Sweet socks

After posting a picture with my kitkat machine on it last time, in case you feared that my other sweet foodie passion - Lyle's Golden Syrup - had been forgotten - fear not...

Another finished knitting project:

The Golden Syrup inspired stripey socks are finished.

I really like them and can see the possibility of knitting some more stripey socks using leftovers in the future. But, I think the next socks I knit will be pirate themed.

And in case you're wondering - the Golden Syrup cans behind the socks have been made into a standard lamp.

Hat

My blog's been quiet again for a little while. It's not as if there haven't been things going on - with a nearly 7 month old baby how could this be possible? I just haven't felt like writing about anything.

So, to break the silence and hopefully get back into the swing of blogging, here is a hat I knit for David while we were on holiday for a week in Spain visiting David's parents.

A little while ago my Mum knit David a scarf and there was enough yarn left over that she knit him a hat as well - the scarf has found great favour, but the hat was a bit floppy and baggy because of the soft, fine quality of the yarn (Tynn alpakka) and so didn't really get warn. This seemed a shame, so just before we went away I found the leftover yarn and frogged the hat and started again, this time with the yarn held double to hopefully give a denser fabric.

And we seem to have success. The pattern I used was Turn a Square by booklyntweed, although using a similar stitch to the original scarf (of course we didn't think to take the scarf with us to Spain - so it's similar, but not the same) rather than the stockinette stitch of the original pattern.

I think David had just started to suck a sweet when I announced I was going to take his photo, which is why he has a slightly funny look on his face.

While I'm here - here's a photo of Frances playing with her Dad.

Fidgit knickers

A little while ago I did a post about nappies and how I was getting on with them. I mentioned that I was amazed at how well the wool outers were working. I acquired some small ones from a friend in the beginning, and my Mum has knit a few pairs. Now, I have finally got around to knitting a pair for Frances. These have taken me far longer to make than they should have done (like most things at the moment). I knit them using the Curly Purly Soaker Pattern and roving that we bought at the eco shop here in Turku produced by Jutta. They produce the roving in lots of fun colours. They wouldn't have taken me quite so long if I'd actually managed to read the pattern and not joined the crotch seam before I'd knit the full length of the front, and also if I hadn't originally cast off the legs too tightly. They're quite big on her at the moment, although look pretty neat and slim under clothes. If she needs any more I'll most likely use this pattern again as it doesn't require any seaming.

In other knitting news, I've finished the 1st module of the City and Guilds course, it has been assessed and is currently in the post on its way back here. I've had some positive feedback and only have some minor bits to look at and add to or change. In the package that should arrive any day now are also the instructions for Module 2. I've read that this second module is all about colour, which should be interesting.

I've also been knitting socks again. I've been wanting to knit some stripey socks with each colour being a single row wide for quite some time now - I think since I read about helical stripes on this blog. I had an odd ball of dark green and of white sock weight yarn and decided to add a couple of other colours and knit a stripey sock inspired by the colours of a golden syrup tin. As always with socks I'm finding them very satisfying to knit.