Jubilee socks

Yesterday ~  I was sitting in the garden enjoying the lovely warm weather and adding a few more rows to my Jubilee socks. I am using a really simple sock pattern which involves absolutely no heel shaping and therefore, absolutely no thinking at all! Just simple knitting and purling (K6,P6 ribbing) in a tube like fashion ~ which is so easy to pick up and put down when my knitting mood dictates. The yarn is 4 ply Zig Zag by King Cole in Jubilee which gives lovely random stripes in red, white and blue. The other thing I loved about this pattern is that it needed 60 stitches to be cast on ~ which is very appropriate for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee too.

Today ~ I am back to sitting knitting inside as the weather has decided to turn a little cooler again and the sun has disappeared behind the clouds. I really do hope it decides to make a reappearance sometime very soon :O)xx

Slow Sock Syndrome

I think I must have been hit by a very bad case of Slow Sock Syndrome! I started casting on these socks at the beginning of February and this is how they are looking so far ~

Not much progress at all!

I decided in my newly found sock knitting wisdom to knit these particular socks using the magic loop method ~ as I had wanted to try and teach myself a new knitting skill and I was feeling really rather pleased with myself when I actually managed to do it fairly easily. And to be honest with you I think that I may now actually prefer using the magic loop method over using Double pointed needles too. You may fooled into thinking that using this method is what has caused me to suffer from Slow Sock Syndrome ~ but you would be wrong. Very wrong indeed!

What has actually happened in the case of these socks ~ and bearing in mind that these are only my second pair of socks ~ is that I got WaY ahead of myself and thought that it may be quite a nice idea to add some sort of pattern onto the heel flap.

A pattern made by knitting Fair Isle or Intarsia no less!

Well that was a BIG mistake! Neither the Fair Isle pattern or the Intarsia pattern went according to plan and the heel flap has now been ripped back twice. I have now decided that these are just going to be Plain Old Pink (POP!) socks and will hopefully be on my merry way to making some progress with them sometime very soon.

Wishing you all a very happy and progressive weekend:O)x

Successful socks

Finally ~ after a few false starts and a couple of minor disagreements with the Double Pointed Knitting Sticks ~ I have finished my first ever pair of socks. And I can't even begin to tell you how ridiculously happy that makes me feel!

When I first embarked on my sock knitting journey I wasn't entirely sure if I would ever reach my desired destination. But arrive I did! And at the correct destination too! I am now the very proud owner of a hand knitted pair of socks ~ and not only do they actually look like a pair of socks, they also happen to fit me perfectly as well. Who would have thought it?

I don't mind admitting that I really did have the heebie jeebies quite badly when I first read the sock making pattern. But do you know what? Once I actually got started and decided to take it slowly step by step, all those sock making jargony words finally started to make a bit more sense. I now have a basic understanding about the construction of the sock ~ and all that sock talk of gussets and heel turning no longer turns me into a gibbering wreck! I still have a long way to go, but I really did enjoy my first ever sock journey.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I have already cast on my second pair. You might all be thinking that with all that Knitty excitement going on that I have forgotten about all my hooky trips. Definitely NOT! As you can see my Little Boy Blue blanket is still around and I promise that I will stop by and show you all the progress sometime soon.

I hope you all a have a very enjoyable weekend ~ whatever little woolly trips you may be taking :O)xx

Happy feet

I mentioned a little while ago that this was the year that I was going to try and make myself a pair of socks. Well..........the sock journey has well and truly started!


Quite ironically, the yarn that I am using is called Happy by Wendy, in a lovely Lavender colour. However, I was anything but happy when I cast on the stitches a few days ago. This knitting with more that two needles malarkey is just not as easy as it looks and I got myself into a right old state!

Now, this is not the first time that I have knitted with Double Pointed Needles ~ I made myself a pair of mittens a few years ago, but this time it certainly seemed like it was my very first try. For some reason I just could not get to grips with it at all. I still felt like I was an octopus trying to knit, the DPN's kept trying to disappear up my sleeves at every given opportunity and they kept slipping out of my hands, resulting in dropped stitches and much shouting at said knitting! I have now cast on and ripped up the beginning of the first sock six times. I kid you not! What you see now is my seventh attempt and so far so good!


Apparently that was the easy part, because now the pattern is mentioning heel turns, gussets and toes. I'm starting to have palpitations just thinking about it! Wish me luck as I embark on the next part of my sock journey and I'll hopefully have something that resembles a sock the next time I see you.

I hope that you all have a very lovely weekend too :O)xxx