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 ;-)