Excluding my Tyrolean Cardigan, it has been over a month since finishing my last knitting project. There’s been lots of knitting going on, but progress has been slow. So, it is with great relief that I present my latest finished project:

Generic toe up sock pattern by Wendy Johnson
75g Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, Raven
25g Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, Kelp
3.75mm needles
Started: May 2010
Finished: June 2010
Ravelryed: here

As the name suggests, these socks are a belated birthday present for my Dad. Although they are late I am pretty confident he will not mind — he seems to quite like hand knit socks. In fact, this is the fourth pair of socks I have knit for him, the third with this pattern and colour combination.

The previous pairs of Dad socks were knit either using one colour only, or with contrasting ribbing, heels and toes. This time I decided to treat Dad to some stripes, using the spiralling stripe method (Ysolda has a good tutorial here). I quite like this method for knitting stripes in the round as there’s no jog to worry about. However, it did require working with a number of balls of yarn at once, which resulted in some major tangles.

This pattern is my go to for plain socks as it is very straightforward. The yarn makes nice thick socks and has the advantage of knitting up very quickly relative to convetional sock yarn. Based on previous Dad socks, it seems to wear pretty well too. The fabric is probably a bit open, so next time I will use smaller needles.

Speaking of next time, I will have to find a better foot model. There was a little bit of a goldilocks thing going on when I took the photos — Matt’s feet are a smidge too big for the socks and mine a smidge too small. I am sure Dad will appreciate me drawing comparisons between his foot size and a fairy tale character.

I was keen to blog over the Christmas/New Year break, but being away from my computer meant that I had to save my enthusiasm until my computer and I were one again.

These are the socks I gave my sister for Christmas. I was aiming for retina burning, and retina burning is what she got.

Generic toe up sock pattern by Wendy Johnson
0.75 skein of Noro Kureyon Sock, colourway 180
3.00 mm dpns
Start: November 2008
Finish: December 2008

The skein was split into two, and knit alternating stripes of three rows from each skein half. I could have made them a bit longer, but due to time constraints, I chose to leave them a little shorter. It was for the best anyway, as it meant that the Elijah twins could have scarves from the scraps.

There seems to be a bit too much twist to the Noro sock yarn, as it had a tendancy to twist back on itself no matter how careful I was with it. I’ve worked with non-sock kureyon before and didn’t notice the twisting issue. Besides that small annoyance, it was fine to work with. I must admit, I’m a bit funny when it comes to Noro. I’m not really into variegated/self striping yarn, but I like Noro’s long colour changes. However, having said that, my favourite uses of Noro are when the colour changes is broken up by stripes or entrelac.

A little bit of dissatisfaction has crept into my life of late, and it seems to have affected my enthusiasm for finishing off the projects I’m working on at the moment. Today I decided that it was time to get on with it so I could move onto things that I have more enthusiasm for.

I finally got round to dyeing some yarn destined for a grocery bag or bags, depending on how much yarn is needed. My fingers are only slightly green tinged, so all in all I’d call it a success.

I’m also nearly at the cast off stage for this sock. This really shouldn’t have taken as long as it has, particularly given it’s the only knitting project that I’m working on at the moment. It really is a tribute to the powers of procrastination!

If I keep my head down and keep chipping away at things for the next few weeks, I’ll have all the current projects out of the way, and I’ll be able to start working on the projects that have been swirling around in my head.

There hasn’t been a shortage of things to write about lately, but I’ve struggle to actually get on with writing a blog post. This is mostly due to having to get a pair of socks finished by this weekend, so every time I thought about writing a post, thoughts of not finishing the socks in time were enough to stop me from sitting down and writing.

I’m glad I did refrain, because I’m giving these to my Mum today, and I only finished blocking them yesterday.

Snicket (rav link)
0.75 skein of The Knittery Merino Cashmere sock, in Chocolate
3.75 dpns
Start: October 2008
Finish: October 2008

These are the first pair of socks I’ve knit in over a year, and the first pair of patterned socks. It was also the first time I had to worry if I had enough yarn to finish the job. I needn’t have worried, there is plenty left.

The colour pooled a bit, but it looks a lot more severe in photos than in real life. I think the cables draw enough attention away from it to be ok, but to be honest, I just didn’t have time to do anything about it, once I started to notice it on the first sock.

If I had more time to modify the pattern, I would have tried to continue the pattern, in some form, down the back of the heel, as I find the transition from the leg to the heel a bit abrupt. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed knitting them. The knittery yarn, as always, was lovely to knit with.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to knit next, as a few of the projects I have lined up will be unbloggable. I guess I can always try to write about something else instead!

Even though I mentioned that gift knitting wouldn’t really be blogged until it was in the recipient’s possession, I’m still going to blog about this one. So, if you happen to be my mother, look away now!

Snicket (Ravelry link) is a project that ticks all the boxes for me right at this very point in time. My Mum, whose birthday is at the end of this month, has made positive noises about me making a pair of socks for her, I’ve been itching to do some cabling and I’m currently quite enamoured with single ridges of rib against large sections of reverse stockinette. Can’t go wrong, really!

Georgie recently blogged about knitting epiphanies. My most recent one was a couple of centimetres into the cabling on Snicket. I was sick of the mess of needles that I had from cabling in the round, so I learnt how to cable without a needle using this very clear and useful tutorial. I think Snicket’s a really good project to learn this technique, as you’re only ever switching one stitch over at a time.

The heel of the first sock has just been turned, so I do need to get a wriggle on, but I’m relying heavily on the assumption that the second sock goes quicker than the first, despite the threat of second sock syndrome. I’m really enjoying knitting with this yarn, cashmere merino sock from the Knittery, so I’m hoping that will help me get through any tough times.

The only drawback to this yarn is that it has a wee bit of a halo to it, which seems to be causing all sorts of focus problems for my camera, even when using manual focus. So, apologies for the slightly fuzzy photos.