Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Sock it to me

May I introduce, our latest batch of sock yarns:

Stained Glass Solids

on Fleece Artist Sea Wool.
The colour and shiny yarn combo is fantastic... just like spun gold. I thought about calling this one "Rumplestilskin" but "Coolgardie" (a gold mining town in WA) seemed more fitting.

on Fleece Artist Casbah.
... oh the drape!
Also available on Hercules.

on Fleece Artist Somoko.
Just like your favourite pair of blue jeans!

on Casbah.
A base of raspberry pink is topped with blues, resulting in a vivid violet semi-solid yarn.

on Hercules
Rich, earthy shades of brown topped with dark dirt.

on Hercules.
Fizzy, fun semi-solid with a base of peachy yellow and layered with delicious raspberry.


Variegated
on Hercules.
It's lime, it's violet. Could it be "L & V"? Colourway inspired by my indie yarn swap partner.

on Hercules.
Have you ever seen or tasted blue corn? Red corn? It's yummy! Try it in corn chips :)
(my dear footy-mad partner wanted to call this one "Brisbane Lions"... no way jose!)

on Hercules.
Rich, sophisticated jewel tones of teals, fuschia and purple.

on Hercules.
Go on, have a fling of this colourway.
Candy floss pink, pastel limes and lemon, with sherbet orange.

on Hercules.
Dyed in short colour repeats for a mottled effect with reduced pooling.

on Hercules.
Rich, saturated hues of teal, marine and purple with the occasional white cap.

on Hercules.
Not a terribly imaginative name, but there is no other way to describe this colourway.
Dark mints, delicious chocs, and swirls of creamy french vanilla.

on Hercules.
Imagine a trek in the shadowy forest... many shades and hues of green merge with browns in an organic manner. Dyed to give a mottled effect when knit.


on Hercules.
Glittering rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
on Hercules.
Zingy chartreuse and lime, surrounded by cool aqua and accents of purple.

on Hercules (slight seconds)
One of our most popular colourways translated into sock yarn.
Bright, clear colours of the rainbow accented in with the darkest deepest black, placed randomly along the rainbow spectrum.


........................................
Now for the cryptic bit:
"gnineve yadirF no pu dekaens eb lliw nraY"
@ JollyJumbuck.net!

(if that's too cryptic for you, you could always just sign up to the JJ mailing list!)












Walking Matilda

Mummy got her Christmas wish early this year... December 10th!

All I want for Christmas is for Tilda to walk
For Tilda to walk
See my daughter walk?!

M has been so very very close to taking independent steps for a long time now. She loves to walk with us holding her hand, but thus far when we let go she sits down. Well, a stunning breakthrough happened on Monday night. She let go, walked to Roy (3 or 4 steps). Then back to me. Then back to Roy. Then back to me. The best thing is she repeated it! It brought tears to my eyes as we've been waiting for this for so very long! Just one and a bit months shy of her 2nd birthday :)

I love you sugarplum! You are such a clever little monkey *smooooooch*



Friday, November 16, 2007

Sock yarn

Stained Glass Solids: colour is applied in layers, resulting in a yarn with highlights and shadows to complement stitch patterns instead of overpowering or obscuring them.


Swirls of subtle colour like on the surface of an oil slick.






All of the above are on ACHILLES, 4ply Superwash Australian Merino, and instock now at Jolly Jumbuck.




Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Ugggh

Yuck yuck yuck --- sums up how we've been feeling lately. I got M's gastro in a bad way so the past weekend hasn't been fun at all with the V&D and the heat on top of that. Roy managed to dodge it!

Feeling slightly more human today so will be catching up on emails (sorry guys) and then having an early night.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

I blame Jane!

I blame Jane for my recent sleep deprivation -- and YES I love the Naive socks now, DPN's and all. I've been contantly thinking about these socks during the day with no way to work on them, and then wham M goes to bed and out with the socks! Knitting way way way into the night, I won't tell you exactly how late, but let's say roosters having crowing contests when you're just about to fall asleep is no fun at all!

Last night I kept saying just one more round, which then turned into just one more cable cross, which turned into "OWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!" as the super-sharp Knit Picks went under my left index nail right into the nailbed. I kept going, tired as I was (hence the carelessness), but holy moly the second poke in the same spot hurt like nothing else!

A few things; I prefer a tighter knit for socks than 2.75mm needles but by the time I decided this I was CBB to start over. Like climbing a mountain and going past the half way point. And, I didn't do the heel turning written in the pattern: "Say what?? yo??? Doesn't yo make holes?" So I abandoned that and fudged my own heel turning.

The pattern kicks your butt if you don't have a row counter as all the cables cross at different rows. I copied and pasted the pattern chart to make it a bit easier. Then I just wrote down each cable and on which rows it crosses in a list. The sheep row counter I got from the last Simply Knitting mag around my neck saved my bacon many times.

Three inches into the sock I abandoned the DPN cable needle (or it abandoned me under the bed) and came up with cabling without a cable needle for all except the 3/3L cables. Works great! Then I googled cabling without a cable needle and was pleased to see I was doing it "right" :)

I made only 2 repeats of the opening rib instead of 3, and only made the leg 6" instead of 8". The yarn is a bit busy for the socks, but it's OK.

I cast on late Tue night, it's now Thurs arvo, here is the sock so far:

(I've put a TV remote inside it to stretch it out a little bit and show off the cables). Last try-on it fit great.

I need to do some non-Naive knitting for a while but I don't know if I can until I reach the peak of the mountain! Thanks Jane :o)

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Efficient...

... that I am not! Crazy, crazy I tells ya -- yes I am knitting socks on DPN's again. Why??? (I started out knitting socks on DPN's many years ago but have since convincingly switched to magic loop). At this point, I don't know, but the Naive socks keep calling my name so I casted on tonight for the Sock Knitters Anonymous November Sockdown (homegrown designers). Thanks Ann for the Knit Picks DPNs in 2.75mm (unfortunately not available either circular or DPN in Addi's).

Do I love it? No, not yet. The yarn is turning out a lot better than I had hoped though; I thought the striping would be a lot narrower, but it looks fine:

(And I should clarify at this point that I don't love it yet because of the DPN's, and not the pattern! The pattern rocks!)

I'm making the legs shorter than written because my yarn yardage is only 380m instead of 440yd as written. This yarn (ONline Cotton Beach Color 948) is gone at the supplier so I have to make do with one ball. Much as I love it, I just needed a break from TOFUtsies TOFUtsies TOFUtsies!

Let's hope I can finish these socks (ie. two socks not a single) in 2007...

BTW, congratulations Efficient on winning the 07 Melbourne Cup :)

Sox and Socks

This is my best friend Sox:

And these are the just-finished Jaywalker socks from the Woolaholics KAL (from way back in January!):
(Regia Ringel from my stash)
Knit 2 at a time, 2.5mm 100cm magic loop.
Mods: square toe.

A few Rainy Day socks :
(2 strands TOFUtsies on one 3.25mm 30cm circular)

The purple pair is mine, it's about 2 months old and continually worn, machine washed, dried, worn, washed, dried. Look how well it's wearing:
I love TOFUtsies!

 
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