FO - Charybdis Socks

It wouldn't be Christmas without a new pair of socks for Mr Soaring Sheep. Even before I was knitting them for him I'd buy him some lol. This pair have been made in secret although I'm starting to have my suspicions that the children have said something to him. Either that or he's EXPECTING a pair of knitted socks... Hmm may have to give them to him on Boxing day instead to trick him ;-)



Charybdis is a straight forward pattern to knit. It's a free pattern on ravelry and I was drawn to it because I liked that the feet spiral in opposite directions





I chose to do an afterthought heel rather than use the one in the pattern, just to be contrary really lol. The yarn is some of my stashed Flamboyance Yarns in a colourway called "Eldritch". I think it shows off the stitch pattern nicely, and green is kind of Christmassy right?



The children finish school today and Mr Soaring Sheep finishes work. We're all feeling rather run down and looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Not sure if I'm going to get a chance to post again before Christmas so if not I'd like to take the chance now to wish you all a...

Happy Christmas and New Year!!

Iced Gem Socks WIP

Oh I am so in love with this yarn. It's one of the ones I posted about yesterday. I couldn't resist getting it on the needles and look how beautifully it's knitting up :)



*swoon*

Is it just me who finds themselves knitting faster with self striping yarn? I'm always so keen to get to the next colour stripe lol.

I was out in the garden this morning to get some photos of Mr Soaring Sheep's Christmas socks which are now finished, blocked and hidden away ready for wrapping. I'll show you the photos tomorrow but thought I'd share some of my girl cat Rosie.



This is how she was sat on the grass. She didn't look very happy to be there but no one was forcing her outside lol. You can see all the bird seed mess the starlings have thoughtfully left on the ground. Maybe she thought one of them would fly down into her paws?



I caught her mid-miaow in this picture. She chirrups a lot when you speak to her. Our boy cat has a deep miaow and growls constantly while he's eating but she is higher and more inquisitive sounding



One last out of focus shot and she was off. Back inside to spend the day curled up on my son's top bunkbed and sleep. Sounds rather tempting actually!

Wednesday's WIP and Fluffy Post!

Last week I had to frog the work I'd done on my son's jumper because I'd been sent different dyelots. Luckily the company, Deramores, very kindly sent me out some new yarn to use and I've got loads of knitting done :-)



My camera wasn't very happy with the purple colour so it's not particularly true to life but it gives an idea of how it's knitting up. I've got one more repeat to finish and then it's starting the neck and shoulders I think. I don't tend to read too far ahead in a pattern or I get muddled!

The pattern is called Umberto if anyone is interested. It's a lovely straight forward knit, I'm really enjoying it.


Over the past year I've been "Cold Sheep-ing" and didn't buy any yarn for a whole year. It ended when I bought the purple yarn for the jumper above but now I've treated myself to two beautiful balls of self striping sock yarn



They are both from The Laughing Yaffle and I love how vibrant the colours are. I've had to throw away a pair of knitted socks recently, the lack of nylon content meant they wore out very quickly. I'm looking forward to replacing them and increasing my stash of knitted socks. Can't beat them at this time of year, brr!

In fact, I think I'm going to cast on some now :-)

Feeling Christmassy

This is our first Christmas in our first owned home and it feels rather magical to be here :-)



My granny square tree skirt is back out again, making me smile








My teeny baubles are looking lovely and joined by some toadstool ornaments too :-)






I love my new lamp, I've wanted one of these for, literally, years. We were actually organised enough this year to go to IKEA in time to get one before they sold out




 
The bunting I made last year is up too as if it was made for that space


I feel very lucky and happy to be here. I hope the positivity continues into 2015.


The replacement yarn from Deramores arrived this morning. Unfortunately it doesn't match the knitting I'd done previously so the whole thing had to be frogged and restarted. I've had a lovely day pottering around the house doing jobs and knitting away the rest of the time. Wonderful :-)

Yarn Problems

I was happily knitting away on my Umberto sweater for my son when I noticed a problem



Argh! I had a look through the yarn I'd bought and 3 of the balls had no label on so it seems they must have been from a different dyelot. Unfortuntely the yarn all looks the same colour in the ball so it's not until I was actually knitting it that I saw the problem.



I tried frogging back and then alternating two balls of yarn but it's just turned out stripy :(

I've been in contact with Deramores and they are going to replace the whole order of yarn and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.  I'm going to just frog back to the end of the first ball and cross my fingers that the new yarn matches better. If not then I'm going to have to completely restart :-(


Suppose I'd better do the heels for Mr Soaring Sheep's socks. Almost finished now :-)

Woolly Headed

I've just remembered that I told you about the Umberto I'm knitting for my son but never got round to showing you a picture of it! So before I lose any more knitting-blogger-points I thought I'd show you this :-)



The cable took me a couple of rounds to get right due to not reading the instructions properly. It's all sorted now though :-) I like the moss stitch in the centre of the diamonds and the purl stitches on the edges, lovely textures (although they'll benefit from a bit of blocking)

I've not really been working on it much lately though because I've been trying to get Mr Soaring Sheep's socks finished. Last night I realised I'd made a mistake...



No, there isn't really anything wrong with the knitting, just my counting! I usually knit 60 rows for the leg and then 20 rows on the cuff. Some how when I knitted the first sock I only managed 50 rows on the leg :-S I'm not going to bother ripping back and reknitting it so he'll just have to put up with slightly shorter socks than usual. Whoops!

At least it means I'm almost ready to do the cuffs. Nearly there :-D

WIP Wednesday

I've been enjoying working on my Charybdis socks and scrappy ripple blnket this week. The blanket is over halfway done now in terms of length, I'm aiming for single bed sized so still got a bit of a way to go. It's big enough to snuggle under now though



I've made good progress with Mr Soaring Sheep's Christmas socks. I'm going to do both the heels at the end. I've got about 15 more rows before I can put in the waste yarn for the heel on the second sock. I'll be using the same technique I wrote about here.



I'm having to concentrate slightly more with the second sock for some reason. I think I've just about got the hang of it now :-) Mr Soaring Sheep is away until tomorrow night so I'm getting lots of time to knit in secret. Hopfully I'll get them finished off by next week so I can get them washed, blocked and wrapped up for Christmas :-)