Sockology

knitting for the Library

2010-09-19T16:00:00.004+09:30

This is Libeary, the Mount Gambier Library's teddy.
He has 500 brothers who need a scarf each, knitted in the Library's theme colour of bright red.
It's easy: 6 stitches in 8 ply yarn on size 4.5mm needles, knit stocking stitch for 60 cm and cast off.
So the committee of Friends of the Library and anyone else who can knit or do Knitting Nancy (aka tomboy stitch) are all knitting madly to be ready for the Teddy Bears' Picnic on November 16th when Libeary will meet his toddler fan base.

knitting on Kangaroo Island

2010-09-13T22:12:00.005+09:30

Watching pelican-feeding at Kingscote jetty.
Sockology went to Kangaroo Island with American friends.
It was cold and sunny and the long trip there and back meant plenty of time for guilt-free knitting.

Tofutsies!

Excellent fun to knit and what an interesting yarn - it's a blend of wool, soy, cotton and chitin. Chitin is made from crab shells and is claimed to be antibacterial. Hmmm. Anyway, Hannah likes them.

David might have enough socks

2009-12-27T17:22:00.003+10:30

He has enough hand-knitted socks so that I can wash them once a week and there are still some left in the drawer for him to wear.

maizy socks

2009-12-27T17:14:00.000+10:30

Maizy socks, knitted in a Crystal Palace yarn made from corn fibre 82% and elastic nylon 18% have, to everyone's surprise, worked out well. David had reservations about how they would wear, but no problems so far. He wears them on hot days and when he's working in the paddocks as they don't pick up grass seeds as much as the others.

socks in the Loire Valley

2009-09-17T01:26:00.000+09:30

Joigny, River Yonne France.
I've knitted these Kaffe Fassett socks all through bus trips in the Loire Valley and finished them off while on a canal boat.
They have created great interest with one lady pleading with me to knit her a pair - but I've given them to the tour leader.

Noro Silk Garden socks

2009-09-01T16:54:00.000+09:30

I didn't enjoy knitting these at all. The yarn is curiously springy and keeps folding back on itself; lumpy with bits of straw in it and it knits up hard and stiff. There were 2 breaks in the yarn and the colours are harsh - nothing like the sample shown on Simply Socks website.
A waste of money and my time!

Trekking hand art Mauritius socks

2009-08-16T11:38:00.002+09:30

They look rather like Stephen's but quite a different yarn of 75% wool 25% polyamide so can be washed in the washing machine. While I was knitting I didn't like them much but now that they're finished I do. David has 11 pairs of hand-knitted socks so we've nearly reached his goal of 12 pairs.

NB: these subsequently shrunk so much they had to be given to Hannah for bedsocks.

deepsea socks go Melbourne

2009-07-29T20:50:00.000+09:30

I finished Stephen's deepsea socks in time for our trip to Melbourne. We spent the night in his apartment at Freshwater: here he is modelling the socks on his 31st floor balcony overlooking the Yarra River and Melbourne CBD:

The wool is 30% silk 70% merino (sorry—hand-wash only Stephen) hand-dyed by dye4fun, an etsy.com seller in the USA. Dye4fun says: "this yarn is hand dyed in shades of blue, navy blue, and violet. This Deep Sea colorway has different intensities of color ranging from underwater shadows to light reflecting on the water. The color is randomly dyed, meaning that the yarn will not stripe or pool as you knit or crochet with it."

We went with Stephen and Julia on a progressive dinner along Southbank to 3 different restaurants, Pure South for entrée, Kouzina for main course and The Deck for dessert. Wonderful company and food and a great idea.

Kaffe Fassett's Exotic Easter

2009-07-10T16:22:00.000+09:30

It's real winter now—cold and raining. Well, we can't have too much rain...

Astrid's Dutch Obsessions has sent me some more Kaffe Fassett wool, this time in Exotic Easter, pretty easter-egg colours for Alison.

birds' nest

2009-07-06T10:47:00.000+09:30

I'm pleased to see that the birds are keeping up with the times and incorporating new fibres into their nests.

David found this tiny empty nest in the camellia courtyard yesterday and we are intrigued by how the birds have woven in an unknown green-ish fuzzy fibre—quite coarse so it didn't come from the clothes drier which has an outlet there.
The pieces of dry grass are fragile and need the green fuzz for stability.

Trekking Trinidad socks

2009-06-29T11:34:00.000+09:30

My turn for some socks: I need them to go with my new purple jumper. I found this yarn on-line when I was googling to find out if Australians are allowed to take knitting on planes—because some Americans were chatting on Ravelry about what projects they take on planes. Strange, I thought, surely knitting needles are deemed a security risk... but knitchick has some hints at
http://acechick.typepad.com/knitchicks_features/knitting_on_planes/

Anyway the first Australian blog I visited said NO to knitting on planes so I read on and found a link to a wonderful source of sock yarn, Astrid's Dutch Obsessions in the Netherlands. I can't find this blog again but I like her idea that sock yarn doesn't count as stash so I ordered some too.

http://www.astridsdutchobsessions.com/scripts/default.asp

Astrid is very prompt with posting— I received the yarn in 7 days—and she doesn't charge an arm and a leg for posting.

Here it is: Trekking hand art 511 Trinidad 75% wool 25% polyamide and very soft. It came as a skein so this time we were very careful to wind the ball slowly.

Kaffe Fassett Landscape 'Fire' socks

2009-06-25T15:49:00.000+09:30

My favourites so far! Easy to knit with well-behaved wool that doesn't split easily and gorgeous glowing colours!
Must get some more Kaffe Fassett wool.

poppy scarflet

2009-06-22T10:06:00.000+09:30

I bought the pattern for this from Etsy.com as I thought it would be nice for Alison's birthday. It took a while to find the right green yarn as green doesn't seem to be fashionable at the moment but Cleckheaton Bamboo has a pretty soft green—perhaps more yellow than the photo shows it— and the red is a pure wool Cleckheaton Merino Bambino.

The button is an antique from Mum's button tin which I never saw on any outfit of hers so it must be 1940s or older.

kaffe fassett socks

2009-06-16T13:36:00.001+09:30

I received some new sock wool yesterday from England and couldn't wait to get started - have already knitted the cuff plus. It's Kaffe Fassett's Landscape series by Regia, this colourway is Fire; 75% wool and 25% polyamide so machine washable, can be dried and ironed. Why would anyone want to iron socks? That's what feet are for.
The wool took 7 days to get here from Kangaroo Yarns in England (woolly jumpers - geddit?)
and postage costs are very reasonable.
Go to http://www.kangaroo.uk.com/

cherry red tie-one-on

2009-06-16T13:33:00.000+09:30

My cherry tie-one-on shawl turned out nicely!

It's light and warm, was fun to knit and didn't take very long. What more can you ask for! I got the pattern from knitty.com and adapted it seriously as the yarn I used was completely different.

The sequen strips don't show up very well but they are surprisingly soft and non-scratchy.

Hannah modelled it on the condition that I cut off her face - so I did.

happy socks

2009-06-11T14:35:00.000+09:30

These are for Elizabeth when she comes home from her stay in Adelaide.

They're knitted in Wendy's Happy which is 100% bamboo the label says (though the website says 75% bamboo and 25% nylon...)
It seems an incongruous gift for a farmer but I will tell her she must see what the opposition is doing - and maybe she'll plant bamboos instead of running sheep.

It's a soft, silky yarn and knits up beautifully - as long as you don't drop a stitch or split the yarn. Any dropped stitch slithers away and is diabolical to pick up again and the yarn splits into 5 little filaments, each of which waves in its own direction.

I'm going to stick to wool in future: I have ordered wool for the next 3 pairs of socks, though there are 2 balls of Maizey awaiting their turn and that's made from corn.

Daisy's spaghetti scarf

2009-06-03T20:22:00.001+09:30

Voila!

Daisy has finished crocheting her own scarf.

(It's like the Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." )

Sure enough - she has enthusiastically embarked on another scarf with ideas of how to improve it.

socks and scarves

2009-06-02T15:17:00.000+09:30

I've finished off the socks for Richard, so now he can have warm feet in Perth.
This is the Italian-made Grignasco Strong Print yarn - 75% wool and 25% polyamide so it will wash well and wear well - I hope.

They'll go nicely with jeans and perhaps a maroon jumper.

This is one of the spaghetti scarves I've been churning out for everyone who wants one: school colours of navyblue white and grey eyelash wool for Hannah and Daisy and a Redbacks hockey one for Alison.
Now Daisy is making her own - and excitedly texting whenever she completes another row of colour.
My friend Jan supplied the idea and lots of different yarns from her stash. Jan has CUPBOARDS of stash.
I spent another 3 hours last night on Mulberry Mess and produced a tiny little ball the size of a golf-ball.

tangled mess

2009-05-29T13:02:00.000+09:30

I've just joined Ravelry which looks like fun.
Maybe I can get some help - in fact this is a YARN EMERGENCY.
I bought a skein of beautiful silk and merino, planning to knit a lacey shawl. David kindly offered his arms to hold the yarn while I wound - but DISASTER!
He says I wound too quickly - maybe - anyway he dropped it and we just went from bad to worse.

What was "Mulberry Crush" is now "Mulberry Mess".
Any suggestions for what to do? (other than put it in the bin).