Brrrr

It's got proper chilly these past couple of days. I'm making use of my knitted socks, sweaters, shawls, gloves, hats... It's a good time of year to be a knitter lol.

Having said that I'm not really knitting much because I'm not enjoying my current projects particularly but I want them finished before I'm allowing myself to cast on anything else! I'm desperate to cast on a sweater for me, maybe I'll get some yarn for it in the post-Christmas sales as a reward for finishing my other projects lol.

I've got another pair of socks to share today. These are knitted using a colourway called "Berry Splash" from Devon Sun Yarns. Mr Soaring Sheep bought it for me as a surprise present :-)



I cast these on at the end of August when I was getting over a nasty ear infection. I wanted something simple and pretty to knit and these fitted the brief.



I like how the colours merge together, so pretty :-)

My current WIP is still these TAAT socks. They have grown since I last shared them but not a lot. Maybe I'll feel better about them when I've got past the heels



I think this afternoon I'll sit down for a bit with a podcast to watch and try to get to the start of the heels. The sooner I put some time into them the sooner I'll be able to finish them and cast on something new.

Anyone have any tips for motivating yourself when you're not enjoying a project?


Linking up with Yarn Along and Keep Calm Craft On

FO - Macaw Socks

Thank you for the kind comments on my post last week, it feels good to be easing back into blogging.

Today I thought I'd show you a pair of socks I made for Mr Soaring Sheep's birthday back in September. He's not too bothered about pretty patterns, he just loves the bright colours, so when I saw this colourway (Macaw) for sale at Lamington Lass yarns I knew it would be perfect for him. As well as fun for me to knit lol



Unfortunately it's gloomy and drizzling outside so you'll have to make do with indoor photos. I think the socks have turned out rather nicely and Mr Soaring Sheep certainly seems pleased with them.



As usual I did a fish lips kiss heel which fits both our feet nicely and is straight forward to knit.

My current WIP is this set of Two At A Time socks. I'm using a free pattern on ravelry called Tendril die Socke and the yarn is from Five Moons Yarns



It's hard to see in the photos but the pattern is a k2p2 rib that shifts one stitch every other row which gives a nice spiral effect. I'm not 100% sure if the yarn works with the pattern and I find TAAT socks a bit tedious to knit because it feels like they're going super slowly. I shall persist though as purple is my favourite colour and purple socks will keep my feet happy lol



Last but not least I have a photo of my fluffy pup Pippin. He's 14 months old now and a bit of a teenager at times. I go to an all day training class with him once a month and he's definitely making progress. I fear I'm his biggest handicap lol



I've no idea what his ears were doing in this photo but he still looks cute. And as an aside he's the only English Shepherd in the UK with ears like this. I think it's because he's so nosy and doesn't want to miss out on anything ;-)

Hop over to Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along for more crafty posts. Thanks for visiting!

Slinking Back

Gosh that was a long break. 5 months without blogging :-o I'm not really sure what happened, I just ran out of words, ran out of the desire to craft, just ran out of everything.

I hope you all had a lovely Summer (or Winter if you're on the other side of the world to me!), seems like such a long time ago now. We enjoyed two weeks in North Wales, staying in a proper house rather than a tent. Soo much nicer when it rains lol.

Now it's November, the weather here as turned cold and autumnal and I've been enjoying picking up my needles again.

I've finished 3 pairs of socks since I last blogged, two man sized vanilla ones and a pair for me which I'll show you in a bit. The man-size ones haven't been photographed yet, the ones for Mr Soaring Sheep have been well loved, keeping his feet warm and need a quick wash. The other pair went to my Dad for his birthday and I completely forgot to take photos of them, what a bad blogger!

These are my finished socks though, terrible light I'm afraid. I need to find some better photography spots!



This pretty pattern is by Louise Tilbrook and is called "Bleaberry Tarn". I love how the twisted stitches really make the cable pop. I used a fish lips kiss heel 'cos I like it lol.



The yarn is from Stranded Dyeworks, I love Amy's use of colour and I'm lusting after most of the colourways in her shop! On a bit of a yarn diet at the moment though so will resist a while longer. This colourway is called "Ocean Rainbow"



So pretty :-)

I'm sort of trying to clear my needles at the moment. I've got a cabled cardigan for my eldest daughter that I haven't touched in weeks so instead of working on it I've been knitting more socks instead! I've promised once I've finished this pair I'll get back to the cardigan, especially now it's getting cooler and my daughter insists upon growing out of her other sweaters!



As you can see there isn't much more to go, maybe around 30 rows plus 20 for the cuff? Always good to have a new pair of socks. The yarn is called "Berry Splash" and is by Devon Sun Yarns



And last but not least, all this sock knitting means I have leftovers to go into my scrappy blanket. It's getting to be a nice size now, I'll be very cosy knitting this over the Winter lol.




Hopefully I'll be back soon with some new projects to share rather than disappearing off again! Thanks for visiting my blog and have a look on Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along for more crafty posts :-)

Evelyn x

FO - Coffee and Cupcakes Socks

I wanted to knit this pattern after seeing it on Sandra's Cherryheart blog, I just thought it was so pretty. It's a very easy pattern repeat to remember which is always good and I think it looks rather nice with the yarn



I cast these socks on in May but stalled on them a bit when the heel on the first sock didn't fit very well. I used the fish lips kiss heel which fits wonderfully but because of the lace pattern and me using 2.0mm needles there just wasn't quite enough room on the heel. It's blocked out looser though which is good so whilst it would have been better to frog back and do a gusset heel I'm happy I got away with it



The yarn is from Shadow at Felt Fusion and is a colourway called "A Christmas Rose", it's got a subtle silver sparkle running through which is pretty when it catches the light :-)


I'm off to take the dog for a walk now before it gets too hot. He got a bit of a fright earlier this morning when he was sleeping next to the front door and the postman dropped some letters through. I think he must have been quite deeply asleep as he woke up doing his "alert bark" to warn me of a possible threat. I told him to be quiet and he huffed at me in disgust ;-)


Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along. Have a good week everyone

FO - Father's Day Socks

I've not really been knitting much lately, hence the lack of blogging! I haven't had anything to show you! However I thought I'd get my act together today and show you the socks I've made for Mr Soaring Sheep for Father's Day this coming weekend



The colours look almost subdued in these photos which is a shame. They've got lots of sparkle in them which seems to have dyed the same colour as the yarn so in some places it's gold and others it's more of a silvery-grey



The yarn is from Countess Ablaze and is called "Big Fish in a Little Pond". I originally bought it for me but Mr Soaring Sheep was eyeing it up so I thought I'd order a second skein for him. I'll knit my skein up into a more patterned sock I think so we can tell them apart!




In the top left corner you can see a square I've made using the left over yarn. I've got 64 squares finished in my sock yarn banket now. I'm still ignoring the ends so I'll need to do a lot of weaving in at some point! I can't remember how many squares I'm aiming for but I want the blanket to be big enough for an adult to snuggle up under so still got a way to go. I'm enjoying seeing how the different yarn colours contrast with each other. Hopefully I'll have some more finished socks soon so I can get some more squares done. I'm still resisting buying mini skeins, even though they are very very tempting!



Hope you all have a good week and if you're in the UK then I hope you get to escape the rain we keep getting!

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along

Wednesday's WIPs

I've not got very much to show you WIP-wise today. I seem to have rather a lot of WIPs at the moment but a lot of them are being ignored so they aren't changing much. I do have a pair of finished socks for Mr Soaring Sheep to show you at some point but they need the ends weaving in and a quick block first.



These are the two projects I'm mainly focusing on. The purple socks I'm still deciding on the pattern for. I think I've got a plan but will wait for a bit just incase inspiration strikes



The other sock is a second sock which in theory should be faster as I know how big to make it, how many repeats to do etc. and I'm familiar with the stitch pattern. But then Second Sock Syndrome often strikes and I don't feel like knitting the same pattern again. 



It is a pretty pattern though. It's called Coffee and Cupcakes and is very straight forward and easy to memorise. It has come out a bit tight over the heel for me but I'm not a dainty-footed person so for a normal human they'd be fine lol. If I was to make them again I'd perhaps use a gusset heel instead of the FLK one I substituted as it has a bit more give. Hopefully blocking will help with that a bit as I'm not feeling very inclined to frog them back and redo the heel at this point :-S

So that's what I'm working on this week. Lots more crafty posts over at Nicole's and Ginny's :)

New Stash

I got a bit over excited by new-to-me dyers recently so I've acquired lots of pretty new sock yarns. Hopefully I've stopped adding to the stash now as it's going to take me a while to knit these all up!

These first two are from Stranded Dyeworks.  I fell for these after discovering the dyer's podcast, I love how she's dyed these colourways with lots of different dapples of colour



This one is called "Funfair", it's so pretty, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it knits up. The other one I bought is called "Ocean Rainbow"



I've already wound this one into a ball and cast on some socks, look how pretty it is



(ignore the safety pins, the bottom one tells me the starting row after the heel, the top one is for row 1 of the chart repeat)

The next two yarns are from Jellybeans Yarns, the first is called "Iridescent" and again it was the dyer's use of colour that caught my eye



This one was a custom dye and didn't come out quite as warm as the original colourway looked in photos. That's the nature of this kind of dyeing though and it's still very pretty.

The other colourway I bought was "Peacock", I do like a peacock-coloured yarn lol



The above 4 colourways were a birthday present to myself. Mr Soaring Sheep rather dropped the ball with my birthday this year and didn't get me anything :-o He has been suitably beaten though and once his thumb nails have grown back he'll be fine ;-)

To make up for his APPALLING behaviour (!) he chose this surprise yarn for me from Fivemoons Yarns



The colourway is called "Romantic Abnegation" but I think he chose it for the pretty purples rather than it's name lol. Unfortunately Pippin decided the skein looked interesting and had lots of fun tangling it up so that took us a while to sort out. It's now wound into 4 balls of various sizes (naughty puppy...) and I'm in the process of casting on some TAAT socks with it. I think I'm going to use the Hermiones socks pattern again.

Last but not least are two colourways from Lamington Lass Yarns, the first one is called "Macaw" and might possibly become socks for Mr Soaring Sheep if I'm feeling nice towards him



The other colourway is called "Welcome to the Bronze Age" and as the name suggests has lots of rich browns in it together with gold stellina making it extra gorgeous



This will become some cabled or lace patterned socks at some point, I think the yarn would benefit from something with lots of texture.


Right, now I've confessed my sins I'd better get on with getting some of my WIP's finished off quicker so I'm going to have a bit of knitting time whilst I wait for the puppy to digest his breakfast and the washing machine to finish it's current load. Have a good week everyone :-)

Yarn Along

I've got two FO's to share with you today. Both are socks that I've finished recently for myself.

The first pair are based on the Rye pattern by TinCanKnits, I did the garter stitch panel on the middle twenty stitches of a 64 stitch sock.



The yarn had been in my stash for a while and is from Flamboyance Yarns who are no longer trading. I did a fish lips kiss heel so these were a nice simple knit :-)



The other socks were knitted two at a time using a pattern recipe by Frida Åber. It's a free one on ravelry but basically every time you get to a new stripe you do a row of YO's K2tog. 



I love how these turned out. The yarn is a self striping colourway from Fab Funky Fibres called "Chocolate Brown Rainbow". The colours made me think of Smarties sweets so I referred to these as my Smarties Socks. I used a small ball of matching brown yarn for the heels and cuffs. I forgot to use it for the toes as I was so eager to get knitting the stripes!



Again I used the fish lips kiss heel for these. It's my standard heel now, it's so easy to work and fits my foot shape well. The yarn colours really are as bright as they look in these photos, yummy :-D

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along, thanks for visiting :)

Keep Calm Craft On

I'm mainly trying to work on Mr Soaring Sheep's socks this week. I'm just about the start the heel turn on the second sock so once that's done they shouldn't take much longer



Photo taken with flash which has washed the colours out a bit. I love the stripes that have formed as it's knitted up. Yarn is from Countess Ablaze and I've got a second skein to make some socks for me at some point. I'll do a pattern with them though so I can tell them apart from his!



These pretty ones are using the Coffee and Cupcakes pattern which is ever so easy. The yarn is from Felt Fusion/Den of Yarniquity and has a slight sparkle to it. I'm slowly knitting up the leg of the first sock at the moment as I only work on it when Mr Soaring Sheep is around.

Right I'd better get that heel done on Mr Soaring Sheep's sock, head over to Keep Calm Craft On for more crafty posts :) Or scroll down to see a grinning puppy ;)






Pippin will be 8 months old on Thursday  :)

I'm back!

Sorry for disappearing like that, after the running training and driving lessons I was feeling rather drained mentally. I decided to give myself a week off and just chill out as much as I needed to. By the end of it the house was looking neater, lots of knitting had been done and I was feeling much more positive.

It helps that the weather has been so glorious the past few days. We spent yesterday afternoon doing some gardening. We planted some new plants, put some new bedding plants in a couple of pots (I need to get more in the next few weeks but the Spring bulbs and bedding plants are still flowering) and we put down some grass seed to try to rescue what was left of the lawn





I'm pleased this Bleeding Heart plant has come back, it got rather brutalised last year by the chickens but clearly it had established itself enough that it could try again this year. I've just bought a white one of these too to brighten up a shady spot :)



My flowering cherry tree which spent almost a decade in a large pot is thorougly enjoying being able to get it's roots into the ground. This is the best blossom display I've seen from it :) You can also see some of the orange blossom of the flowering quince we inherited from the previous owners. Lots of bees and insects buzzing around that corner



Last year Mr Soaring Sheep bought me some surprise bulbs for my birthday. I planted them around the garden or in pots and waited with excitement to find out what they were. None of them grew. Not one. I was so disappointed, as was he! This year I spotted a collection of bulbs in Lidl so thought I'd have another go. This time they're in pots so I can keep track of what's growing at what isn't. There are dahlias, some anemones and some gladioli. They're all supposed to be red if I ever manage to get them to grow and flower! I also got 3 red lilly bulbs but they're planted in a pot round the front of the house as I have far more success getting lillies to grow!

I also planted three trays of sweet peas so I'm crossing my fingers for lots of pretty flowers this year. Some will be planted in the garden but most will end up in the allotment. Need to get down there again soon to see how our onions are growing and get some seeds in the ground :-D

Hope you all have a good week. I've got a couple of FO's to show you soon but today I'm going to work on Mr Soaring Sheep's Father's day socks. There's been quite a bit of stash enhancement lately so I need to get a move on ;-)

Success!

Just a quick post from me today. It's been a super busy week and I'm feeling in need of a break lol. I've been training since January to run my first 5km race and it was last Saturday. Mr Soaring Sheep ran it with me and whilst we didn't run the entire way round we didn't finish last either lol



I haven't run since but I do intend to get back in to it next week. I'd like to be able to run all the way round so that's my next goal.

As well as running some of you may remember that I've been having driving lessons. Well as I apparently felt that running 3 miles wasn't quite enough of a challenge I decided to book my test for 3 days afterwards. So this week and last week I was having lessons every day, fitting in running when I could, walking the dog, looking after the children and ignoring the growing mess around the house.

And guess what, I passed! :-D



I was so nervous on the day and then when he told me I'd passed I was so happy and excited. I passed around midday and I was bouncy and grinning for the next 3-4 hours. Then I just felt utterly exhausted lol.



So today is going to be a rest day. I've taken the dog for a walk and I'm going to park myself on the sofa with some knitting and watch some podcasts. And hopefully I'll be back again soon with some fo's, new yarn and WIP photos :-)

Linking up with Yarn Along and Keep Calm Craft On

Wednesday's WIPs

Eek things feel busy at the moment. My 5k run thing is this Saturday and lately I've just not been putting in the training. I'll get round it even if I have to take a couple of 1 minute walking breaks but it's starting to make me feel a bit nervous now. I've also got my driving test coming up soon so I'm having lots of extra lessons. I feel like I'm going to forget everything on the day and go to pieces so I'm hoping my nerves aren't too much of a problem.



As you can see I've got lots of socks on the go at the moment!



This Rye sock is the second one and I've got past the heel now so it's nice and straight forward. I've been working on these a lot in the evening when I want something to keep my hands busy



My Smarties socks also have heels now. I used the brown trim yarn to do the heels and will use it on the cuffs too. Probably could have used it on the toes as well but I didn't want to run out! These are fun to knit but a little too taxing for my brain right now with having two at a time to manage. I'm looking forward to working on these more when things calm down a bit



Lastly is Mr Soaring Sheep's Father's Day socks. I'm getting close to needing to do the heel on these but I need to either measure his feet or find an existing pair of his socks that he likes the fit of.


So that's what I'm up to. Mostly running around like a headless chicken in a panic when really I want to be taking a leaf out of Pippin's book and flopping around like this:




Hopefully soon lol.

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On and Yarn Along