Darn

So, in one of my previous posts I mentioned that I had a problem with my Vinnland socks.

After wearing them only three times they got a hole in both heels. Not good. I guess this is proof that if you're going to make and wear hand knit socks in shoes you really need to make sure there's some nylon or equivalent in the yarn, although I didn't think it would be quite so quick. Maybe my shoes have extra friction heels or something?

I make a point of not mending socks. A certain person I know manages to go through socks at a tremendous rate, and if I said I was going to darn his socks that's probably all I would ever do! So no, I don't mend socks. Apart from if they're hand knit and have only been warn three times!

That said, I do have an inherited darning mushroom which I put to good use. I didn't use darning wool, but decided to use normal sock yarn with nylon in it. I've seen prettier, but hopefully that'll work.

Finished

It's a rare occasion when I get to post a finished project, and even rarer when I get to post about two (ignore the fact that my posting isn't exactly regular or frequent!)

First we have the Cable and Rib jacket by Debbie Bliss. I've been knitting this for what seems like ages (since February 2008) using wool from a herd of Jacob sheep kept at High Head Castle near Carlisle. They separate the wool into the three colours of natural wool found on a Jacob sheep, and this is the darkest. I have some more of this left and also some in the medium colour, so no doubt there will be more knitting of this wool to come. I think it's a really nice wool - I love that it's not dyed, but still has such a strong colour. I think it shows good stitch definition in the cables and ribs. I like the pattern, I found its formatting a bit of a problem during the cables, but a bit of copy, paste into word soon made that problem go away. I've heard people complain on blogs about putting zips in, and that they're difficult etc etc - I didn't have any problem. I guess my sewing skills come in handy.

Secondly we have Vinnland socks by Becca Compton. These were a bit of a technique experiment as these are the first pair of socks I've knit toe up, two at once, magic loop. Technique fine, although as I mentioned in the last posting I've got a bit of a ladder thing going on. I found the pattern a bit of a drag to knit, and not getting tangled up in either end of the same ball of yarn was a chore, but I really like the pattern now it's done, and the colour of the yarn is very me. I have a little bit of a problem with them, but I'll blog about that some other time once I've solved it.

The next project that I've cast on is Cyd by Martin Storey in Jaeger Handknits JB31. I'm using garnstudio's drops alpaca, which is lovely and soft and really nice to work with so far. It's a thinner yarn than the pattern calls for, so I've changed needles and the size pattern I'm knitting. I'm not convinced yet though that I'm going to continue as I'm getting quite a limp fabric. I'm thinking about re-swatching with a double thickness of yarn.

Red

What I think will be last new flower has emerged in the garden - I thought they were just going to produce leaves this year, but I've been pleasantly surprised by this: It's Crocosmia Lucifer. I love the way the individual flowers start at one end and progress towards the tip. And as red is my favourite colour I'm very happy with how red these are.

Talking of red - the first of our tomatoes are starting to ripen. I've been reading blogs about people having loads and loads of tomatoes and looking at our plants and thinking that we'd have lots of little green toms, but these ones have decided to ripen. These are on the couple of tomato plants (along with a couple of chili plants) that I brought indoors as it's starting to feel a bit autumnal here (there are still some outside along with some peppers). Unfortunately we don't have a south facing window to put them in - so they can either be constant temp but not so bright, or at the mercy of the weather but with more light.

These are tumbling toms.

And of course there's some knitting progress (sorry about the weird photos of my feet against the wall).

These are the vinnland socks I've been knitting two at once from the toe up using magic loop and one ball of wool (taken from each end). So far so good....

knitting and flowers

I've just spent a very enjoyable and satisfying morning seaming together my Jacob wool cardigan. I just need to get a zip and then finish off the collar and it can be done. It's about time this was finished as I started it in February 2008.

I've recently cast on two new projects: The first is the seascape stole from the summer issue of knitty. I'm knitting it using some of the mountain of yarn that Cecilie brought back from China.

And the second is Vinnland socks. I wasn't intending to start a second project until I'd finished the Jacob cardigan, but Cecilie wanted a toe up starting session - so I think I confused both her and Quinn in the ways of Judy's magic cast on . I think we may need another session, but I still believe this is one of the best ways to start toe up socks - I'm not so keen on the provisional cast on way. Anyway, again I'm using some Chinese yarn (this will be a theme for a little while!). As you can see I'm trying two at once using magic loop - the longest 2.5mm circular needle I have is 80cm, but I think I'm going to invest in a longer one as it's all a bit squashed.

We were away last weekend in the UK, we met up with friends and family, we also took a visit to the original Monkey House.... I must say it's looking decidedly like a rental property now, which is a shame. I was hoping to take a trip to get knitted but I was too busy catching up with friends and ran out of time. Never mind, it was not as if I needed any yarn anyway. I didn't take any knitting with me as we travelled with hand luggage only and it's not worth the risk of trying to take knitting needles through security in the UK.

When we got back our garden was properly blooming:

from top left, clockwise: Dahlia (Arabian Knight), Calendula, Bergamot, Lily (Samur)