Where There's Muck There's Brass

I've recently finished two pairs of socks.

The first was intended as a Christmas present for Mr but it's very hard to try and knit a pair of size 11 socks in secret and on a deadline, so it was after Christmas that they were finished.

His favourite colours are black and burnt orange together. So when I saw the yarn on The Knitting Goddess stand at Yarndale, it just had to be bought. The colour name is just great too, "Where There's Muck There's Brass".

The pattern is Paper Moon by AnneLena Mattison.  My ravelry project page. The pattern didn't go up large enough, so I had to alter it. The largest size went up to 70 sts, mine were 77 sts; I added the extra stitches within the garter stitch bands.

I worked them two at a time on circulars from the toe up. I'm a toe down kind of girl but I tried them for a change. Though I did manage to use up every yard of yarn this way, which definitely gets a tick in the pro column.

They look all wrinkled on the sock blockers, but they fit fine on Mr's feet.

The other pair of socks was for me. The pattern is Budleigh by Rachel Coopey. A beautiful pattern and I modified it to try and fit me better but I'm not hugely happy with the modifications.

The yarn is a pretty hand dyed sock yarn from Ring a Rosie at Whitley Bay (bought on holiday last year). The name for this is nice too, "Paddleboat on the Thames".

I cast on for the medium size and went down to the small size for the foot but I had to use the large heel to keep the sock in pattern. Perhaps there was a better way. It did fit well after I'd finished and I ended up re-doing the toes and taking an inch or so off the length. They fit a lot better now but they do look a bit stunt. At least I learnt how not to do something! I'm not sure the yarn is robust enough to wear with shoes all day long so they may be special occasion socks. Plus they're pretty and sparkly so they probably should be for parties anyway!

Wonderful Wonderwool

Sorry for the alliterative title, couldn't resist.

With an offhand comment to Mr, "That it's Wonderwool Wales this weekend and wouldn't it be nice to go." His response being, "Why can't we?". So we did. Bit bonkers. 10 hours of driving in total but it was lovely weather and we had a good day.

I was relatively restrained with my purchases. Here's what I bought:

Rachel Coopey's new book, Coopknits Socks, and some sock yarn. The bronze one is Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply and fivemoons Luna 4ply 50g hanks in Denim and Pumpkin and a little mini one too.

The scotch eggs were fab!

I can finally show you a finished project, which just happens to be a Coopknits pattern! 

John Huston in Posh Yarn Megan 4ply, just in time for a birthday present.

Sock Chimneys

I love knitting in the round and have done a LOT of it. So I thought I had fairly good knowledge on the subject. I was bought Circular Knitting Workshop by Margaret Radcliffe for my birthday and was quite surprised that there was a lot of information that I've been finding very useful.

It's a beautifully made book, clearly written with lots and lots of good photographs. It's set up like a lot of knitting books with techniques and then projects to demonstrate the techniques. However, the first 103 pages of this 320 page book are filled with details of circular knitting from the cast ons, joining in the round methods, diffferent ways to graft,  to converting a pattern to circular knitting. I wish I'd had this book when I first started. It's very in depth.

Much of the information I've seen in other places such as books, Youtube, Ravelry etc. but it's brilliant to have it all in one place and organised into sections. One section that surprised me was about Kitchener stitch; it explains clearly the way I'd learnt how to do it but there are another 4 methods -including a left hand version.

Lucy Neatby's Sock Chimney technique caught my imagination and since I was nearing the end of my socks for the January Mystery Sock - Echeveria by Rachel Coopey  for the Sock Anonymous Group on Rav, I decided to give it a go. The gist of the idea is when you get to the point of grafting, change to a contrasting waste yarn and continue knitting for a few rows and cast off.

Fold the chimney inside the toe.

Then using the colour change as a guide start to graft the toe together (starting in the middle then coming back and doing the other half). Here is the link to Lucy Neatby's site, if you want more detailed information on the technique.

The sock on the right was made using the Sock Chimney technique and the left sock using plain old Kitchener stitch. I can't really see much difference myself, the Sock Chimney one didn't have the little ears on the edge you get sometimes. Though it takes a little extra time to knit those extra rows, there's more control on the tension and once figured out easier to execute than Kitchener Stitch. I'll definitely try this one again.

Oh and the finished socks!