Autumn of Socks

Thanks for all the constructive comments about the virtual glasses try-on. I've left the comments open in case you still want to say something, hint hint family members by birth and marriage! It seems as if there is a short-list of favoured looks, and it was very nice and heartening to see that a few liked the ones which ressemble my current choice. Thank-you.

Ok, Autumn of Socks.

Autumn of Socks because yes, it's autumn, but also because I can feel my sock binge drawing to a close. The light is dimming on the sock-fest. The winds of change are blowing in. I will finish the ones on the needles, but they may be my last for some time.


I've finished the Dublin Bay socks in Regia Bamboo for myself (Ravved but not blogged) and some more Regia Galaxy socks to send to Santa for DH. They are in shades of blue this time and turned out nice and swirly, just like the black-grey ones. I can't remember if I said this before and I can't be bothered searching my archives, but apparently the secret is to cast on more than 60 sts if you want the swirls to form.




















And in other news, STV's Five Thirty Show came to the Tron Theatre the other night to our Glasgow Knit n Stitch get-together!
The segment will be broadcast sometime this week apparently, I'll let you know when it will be aired and give the link to the Playback feature on their web-site.
I'll be really interested to see how it's all edited down and how it all comes over.
There's a fair chance Yours Truly will have a speaking part because I demonstrated the basic knit stitch to the presenter.
I can tell you now I will cringe at my posture and will be shouting at the screen, "Sit up straight, Kathleen!!!!!" x K

Glasses glasses spectacles glasses

Just been trying out a marvelous feature on the Specsavers website.
You upload a head and shoulders shot of yourself, and identify the centre of your pupils, then the software crops it and lets you "try on" loads of different glasses.

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/try


Quiksilver 9 are about the closest to my current pair, but I feel like a change because I'm fed up of the "barely there" look.

Do you think I'm roughly on the right track with these samples? Honesty please. (Maybe not b-r-u-t-a-l honesty!)You can go anonymous if it will help you be candid ;-)

And yes, I did "try on" loads of different styles as well, including plenty I didn't think I'd like, just for comparison's sake.

Maybe you've never seen me in glasses before, ha ha! I usually wear contact lenses. x K

Socks on Rocks!

Here's a pair of boot-socks for me made in Regia Crazy Color 6 faedig, shade "Passion". Wheet whew! Who knew such passion could be found in thick socks?

The pattern is called Prism and is a slip-stitch pattern by Jaya Srikrishnan and is available as a free download on Ravelry or via this link over at Socknitters. The pattern is written for 4-ply so I had to do some adjustments and trial-and-error on that first leg.

One small modification: I continued slipping every third stitch on the heel flap although I didn't let the slipped stitches float, I purled them up the next row, whereas elsewhere on the pattern you stitch them up after three rows.

This was my first time knitting a sock on two circulars and it worked out pretty well apart from times when I wasn't paying close enough attention to which needle end I grabbed and ended up in contortions. I think next time I'm knitting a thicker sock I'll try the magic loop method. BTW I say thicker sock because I don't have any circs below, say 3mm.

Thanks for your kind comments on here and via email on my Simply Sausage lace socks in the last post. x K

Simply Lovely Lace Socks # Take Two

Ok, to quickly get you up to speed.

In 2006 I started a pair of Simply Lovely Lace Socks by Karen Baumer from Interweave Knits Spring 2006 in Opal Uni yarn.
I knitted two at once on lots of dpns until the cuff was as long as I wanted for ankle socks, then laid them to the one side for a-a-a-ages, having fallen out of love with socks again, and not having enjoyed knitting into the back of every knit stitch.

In summer 2007 I decided to give them a new lease of life and made them into fingerless gloves for myself, which actually involved quite a lot of knitting the lace pattern I hadn't enjoyed, and a lot of fudging and making it happen, but I was very happy with the results.

Now fast forward to summer 2008 when during a sock binge I realised that I hadn't actually ever worn my fingerless gloves for real, only in poses for blog posts/ Flickr.
So I fished them out, frogged the handy and thumby bit of the glove, rolled that crazy, tangly stuff and put it aside and did what I should've done in the first place, which was knit on the rest of the sock in stocking stitch. Dunno why that option didn't occur to me last year, maybe just because I was so out of the sock knitting mentality. Fortunately I had plenty of the Opal Uni left.

I am delighted with the results, and they will get much more wear out of these sockazitos than from a pair of opera gloves.

Here are a few photos for your perusal. Two things to look out for are 1) Look at all of the autumn leaves starting to hit the grass and 2) Look at my sausagey feet in the second-last photo. It was taken at a weird angle, but my feet and ankles are very sausagey in real life as well, I must confess.


Thank-you for the kind comments about last week's Dark Galaxy socks. x K