stash addition. I suspect that once it matures in the stash for a while, the perfect pattern will make itself known and it will all work out well.

Fandango

A month or so ago, I was browsing the Get Knitted site, like you do, when I noticed the link to their sock club. Now, I've been considering the idea of a sock club for some time, and when I realised that the Get Knitted one was using specially-dyed Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, I jumped on the band-wagon immediately.

Here's the first installment:


Colourway 'Fandango'.

I've no idea what pattern I'm going to knit yet, or when, but the yarn is sooooo pretty, I think I might just look at it for a bit!

Spring socks

Spring has most definitely arrived in Glasgow. There have been a few advance signs for a month or so now - daffodils and crocuses etc, but now it's mild and sunny and I've turned the central heating off. This doesn't mean that we aren't still getting rain, hail, snow and sun all in the space of half and hour (this is Glasgow after all), but the days are brighter, it's light to well past 8pm and things look colourful again.

This change in the daylight has shifted my colour preferences from the warm reds, oranges, pinks and purples I drift towards in winter to cooler blues and greens. These preferences are perfectly summed up in my new socks....


These are my first attempt at Jaywalkers (I can't post a link I'm afraid as MagKnits has been abruptly taken off-line). I was actually very lucky to get the pattern as, though I'd had it bookmarked for ages (maybe even a couple of years), I only downloaded it a day or so before the site was taken down.


The pattern is really simple to knit and fits me very well. I can't believe how long it's taken me to get round to this pattern, I kept putting it off as I thought it looked a bit tricky, and the reality is the opposite.


The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in colourway 'Icehouse'. This is my first experience with Lorna's Laces and it's beautiful to knit with. As can be seen from the second and third photos (different sides of the same sock) the colour pooling is a bit wierd, but that's not something I worry about too much in socks (at least not enough to rip out a pattern I've been meaning to knit for ages).