Sunday 29 January 2012

Succumbed to Socks!

It has been a while since I have knitted socks and recently it seems lots of folks are making some lovely ones and I got to wondering why I stopped. It would seem that I don't like heel flap heels and hate the stitch picking up part - my favourite socks are all short row wrap and turn heels. So having flipped through my lovely 'Socktopus' book I decided to try something new with the Spring shoots socks . These socks are toe up and also done by knitting the foot and heel then snipping it open to add the leg. Progress is slow due to the 'commission cardi' that and the fact that I started knitting a medium and had to go back because it turns out my foot is a small! These are my 6am knitting project as I can almost knit them in my sleep! Turns out I am much more accomplished at doing things in virtual sleep mode than I ever though possible! The only down side to living this way is that my body doesn't seem to be burning up the calories as quickly and my middle is getting bigger - much like poor Ted as well but for very different reasons.

Last weekend we were given a 'Herman cake' which is a sour dough friendship cake that you look after for 9 days (adding things as you go) and then split up and bake your share. It is a lovely idea but smells like a brewery (guess the yeast part is working) and I can't wait to bake our bit of him. We have a few more days to go and I will be able to share him with you (virtually that is) but it has been a bit of fun really.

I do have a question for you though - does anyone else listen to podcasts I have a few favourites mostly knitting related but wondered if I am alone in my love of them? I like to listen to them when I am in the car on my own pootling off to collect one of my lot or on my way back from dropping them off. Let me know if you have a favourite please?


Monday 9 January 2012

Bags of Fun!

Way back in October I was lucky enough to get to the top of the list for a Hexibag from Picperfic and I was over the moon to be able to carry my Nupkin hat around with me as I sat waiting as ever to collect my family members as and when was required.




Now being a bit of a fan girl I follow Marianne on twitter and Facebook and love to look at her pictures of other bags she has made - it was whilst I was browsing that Lottie spotted another hexibag with lovely pretty skulls on and said that she would love one of those so secretly I asked very nicely if Marianne would make me one specially for her as a Christmas surprise which she did and also she made me one of her special Little dumpling bags at the same time.

Lottie was over the moon on Christmas morning when she opened her bag to which I had added sock needles and yarn to as well (she is on her first pair of socks but it is slow going at the moment).



Now I love my hexibag a lot and I have my nupkin in there still as my grab and go project when I dash out of the door but it is the little dumpling that makes me smile everyday at the moment - it is like a little bucket and holds my very lovely ball of plumptious yarn and my current 'Cilantro' scarf project. I love the shape of it and the pretty spotty fabric and knowing that it was made just for me.


At the moment it is joy in little things keeping us all bobbing along so I wanted to share a little bit of my joy with you all just in case you were in need of some. Sx

What makes you smile today?