It was because of this that when Rubbishknitter linked to Skeins I was off ogling yarn like a madwoman. I’d been looking for a while for a yarn I’d had in my head. Something DK weight in a leafy sort of green. And voila!

This is their DK Shetland in Moss Cottage, which is soft and squishy and I can’t wait to start knitting with it.

The book is called The Joy of Sox and these are my socks as they appear in the book:

The brief for the book was that it was a slightly risqué play on a book with a similar title and the patterns and book style is slightly tongue in cheek, but not rude so I can still show it to my grandmother. My socks are cute rather than sexy, and more in mind for wearing on a cool evening, curled up on the sofa with a loved one watching DVDs, which is what I tend to do a lot anyway.

Thanks for the comments on the last post’s mysterious knitted thing. It is indeed a toy, but what it is can’t be revealed just yet, in part because I am awaiting eyes and a nose, so it currently has no expression and looks rather pathetic (if something without a face can have any expression, that is).

So instead of creating interesting knitted widgets over the weekend, I pulled out my old design notebooks which had been gathering dust over the past year while I was growing a baby. I’ve been mulling over a few ideas of late and intended to make a start after Christmas, but I’ve mentioned before how a certain person had other ideas about me having any free time. Now all that’s stopping me are the normal baby interruptions, apparently they’re most likely to occur just when I’ve just had an eureka moment and need to get it on paper IMMEDIATELY before it falls out of my brain never to return.

I always knew there was a reason why I kept all the little oddments of yarn from old projects, even the tiniest bits. I used to design using the project yearn, but when it’s been frogged in disgust several times, it ends up looking very tired and sorry for itself. So using random yarn in the right weight to work out the technical part of a pattern is very clever and is a good reason to have bags of tiny balls of yarn. Now the project yarn is saved for “best” and only ripped out if it doesn’t suit the pattern or – and this is quite common – I make a cock up mistake.

Currently my designing is making me wish I’d paid more attention in maths and not spent my time doodling all over my workbook. But it’s lovely to play with yarn again and setting myself another challenge after my Olympic knitting.

Only another million little pieces to go..!

After the high concentration needed for my last project, I felt like knitting something quick that didn’t involve anything too complicated.:-) I’ve been planning to knit this shrug for a while. I saw the previews for the Interweave Weekend magazine and just fell in love with it. It’s possibly one of the girliest things I’ve knitted for Rose so far!

The pattern is very simple, just a top-down raglan with no front, just the back and sleeves. The little cable detail is cute and very easy to do without a cable needle and I actually managed to get the whole back done in one evening and then spent days finishing the sleeves and edging.

If I’d bothered to read other people’s notes on Ravelry, I’d have seen that the yarn quantities for the pattern are highly over-estimated. I bought three balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK (from Lana Pura, who always give great service and free delivery which isn’t to be sniffed at) and used barely half of the second. I wonder if this is a cunning ploy to get me to increase my stash. But the leftovers will make a lovely hat next winter, so I’m not too grumpy.

Now this is done, the world is my oyster again and I just need to decide what on earth to knit first!

I found out about Bobbins magazine through reading rubbishknitter’s blog. It’s a (currently) one-off craft magazine and is really rather brilliant. I bought a copy the other week and read it in the bath during some precious baby-free time.

I don’t read many UK magazines, partly because the patterns don’t appeal to me but also because many of them are overly commercial or have a faux-chummy style which grates somewhat after a while. Bobbins is just a really good read. It doesn’t have the commercial edge, doesn’t claim to be your bestest friend and everything in the magazine is there because it is tasty or pretty or interesting.

The book reviews, for example are honest and a decent length; not just a paragraph about how great every new craft book is and you must buy them all and have no money left to buy the yarn to knit the items in them. I was actually put off buying one book after reading the review that I might otherwise have bought at some point. This is A Good Thing for a person who has bought many books over the years that she has never knitted from, purely because of a review.

My favourite pattern in the magazine is (are?) the Two Hoots socks. I really want to knit these for my handknitted sock- and owl-loving Grandma’s birthday.

My only complaint is the magazine hasn’t even more in it, and that it is only a one-off at present. Actually, that’s two complaints, isn’t it? But it’s rare that I sit down and read anything from cover to cover these days, and I’m just greedy.

It’s like cardboard. If it was any stiffer, I could use it as a sock blocker itself. The other sock which escaped the machine is fine, but unless Mr B suddenly develops a rare, foot-shrinking illness, or only ever has one cold foot, he has a pair of unwearable socks. Socks knitted from a not inexpensive yarn which I was on a waiting list to buy. Socks which took forever to knit while I was perma-feeding a tiny baby. There may have been swearing.

So it’s back to Trekking, Regia and Opal 75% wool sock yarns for this household. I will never again be swayed by pretty colours, no matter how much they taunt me. I am immune.

Hand me that gold medal right now – I am a winner. Finished neatening the steeks on Saturday evening and then left it to block on Sunday. The photos had to wait til this morning due to the model needing her beauty sleep.

I am really thrilled with the end result. It has been a bit of a slog. Pre-baby I could have finished this in a week, easily, but having a small person interrupting at random times makes everything so much harder and at the beginning I honestly did think that I’d be posting today with half a sleeve done and a vague promise to finish it off before stuffing the whole sweater into a Tesco bag and hiding it at the back of my wardrobe.

This is the first fair isle sweater I have ever knitted. To date, the biggest project has been the Deep V Argyle Vest, but that at least didn’t have sleeves to bother me. All the other stranded projects I’ve done were mitts or hats, so it was even more of a challenge.

I like the pattern and I’ve said before that there were a couple of problems which I queried and worked out. I didn’t swatch because of time constraints. I wanted a slightly bigger sweater than the small, so I just used the stated needle size and ended up with a chest width of 25cm which gives lots of wriggle room.

The sock yarns aren’t great for steeking as they don’t stick together, but they make for a lovely soft sweater. The colours of the Trekking change ever so subtly throughout so it looks as if I’ve done clever shading with a million different colours, a la Kaffe Fassett. It also means I can put the sweater in the washing machine without fear of it shrinking as they’re my two favourite workhorse sock yarns.

All in all, I am a very happy knitter today.

I don’t know. It’s coming to something when a girl has to bake her own birthday cakes! But it means I get to choose the exact flavour and as it’s my birthday, no one is allowed to complain.

The end is in sight! I am halfway through the patterning on the second sleeve, the collar is done and now I need to turn my attention to the insides, which need a good tidy up.

Before that, I just wanted to mention that I decided to Magic Loop the second sleeve instead of using dpns, to see if it was easier. I’m wary about pulling the floats too tight when using this method, but so far it seems to be working and is proving to be quicker as there are half the number of needle changes per round.

So, the inside of the sweater. The crochet has held up well for the most part, but a few threads are sneakily slipping out and I think it needs tidying up. I was planning on knitting facings but firstly I am going to try reinforcing the edges with cross stitch. Mainly it’s going to be quicker than knitting facings and time is of the essence. But having a sweater that doesn’t unravel is kind of important as well, I know.