A month?!

My word, how has it been a month since my last post?! The hatchlings' Christening, then poorly children, meetings/appointments and my anxiety and depression have gotten in my way for the last few weeks.

So, I don't have any finished objects to show yet. I do have a couple of new yarn purchases though and a new project. Let's start with new yarn! Nothing like a new yarn purchase to cheer you up!

Firstly some Definition Sock yarn from Artesano, in colourway Kimono. It's a gorgeous bright bright fuchsia which is looking a little washed out by my rubbish phone snap.

And some gorgeous Muddled Rainbow from Rainbow Fusions on her sock yarn base.

I also got two yarn boxes from The Yarn Tree! 

I got the first of her Sock Yarn Boxes, which is a skein of yarn, a stitch marker and a project bag with a theme. This box's theme was The Big Bang Theory. The yarn is called Bazinga! Here's a better photo of it.

And the second box was her January yarn club which was Game of Thrones themed

With some gorgeous sparkly self striping yarn from British Bea Knits, a yummy kitkat and some stitch markers which include a wolf, a sword and a "winter is coming" charm! Adorable!

Next, projects! So I had started some socks with my Flash yarn blank from The Yarn Tree, but I wasn't happy with how the texture was working up on the pattern, so I ripped it all out. I then decided to start a pair of tube socks for the Tinydino. Which I don't appear to have a photograph of! They're pink and turquoise striped, two at a time with a turquoise toe and I plan on giving them turquoise cuffs too. I'm doing 8 rows pink, 2 rows turquoise.

I also started a For The Love Of Rainbow shawl, by Mina from The Knitting Expat Podcast. She's currently running a couple of KALs (That's a Knit A Long for anyone who doesn't know the lingo) in her Ravelry group and one of them is the #KESHAWLKAL (or Knitting Expat Shawl KAL!). It's a really fab pattern! Good for a beginner shawl knitter like me, anyway! 

I didn't have a gradient so used my Bazinga yarn, along with some Jarol grey sock yarn. (The funny face is just to cover the pattern that was visible as it's not a free pattern!)

I'm currently on row 102 or over 300 rows and the KAL finishes at the end of the month. Hopefully I'll finish in time to enter it and might win a little prize!

If you don't already, you should give Mina's podcast a watch! I've almost watched all of her old episodes now. Her and her husband live in the Middle East, hence the Expat, and they do so much travelling! Makes me jealous. She's so lovely to listen to and her podcasts are always so interesting. Such a talented knitter too, especially considering she's only been knitting for a couple of years! You can find her on youtube, here.

Non-knitting crafts, but still knitting related, I made myself a little chain row counter to use with the shawl. As you can see on the photo above, I have a traditional number row counter. But I kept forgetting to turn the numbers and it was confusing me. I've wanted to have a go at making a chain counter for a while so decided why not!

Because I have to slip it across the needles whilst I'm knitting, I'm remembering to change it with each row. Love it! Think it will become another little item for my shop too. Just need to work out some pricing for it.

I also made Dinogirl a bookmark, as she keeps using scraps of paper as bookmarks. Used my last little dino charm! But more are on the way! Hehe

But now i must get myself to bed. We have an important meeting tomorrow about Dinogirl's statement at school (A statement decides how much one-to-one help she is entitled to) so must get myself off to the land of nod early and try and get a good night's sleep!

I shall sign off with a photo of the cake my amazing mum made for the girls' Christening (Which was on Valentines day, we thought the hearts were fitting for the Tinydino given her heart defect). I hope everyone's had a lovely Mother's Day :)

Yarn post!

So since my last weekly update, I have had some of the most fantastic yarn post ever!
I asked in a craft selling group a while ago if anyone had any sock yarn scraps they no longer wanted, and if I could buy them for my sock yarn blanket and my scrappy socks. Two ladies and a friend of mine replied saying they could send me some bits, free for postage! Amazing!

My friend sent me the most adorable little recycled truffle box full of mini yarn balls. Yarn truffles!! Just adorable!

And one of the other ladies said she would "send me a little parcel". A few days later, a MASSIVE parcel appeared. In fact, it was so large I thought it was a bundle of clothes for the Tinydino that I'd purchased online. I opened it up.....

...and promptly died and went to heaven in a fluffy pile! The most amazing collection of 'scraps' ever! I dare say there's actually enough yarn in some of these 'scraps' to combine them with a contrast heel and toe and do a full pair of socks! You can tell how big the pile is by the partial sock that the lady also included for me to frog back and reuse.

I can't wait to get knitting some more scrappy socks! And just think of how much my tiny blanket is going to grow with all of these beauties! 

What was your most recent yarn post? :D

FO: Pair one! Rose City Scraps

Pair one is finished! Hurrah! At about 9pm on the 31st January I finished the second sock of my first pair for 2016. So I actually managed my first pair in less than a month. and that included finishing a pair of socks before starting these too. Woohoo!

They are the Rose City Rollers pattern, knit on my tiny 2.5mm circular needles, which I LOVE. And of course, knit out of sock yarn scraps.

I did make a couple of modifications to them. Firstly, I did an extra 8 rows to the heel flap for the medium size. So I had 20 slip stitches instead of 16. I then gave them the Anatomical toes, by Persnickety Knitter.

I'm not happy with my SSK stitches on one side of my decreases. They don't look as neat. In  fact, looking at the photo above, I can tell which side is a SSK and which is K2tog. So I'll be spending the evening reading a few blogs and articles on SSK alternatives!

I've printed the pattern and selected the yarn for pair number two. Wish me luck! :D

If you'd like to look these socks up on Ravelry, then have a look here

Pair one progress

So, just over half way into the first month I finished my first sock of pair one! Woohoo! I do so love the mini circulars, I can't wait to get a second pair because I am very much suffering from the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome!
As I mentioned in my last post, I cast on the Rose City Roller pattern with my mini circulars and a bag of sock yarn scraps. I did the heel flap from the pattern, rather than my usual afterthought heel, and I did extra rows on the heel flap to make them fit my giant feet better, so 20 instead of 16 slip stitches for my size. And instead of the normal toe from the pattern, I decided to try out the Anatomical Toe on recommendation of my friend, who is the queen of sock knitting options! On the quest to find the perfect fit for her own socks she has tried lots of different techniques, and is one of my go-to people for advice on altering to fit!
Anyway, I did an Anatomical Toe on the first sock and I LOVE it. The smaller needle size (2.5mm instead of my usual 2.75mm) has given the socks a tighter fabric, and the deeper heel flap and anatomical toe has just sealed the deal in my eyes. They fit so well!

I'm almost turning the heel on the second sock now, so hopefully I'll finish it by the end of the month (Or not long after!) I need to decide what pattern to cast on next!

I've also realised that I never posted a photo of my finished 'Prequel' socks. The pair of socks I mentioned in this post, that had (embarrassingly) been on my needles since 2014! The shame! I tried a new heel and hated them, throwing them in my knitting bag in a strop and grumping at them periodically over the next almost 2 years. So I resurrected them around New Year and finished them off before I started my 12 in 12 challenge. And here they are!

I must admit, I'm not overly in love with them. They need some altering I think. The feet are too long, meaning the heels are too deep. I think I need to rip back the heel by about an inch! Probably two inches so I can play around with the decreases. And for some reason the toes twist a little too. But that one is more aesthetic than anything else, when they're on my feet I can't tell. The yarn is their saving grace! It is just divine!

But for now, the baby is having a nap and Dinogirl is at school, so I'm off to turn Peppa Pig off the tv and get on with some knitting with a few chocolate digestives  a cup of tea! ;)

So tiny! Testing out Addi 20cm circulars

I have umm'ed and ahh'ed over buying a pair of these teeny tiny needles for ages. I can magic loop with a regular circular and I can use DPNs (Double Pointed Needles), so did I really need to try out another way of knitting socks?
Well, of course! I have joined a number of sock knitting groups on Facebook, the main one connected to Winwick Mum (Aka, Christine, check out her book Super Socks: Knit a pair of socks with Winwick Mum). Lots of the members there are knitting on these tiny sock circulars and love them. So I decided to take the plunge. Amazon were sold out of 2.5mm and so were all the other places I found! I put a post up in the group and a WAHM (Work At Home Mum) said she had some in stock. Score! I usually knit socks on 2.75mm, but my last pair were feeling a little baggy so I decided to size down and see how I got on.
They arrived the day after Kate at Hand Dyed by Kate posted them. So customer service was fantastic! I am now lusting after her yarns, yum. Anyway, I opened the parcel after a day at church volunteering and the school run. THEY WERE SO CUTE AND TINY! (Apologies for the rubbish dark photo taken on my phone....)

I spent the afternoon deciding what pattern to use and eventually tried to cast on that night after the hatchlings were in bed. Nope. It was not happening. I just couldn't get the hang of them and put them down in a huff. It was too dark and I was stupidly trying to cast on with dark coloured yarn. (I've since read in the Winwick Mum Super Socks book, that she likes to cast on to DPNs and transfer to the mini-circ.)

I've been ill over the weekend and all of this week, so whilst I've had my feet up it's been the perfect excuse to knit socks. So the next day, I made myself a cup of tea, printed out the Rose City Rollers pattern, sat down in my PJs and tried again. And managed! Woohoo! (Yes, that's a dino stitch marker....)

At first, they were awkward to use. They are so tiny, my hands weren't used to holding them. I felt like I was knitting with my fingertips! Probably because I was trying to knit with my finger tips! But after a few rounds they felt less awkward, and by the time I was doing the heel flap of the sock, I was in love. They felt so easy and quick.
Picking up the gusset stitches were awkward, and I ended up using a couple of DPNs to pick up, just for space. But I squished the stitches back onto the mini-circular after picking them up and it wasn't too bad actually! Definitely easier than doing it magic loop or with DPNs.

So, my verdict? I love them! I've actually just asked Kate to let me know when she has more stock so I can buy a second circular and matching DPNs, as I like to knit two socks at once other wise I end up with second sock syndrome. If you fancy them, then give them a go! But give them a couple of days of use. You really have to let your hands get used to a different way of holding the needles. It felt so clunky and awkward at the start, but after a few days my hands adjusted to the different way of holding them and now I find them much faster than magic loop and I don't get the ridge or ladders that I get with DPNs (No matter how careful I am with my tension I always get one or the other!). And they're much more portable too. No lengths of wire or multiple pointy sticks. Although I do suggest a couple of DPNs or a spare needle of some kind to pick up stitches should you do a heel flap.

I'm now at the toe section of the first sock and about to start my toe decreases. (I've got a wooden DPN in there with a few stitches on so I don't loose any stitches off the tiny circ while stretching the sock over my foot) I've been reading about the anatomical toes and I think that's what I'll be doing this time rather than the standard finish in the pattern. I'll do another post about my socks though, as they're my first pair of my twelve! ;)



(Just a little disclaimer, I haven't been paid by Addi, Winwick Mum or Hand Dyed by Kate for this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own, yadda yadda...)

Twelve in twelve

I love hand knit socks. I adore them. They're so comfy and soft and colourful. I have enough sock yarn to sink a ship. I just need motivation to actually get it made into beautiful squishy socks! And the time. And more hands.... So I've decided to give my self a little challenge. Want to join me?

I've seen a lot of people over the years doing 52 in 52. 52 pairs of socks in a year, so one a week. I'm smart enough to know I would never ever manage a pair of socks a week. I have big feet and like longer legs to my socks. And have two kiddies to run around after. Quite literally, now that TinyDino is crawling and cruising! So I've decided to do 12 in 12.
That's 12 pairs of socks in the year, one a month. If I manage extra pairs then even better! And to start myself off on the right foot (Hahaha, yes pun intended!) I'm finishing the poor unloved socks which have sat on my needles for..... about 2 years? Yeeeeeah...... I attempted a new way of doing the heels and fell out with them big time and they got thrown in a bag in the bottom of my knitting bag and mumbled at every now and again.
They are awesome socks, the yarn is just beautiful, but this new heel made me loose the love totally. So I dug them out of their shallow grave, ripped them back and will do my usual after thought heel instead (You can just see the scrap yarn on the needles in this photo)

I have a small pile of sock yarn to pick from for my first pair, and I'm signed up to a yarn box from The Yarn Tree for almost every other month of 2016! In fact, all of the yarns in my pile for the first pair are also from The Yarn Tree! If you haven't already, you should check her out. Mel dyes some of the most fantastic colourways and her prices are very good too!

I have (L-R) Harley Quinn vs Poison Ivy (From the Superhero yarn box), We're Simply Meant To Be and Tis The Season To Be Jolly (Both from the Nightmare before Xmas yarn box)

 I also have the sock blank "I Love Rainbow Dash" from the My Little Pony yarn box.

And "The Flash" which was also in the Superhero yarn box.

Ignore my rubbish photography skills and look at how gorgeous those sock blanks are! Love at first sight. But which do I pick first?! I have a few more days to decide!

If you want to join me in 12 in 12, leave me a little comment! :D

Knitting catch-up

Here's a selection of the knitted items I've made over the last few years :)