Attic24

Delicious December Days

It's hard to believe that Christmas only happened a little over a week ago as it already seems so far behind us, but I suppose it was last year now wasn't it?! We had a truly lovely Christmas Day with a super early pre-six-o'clock start thanks to Little B who woke up absolutely radiating with excited energy. The early morning unfolded leisurely and with much happiness, gosh it's always such a relief when the present unwrapping has finished up and there is gratitude all round. The Teen and Little Lady had both chosen their (rather grown up) gifts this year but I did still do my best to give them some small surprises as well. I mean, I don't think you can ever be too old to hang a stocking up on the fireplace, can you?

We had some beautiful weather on Christmas morning, so after a late breakfast we decided to head out for a short walk through the woods.

It felt so good to be out breathing in lungfuls of fresh air.....

.....whilst making frequent stops to inhale chocolate. It had to be done - the satsumas just weren't doing it for me this year I'm afraid.

I really love the above photo so much, it's been such a long time since we had the pleasure of The Teen coming with us on a walk. Just lovely it was.

As in previous years it was just the five of us at home for Christmas, so dinner was the usual casual affair. I forgot to buy party poppers and festive napkins, but I did remember the crackers so that's something. It surprised me that The Teen had the most to say about the type of crackers I should buy ("Mum, can we have proper crackers this year with decent stuff inside instead of those stupid wind up toys that you race with?"). So I went for "Childish Traditional" which included classic cracker gifts like a fortune telling fish, a spinning top, a plastic hair comb and a fake mustache. It was all good, traditional nostalgic fun.

In recent years we've settled on the tradition of having a chocolate yule log to follow the overflowing plates of roast dinner on Christmas Day. I'm delighted by this as there is minimal effort required on my part - all I have to do is remember to purchase the aforementioned log, top it with plastic wildlife and a little snowy tree and voila! Thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Little B asked me to show you this photograph as it was his main focus for much of Christmas day. He asks for Lego every year but this is the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" set he's received. Oh my word, I've totally fallen in love with baby Lego Groot, unbelievably cute in every way. Currently he is lost in the Galaxy of the Untidy House, but I'm hopeful he will find his way back to us soon.

We've had  an extensive amount of cosy hours spent at home this holiday, day after day of candlelit idling, and a serious amount of sofa loafing. It's been relaxing, warm, cosy and therapeutic. We've had germs to contend with as all three Little People have been hit with a really horrid cold that is doing the rounds, so it's been a blessing that our holiday has had very little in the way of plans or expectations. They've needed the down time that's for sure. 

The end of December brought us a very mixed bag of weather, and although we've been content to stay indoors for the most part, it's always good to head out and breathe in the cold winter air from time to time.

We went on a short, freezing cold walk at Bolton Abbey one afternoon last week, arriving back at the little cafe rather cold and in need of refreshment. Cappuccinos and hot chocolates all round, with a side of toasted tea cake and all warmth was restored. When we came out of the cafe it was just after 4pm, with the moon already rising above the bare tree tops. It was very atmospheric and utterly wintry I thought. 

During the past few weeks we've enjoyed a lot of fireside relaxation, and I've so appreciated it. Often times we don't really need the physical warmth of an open fire, but the lure of the visual and emotional comfort is hard to resist. My mantle is lit with a mixture of candles and lights, oh I do so love my Christmas light-ups things! I bought these two years ago (bell jar scenes and snowflake arches) and they look so pretty all lit up at night. It's not like me to go with all-white Christmas decorations, but I made an exception for these as they really are lovely.

I think Tilly has had mixed feelings about having the whole family around for days on end. Sometimes she gives off this distinct back-off vibe (see above) which very clearly says "for goodness sake, can't you see I need my space?" And then other times she is near desperate for attention and closeness. But it's always on her terms and we've learnt to read her pretty well in the eighteen months that she's been living with us. She's not an easy kitty to interact with, but we do so love her. 

Friday of last week brought us a snow day, and it was beautiful while it lasted. The flakes fell for half a day, giving us an inch or so of snow on the ground - it wasn't really enough to play in, but the Little People still took to the street and flung themselves around in it, throwing snowballs and larking about with neighbourhood friends.

As it was a Friday morning, I was off to my weekly get together with my yarny friends down at Coopers cafe. I so look forward to this every week and it would take more than a bit of white stuff to keep me away. On my way there, I couldn't resist taking a quick detour up to the top of the park to take in the wintry scene, oh I do love to see a bit of snowy woodland, it's all kind of magical and Narnia-ish don't you think?!

Heading down the hill and into the warmth of the cafe was just the loveliest thing, and spending a few hours hooking and chatting with friends  while the snow continued to fall outside was the absolute definition of cosy. It's almost four years now since the start of my studio adventure at Coopers, and our twice-weekly "Creative Coopers" social groups continue to thrive. It's one of the best things to feel that sense of belonging and friendship that comes when like-minded creative people get together to share and inspire. I value it very, very much and it makes me so happy to have that regular social connection in my life. 

When I arrived at Coopers on Friday, I realised that with all the snowy excitement I'd totally forgotten to bring any crochet with me! No worries there though, as my studio shelves are bulging with yarn and creative possibilities and all I had to do was pick out some colours and get started on something new. For a little while now I've had in my mind to make myself a new Weekend Bag as I've been using my Heatwave Weekend bag constantly for the past year or so and it was starting to look a little worn.

I chose 12 colours of Stylecraft Special chunky and decided to change it up slightly by making one-row stripes instead of the original two-row stripes. It all happened very fast - I think it took me about 3 minutes to choose the colours (I literally just pulled my favourites down off the shelf one by one until the whole lot looked happy together), then found my Weekend Bag pattern on my phone so that I could get started straight away. I have to say it was really great to be able to follow my own tutorial haha!!!

Anyhow, I finished the bag the following day (yes, that fast) and I'll be able to show you next week once I've take some photos.

On a creative roll, I cast on a new pair of socks on New Years Eve and have spent some very enjoyable time during the past few days sat at the table knitting by candlelight. These socks are for Little B who has been pleading for them for many months now. He chose the yarn himself, adamant that he wanted rainbow stripes for his size 1.5 feet, so who am I to argue? This delicious looking sock yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, part of their very popular cocktail range. The colourway is called Rum Paradise and is absolutely gorgeous :)

I've put the socks to one side for now though as I immerse myself in all things Woodland. As many of you will know, my Woodland Blanket Crochet-A-Long begins on Friday, so I'm very busy working on the tutorial and getting everything ready for this wonderful journey to begin.........eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, I'm so excited!!!!!!!

For those of you who might have missed all the Woodland excitement, you can read all about my forthcoming blanket plans in this post. There is still time to gather in your yarn and join me if you wish - Woodland Wandering is sooooo good for the soul at this time of year, these colours really do lift the spirits when all is dreary and grey outside. 

Before I hop off and get back to my pattern writing, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! Next week I'll be putting together my "Year End Review" posts to share with you which is something I always look forward to. 

But in the meantime, I'll be back here in the Attic on Friday to give you everything you need to get started with the Woodland Blanket................can't wait!!!!!! 

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Early July

These sweet days of mid summer are just beautiful, and I feel like I need to soak up every tiny little summery thing and absorb it right into my soul. I feel a strong desire to stock pile these visual details, preserve the sights, sounds and memories of summertime in preparation for Autumn when it all fades away. My view is so green and lush right now, and every day I stand at the end of my street and breathe in the sight of it, even in the grey mist/rain that we've had of late it looks lovely. 

On Saturday morning I walked through the park with the Little People to visit our rather fabulous farm shop. It was a lovely day and we were on a mission to choose and buy some things to put a picnic tea together, it was such fun seeing what they chose and how they thought our picnic should be. We came home with a full bag - pork and apple sausage rolls, garlic stuffed olives, Italian salami, cherry tomatoes on the vine, fresh crusty bread, eggs to hard boil, a punnet of strawberries, chocolate chip cookies. J wasn't particularly keen on the picnic-in-the-park idea, but I showed him the chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and reminded him that all he had to do was sit on a blanket, eat yummy food from a plastic plate and drink wine from a plastic glass. What's not to like? Besides, the Little People were sooooooooo happy about the idea of picnicking, he didn't stand a chance really. 

It was lovely, with that particular quality of summery light when the day starts to gently fade and early evening creeps in. It was round 8pm in the above photo, Little Lady and I lazing on the picnic blanket at the top of the hill chatting about this and that, whilst J and Little B ran round after a football. 

We found a new place to walk at the start of the month, a little bit of an accidental discovery. We were driving around familiar lanes in the Yorkshire Dales (J and I, one Monday lunch time) looking for somewhere quiet and scenic to enjoy a bit of a picnic lunch. We had food and drink, I had my crochet, he had his Kindle, and we had in mind that we might spend a few hours partaking in some pleasurable idling with a view. We saw a sign for Grimwith Reservoir and on whim J swung the car off the road and up a teeny lane to take a look. Turns out that it's rather picturesque and has 4 mile footpath running around the whole perimeter. So just like that we abandoned the idea of hooking/reading and took off to walk instead. I happened to be wearing flip flops at the time, and as I always feel like I could happily walk miles in them I decided to give it a go - turns out that I did just fine.

The following Saturday we went back to the same place, this time with the Little People. They moaned a little and said it was boring (four miles translates to just under 2 hours with Little Feet) but you can't win them all can you? On the plus side, I found some gorgeous pheasant feathers and indulged in my summer grass fixation. Very lovely grasses grow plentifully around Grimwith, in case you are ever in the area and fancy checking it out!

Talking of grasses, I discovered the beautiful work of artist Hannah Nunn just recently - do go and feast you eyes on her blog and have a look at her stunning photographs of summer grasses {here}.

The clouds were pretty spectacular on that day.....

.....ganging up on the horizon and looking rather spooky and unreal (these are Lenticular clouds which we see quite often up on the hilltops here in Yorkshire)

I added the pheasant feathers to my mug on the mantel, which doubles up as a nifty kitty amusement device. I'm sure you can picture the scene - she is very adept at extracting individual feathers which she carries proudly around the room as if she hunted them down in the wild. 

We are devouring punnets of strawberries at the moment (well not right at this very moment as I've run out), we eat these ripe sweet fruits on homemade museli for breakfast, with lunch, after dinner and many times in between. Interestingly, if I were to offer up a lowly apple as an after dinner Pudding Option, the Little People would look at me as if I'd grown two heads. But if I present a plate of chopped strawberries, they descend like locusts and forget to be disgusted that I've given them fruit for pudding instead of something "proper".  Works a treat, every time. Some of the fruits we are getting are massive, and can easily please three children.

Not a lot happening in the vicinity of the back yard just now as I keep forgetting to water the pots. I've got some slightly wilting herbs and some rather leggy lavender plants which are hanging on in there, but my best success at the moment is the clematis which is flowering really well this year.

I love the colour of the petals against the blue of the sky....

....and I'm enjoy a few blooms on my table too.

Isn't lavender just so very summery? I do love it for that.

This past week has seen quite a bit of rain fall here in my patch - I'm NOT complaining (my peas are happy! And the countryside is lush!), but it has made flip-flop wearing a real no-no. There have been pretty rain droplets caught in the Alchemilla leaves though, which never fails to delight me every year.

Awwwwww Tilly, you sweet and naughty little kitty cat! She is soooooo exasperating at times, so deliberately attention seeking and Diva-ish, but I love her ways all the same. My Summer Harmony blanket is growing so beautifully and I fall a little deeper for it's colourful charms every day. More on that journey soon.

My Daffodil socks are coming on nicely too and I'm loving the very stripyness of them. The yarn is inspired by the daffodil emblem used by the Marie Curie charity - more details here.

This picture is to remind me that amongst the Summer sunshine and picnics, the colourful yarn and flowers, the ambling walks and jaunts, there has also been quite a bit of quiet stay-home recovery time for us just lately. On Thursday last week, Little B went back into hospital to have another operation on his hand. He had his first op back in November 2015 which was partially successful in that his left thumb was fine and dandy but his right thumb refused to be fixed first time. It's been tricky for him at school during this past year as he's right handed, but we are hopeful that the operation has worked OK this time, fingers (and thumbs) crossed. It's not always easy doing this parenting thing, and I admit I've felt the strain of it this past week.

Thank goodness for yarn and crochet - total feel-good therapy and stress relief right there in that bag.

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Socking Along

In the days dominated by the colours of the Moorland and the many hours spent hooking up the stripes that make up a blanket, I found myself picking up the pointy sticks again. The Moorland Blanket had become way too big to cart out-and-about to the cafe/pub so I was looking for a small portable project. And socks fit the bill perfectly.

I am getting better at knitting in public, more specifically knitting whilst talking/howling with laughter and drinking gin. I am more relaxed with those stitches (gin helps), my shoulders don't hitch up around my ears quite so much, and I'm starting to ease out of the need for complete silence and laser-intensity concentration at all times. It's still not really what I would call a relaxing hobby for me yet, but I can feel that it may well eventually become that in the distant future. 

I love to document my progress on all things creative, so am super-glad that I can use this space to keep a track of my sock production. You can find all my sock-related posts by looking in my<<  left sidebar << in the "category cloud". Look for the small sock word - this will bring up all posts with socks embedded in them, with each pair photographed and the yarn details included. 

So lets shimmy back in time for a quick catch up on my sock happenings, shall we? You might remember back in my last sock post that I showed you the new Stylecraft Head Over Heels yarn?

I picked out this gorgeous stripy colourway called "Everest" (the colours seemed rather appropriately Moorlandish I thought) and cast on back in October.

I whizzed through these beauties and enjoyed watching the subtle stripes form themselves into woolly socks.

{Stylecraft Head Over Heels : colour Everest}, blending beautifully with the Moorland stripes.

After the Everest socks, I cast these ones on at the end of January as portable knit/natter material. They aren't perfect - in fact, due to the pub setting, one of the heels developed a severe lean to the left when I got thoroughly too big for my boots and thought I could turn the heel whilst socialising. Rooky error. In my world of sock knitting, a heel turn requires Absolute Silence, and a brain fueled by caffeine rather than gin. 

But oh, just feast your eyes on those scrumptious stripes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This yarn tickles me (not literally, it's pretty soft and smooth) as it is part of an Opal range inspired by Rainforest birds and animals, which pleases me on so many levels. I love love love to know what inspires colour schemes, the design process is just fascinating I think.

If you are searching for this sock yarn online, you need to look for the word "Regenwald", eg. Regenwald 11 and Regenwald 12. The labels on the yarn show you a picture of the bird/animal that inspired each colourway, just to add to the whole brilliant experience of choosing.

{Opal Regenwald 11 : colour 8976, Kalle the Villain}

I think this pair is one of my favourites to date (despite the wonky heel), the colours are certainly very Me.

I get such a kick out of this small pile of knitting, such an ooomph to the heart of pride and pleasure. I keep my hand knitted socks in a neat pile beside my bed, for the pleasure of having them always to hand when my feet are cold (which is often) and also for the visual delight they provide. Admire, wear, wash, dry, stack, swoon, repeat.

If you've been following my sock making journey from the beginning, you will know that it was my good friend Christine who got me addicted started. For all of my socks so far, I've used her absolutely brilliant Basic Sock pattern which is a full tutorial designed to enable complete beginners. She says that if you can knit and purl then you can make socks, and I am certainly proof of that fact. So if you've always fancied giving socks a go, I can highly recommend joining Christine's Sockalong which tells you exactly what you will need to acquire (needles, stitch markers and yarn), and how to get going.

A few weeks ago, Christine published a brand new tutorial for Easy Cable Socks, and something in me sat up and took an interest. I absolutely LOVED the look of those cute little twisty patterns forming in the stitches! I am really not a competent knitter and the idea of creating twisting cables seemed like it involved a little bit of voodoo magic somehow. But spurred on by the knowledge that there are video tutorials to demonstrate the voodoo elements, and by Christine assuring me it wasn't that hard, I decided to take on the challenge.........

................oooooooooooooooooooooo looooook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go me, go me, go me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made twisty cables in my stripes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you are suitably impressed?! Hahahahaaa!

I got off to a rocky start (and nope, not a drop of gin was involved), as I counted wrong and then tried to undo the wrong stitches across the twisty bit of the cable, which resulted in a Dropped Stitch and some minor panic. I managed to rescue the dropped stitch but it meant the first cable went a bit rogue. However, undeterred I carried on and the more rows I did, the easier it became. 

Now if you've been following my sock knitting from the start, you will know that I knit on short 23cm circular needles, and that I taught myself (using YouTube) to learn continental knitting - this is where I get to hold the yarn in my left hand in exactly the same way as I hold the yarn when I crochet, which is rather brilliant for us hookers who are using sticks. However, I have only been able to make knit stitches this way, needing to switch back to English knitting (yarn in right hand) whenever I needed to purl. 

With the cable pattern, there is a fair bit of knit and purl switching that needs to take place in every row, so I set about learning how to do a continental purl. I'd been told a while back by some skilled ladies with knit-know-how, that I should look up Norwegian Purl, as this keeps the yarn at the back of the knitting and would work for me and the way I hold my yarn. Well.....if I thought cables were made of voodoo magic, Norwegian Purl looked like the work of the the devil. There is a lot of needle wiggling and yarn twisting, a lot of procedure needed for just one stitch. It looks complex and impossible. But...............after stopping and starting this video a gazillion times, I finally, finally mastered it. 

WOW. What can I say? It has transformed the way I knit socks and I am so so so happy.

I don't mean to brag here.....but I am ridiculously proud of my cables, and my newfound Norwegian Purl technique. It has given me a real buzz to challenge myself and find that my brain isn't as foggy as it so often feels. 

By the way, the yarn I'm using for these socks is {Stylecraft Head Over Heels : Eiger colourway}

I'll be sure to show you this pair when I've finished. There may well be gushing.

My Cable Socks are actually pair number ten, believe it or not. Two pairs went south to warm my Mum's toes, and one pair went off to Manorlands Hospice to warm poorly toes as part of the Yarndale Charity Sockline.

I am still aspiring to fill a whole drawer with socks one day, yes, #operationsockdrawer is very much happening in the Attic, slow and steady.

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...more little snippets from the Attic...

❤ Three Things ❤

The Colours of May

Comfort Seeking

My days are long and slow right now in the midst of this cold, grey winter and I've been on a major comfort seeking mission. I keep catching sight of my squidgy overhanging body bits and thinking idly that eating danish pastries is not the answer, but oh they are so so so very good. They are my weakness, and right now in these tricky months I am giving myself permission to indulge.

I've been knitting again in recent weeks too, with another pair of stripy socks growing slowly on my needles. Knitting still doesn't bring me nearly as much calm, comfort and feelgood as crochet does, but wearing hand knitted socks inside my boots every day is just flippin' brilliant so I keep going with it. The problem is that I'm not a relaxed knitter. I tend to find my shoulders rise up around my ears when I knit and the whole experience is just a smidge on the tense side, but I do really love the satisfaction of sock production.

I've got a jug of bright yellow daffs on my table, and I love that they are so easy to come by at this time of year. The supermarkets have huge boxes full of them, bunches of tightly closed buds secured with an elastic band for £1, so it's possible to have a continuous parade of them in the house. The kitty has been eating them of course, and in times when she really, really wants to get my attention she will set about pulling each and every stem out of the jug so that they lay strewn across the table. It drives me bonkers, but in the big scheme of things it's not such a big deal. I love her crazy kitty ways and her big demanding diva personality. And I love having flowers in the house way too much for her to put me off.

On Wednesday the twenty fifth of January, there were blue skies and sunshine, which made it a day to remember in my book. We've had so much grey of late, so little sunlight shining down on us, that I almost began to completely forget what sunshine actually looked and felt like. It was wonderful. I try hard not to wish these winter days away (I really do, honest), and yet I am longing for seasonal change. Winters here in Yorkshire are long and I know from experience that Spring doesn't happen until late April so I do need to find some patience from somewhere.  

Any talk of comfort seeking and you will most likely find me heading to the kitchen and putting my apron on. I am a comfort baker without a doubt. Little Person running a temperature? Bake buns of course! Weather being all mean and grey and nasty? Well there just has to be a lemon drizzle cake in the oven! Really, there is no hope for my squidgy, overhanging body bits until at least April.

Another tried and trusted comfort provider is the business of sticking sticky things. I have absolutely no idea why this is so, but over the years I've learnt not to question it too much, just to go with the feel-good and stick, stick, stick. Currently I am really enjoying my pretty washi tapes (mostly purchased from the lovely Dominika AKA CwlCrafts on Etsy), adding stripes of colour and pattern to all of my planner pages. It's just a small thing, sticking a length of tape to a piece of paper, but it does make me literally sigh with pleasure.

I've had a lot of quiet stay-home days of late, hibernating in the Attic and spending many hours conversing with the cat, knitting, crocheting, baking, planning and just idling about. It's been self indulgent and not especially healthy I guess, although at the time I'm carrying out the indulging and idling, it feels rather marvelous. But I carry a snippet of guilt on my shoulders, guilt because of the way I am allowing the days to slip slide away in a blur of under achievement and laziness. My to-do lists are teetering, the house is a shambles, and my overhanging bits are growing - I sincerely hope this is something of a short lived phase and that energy levels and motivation will return at some point sooner rather than later.

I have been out walking on occasion though, and there is comfort in that fact, yes indeedy. The hubby and I have taken opportunity to stride out into the wintry Yorkshire Dales, ignoring the mud and the wind and the grey and getting right out there. Pumping blood, stretching muscles, climbing hills and the such like. It's been wonderful actually. We walked six miles on Monday, and the sun shone through for possibly 12 minutes or so (as seen in the above photo). We sat beside the river and ate pie, and all was good in my world.

And I've been hooking too, in between all the other comforting guff. Oh my, this blanket, I love it so very, very much. The more it grows, the more I swoon. I'll be sharing Part 5 of the Moorland Blanket journey here tomorrow and I absolutely cannot WAIT to show you how the blue sky creeps in..........oh..............you're gonna love it.

I hope that wherever in the world you are, whether you are shivering and hiding from the early signs of Storm Doris, or trying to stay cool in the heat of your scorching summertime, that you find some comfort in your days.

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EDIT TO ADD :: thanks for the advice re kitties and daffodils - she has only eaten small bits of petal so far and has been fine, but I'm moving them out of her way just to be safe. Thank you xx

 

...more little snippets from the Attic...

Here and There

Notes from the Studio

A Colourful Competition

Sock Update

I've had socks-on-the-brain this week (I'll explain why in a bit), and it occurred to me this morning that I could really do with having a little chat about the socks I've made since my last update back in May. I don't keep a physical record of my sock making journey (other than the finished socks themselves of course), and never manage to keep a hold of the ball bands, so it's really helpful for me to be able to record the yarn info here on my blog for future reference. Plus, it's always nice to share colourful yarny stripes, these photos make me really happy!

Seven pairs of socks (an actual stack of them!) plus the pair I sent to my Mum last Christmas makes eight pairs in total. I still can't quite believe that these socks have been made by my very own hands, with pointy sticks and teensy stitches and skinny-minny 4 ply yarn, it truly amazes me that I can do this magical sock thing. I am a Knitter of Socks, and I am so proud!!

After the handpainted Pea Green socks that I knitted for my Mum, I decided that she must have a super-stripy pair to follow. I went with {Opal Viridian Schafpate sock yarn : colour 'Thelma'} as I love the way that Opal sock yarn comes out so very cleverly stripy, they are quite irresistible.

I got rather a bit addicted to making this particular pair of socks (I couldn't seem to leave them alone) and cast the pair on and off my needles within about two weeks. Boom! Go me! I'm hoping to be able to get down to Dorset at the end of October so that I can gift them to my Mum's cold feet in person. She is a hand knit sock convert since the first pair I made for her and quite honestly I know exactly how that goes. They really do feel like a woolly hug for ones feet.

There are many things I love about knitting socks, the bestest thing by far being that I get to wear them and flaunt my knitting skillz. I also love that a good many of my yarny friends now knit socks (many pairs are often on the go around the café table at Knit and Natter sessions), which makes me feel like I somehow belong to a rather special Sock Knitting Club. Although truthfully I do still struggle with knitting in public - I can crochet quite happily with only a small portion of my brain engaged with what my hands are doing, but knitting? Nope, I most definitely need all my grey matter to cope with the itty bitty stitches and counting of the rows, and find that talking and knitting simultaneously presents a bit of a challenge. I'm told this does get easier with time - I'm hopeful that one day I'll be able to cope better with chatter+coffee+knitting.

The pretty pink and green socks in the above photo were on my needles in July, the yarn is another {Opal Viridian Schafpate : colour 'Kate'}. I decided about half way through the second sock that I wouldn't keep them, but would give them away instead. Not to family this time, but to a complete stranger......

....I wanted to join in with this year's Charity Sockline organised by my friend and sock-queen extraordinaire Christine.

So once my socks were off the needles and all nicely washed and blocked, I made a label for them and added them to Christine's fairly impressive pile......

....oh just look at that, a whole mail sack full of beautiful hand knitted socks! During the past few months, parcels containing knitted socks have been arriving at my studio, waiting for Christine to come and gather them all together. It took most of yesterday to sort through them all......

....with more than 80 pairs lovingly knitted and sent to Yorkshire by followers of Christine's blog and Facebook Sockalong group. The socks will be displayed at this year's Yarndale festival (this will be the second year for this fabulous project, you can read about last year's charity sockline here).

After Yarndale, Christine works hard to make sure each pair of socks is donated to a charitable organisation where they will be gifted to those in need. Places like shelters for the homeless, women's refuges and children's hospices, where it's hoped that a pair of gorgeous, hand made woolly socks will make a tremendous difference to someone who needs a little bit of extra love and warmth. You can find out where last year's socks were given here.

It's a wonderful thing to be a part of our generous yarny community here in Blogland, I really do think crocheters and knitters have very huge big hearts indeed. And very clever fingers.

Now then what have we here......not MORE pretty sock yarn surely?? I know you must think I lied very badly indeed when I told you that I really don't stash sock yarn at all. Uh-uh, not me, I buy just one ball at a time as and when I need it, honest I do! Cross my heart! 

These six balls of gorgeousness were given to me last month to squidge and have a play with, aren't the colours lovely? This is a brand new 4ply yarn called "Head Over Heels" made by Stylecraft. It's been specially developed to be durable enough for socks, but also fine and light enough for knitters and crocheters who like to make shawls. The three balls on the left (from top to bottom : Matterhorn, Everest, Kilimanjaro) create short stripe repeats, whereas the three balls on the right (from top to bottom : Eiger, Olympus, Fuji) have much longer and more graduated colour changes. There are some pictures showing how they each look when knitted up here, so you can see what I mean about the short and long colour changes. It's fascinating how these colour changes work and I'm looking forward to having a play with them once I can breathe out again after Yarndale.

Oh, such beautiful stripy goodness! The Attic24 #operationsockdrawer is still a bit on the miniscule side, more of a small select pile than an actual drawer, given that I only have four pairs so far. Gotta start somewhere though, there is definitely a full drawer in my future I'm sure of it!

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ps All my socks are made following Christine's fabulous Basic Sock pattern which you can find for free on her blog {Winwick Mum Basic Sock Tutorial}

If you want to find out more about my own sock making journey, all my posts are archived in the Sock category {my socks}

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It's All About the Socks

 

It's been almost two months since my last sock-knitty update back in March, and this morning I decided I have a burning need to show you what's been on and off my needles since then. I've been busy, and have managed to produce five complete socks which I'm rather proud of. My little pile of cosy comfort is growing slowly but surely and I remain delighted with my humble efforts.

When I last talked all about the socks, I was half way through this pair, oh how I loved making them! 

This yarn is scrumptious to knit with {West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply, colour Peacock}....

....and the resulting stripes are really, really lovely. These socks wash beautifully and come out very soft - I'm super pleased to have peacock feather colours on my tootsies! 

After the peacock socks were done, I started straight away (like the very same day) making another pair, this time for my Mum. You might remember back in November I gifted a pair of socks to her for her Birthday? Well, she fell in love with the cosy warmth of hand knit socks and asked if I might make her a few more pairs. I decided to try a different brand of yarn and went for this hand painted beauty in colours of the sea {Cascade Heritage Paints, colour 9770 Celtic}.

Wow, this yarn is sooooooo soft and gorgeous, made with 75% merino yarn, it feels quite different to the Opal/Regia/WYS that I'd got used to knitting with. For one thing, it was really smooth and slippy on the needles, which resulted in some fairly speedy knitting. I loved feeling like I was flying through the rows.

The colours are soothing and very easy on the eye, although I did find myself thinking about green vegetables quite a lot whilst I was making them. They became known as The Pea Socks. And then the Boring Pea Socks...............there, I said it. I realised, not for the first time, that I am a stripe addict and one of the main appeals of knitting socks (aside from getting to wear them on my feet), is the visual joy of the colourful stripes emerging before my eyes.

So I diligently worked the Pea Socks for my Mum, enjoying the speed and softness of the yarn whilst lusting for some visual excitement............

...........oooooo, bring on the Opal Stripes!

 This is {Opal Sweet & Spicy 3, colour 9127 Fruchtgummi}

Oh hello stripy, colourful loveliness, I have missed you!

Aren't these just a weeny bit beautiful? I was in stripy heaven knitting up this pair, it was so much fun discovering how the yarn worked especially after the yawn of the Peas.

I knitted this pair of socks a little differently, in that I worked on both at the same time instead of completing one and then the other. I find that even though I use a little clicker thingy to keep a track of my rows I often get distracted and forget to click. Or else I do click but then immediately forget that I've done it and end up clicking twice. So I bought myself a second small circular needle and worked both socks in sections, checking at the end of each section to make sure the stripes on both socks were matching up with each other. Does that makes sense? I divided the knitting into six sections (rib, leg, heel flap and turn, gusset, foot, toe), and it somehow made the knitting process seem faster and more enjoyable working two socks together. I think I'll do it this way from now on.

This particular Opal yarn didn't feel all that soft when I was knitting with it, but the socks softened up a treat after they'd been washed and blocked and are wonderful to wear. I love them very much, well I love all my socks....

I've knitted six pairs of socks now, which is roughly a pair a month. The Pea Socks will be posted off to my Mum next week, and I've got another ball lined up to make her a super-stripy pair next. I just want to mention that my Mum wears purple Dr Marten Boots which have been hand painted all over with flowers, so super-stripy socks won't faze her in the slightest.

Do you know something amazing? I think this might be the very first time ever, ever, ever that I'm arriving at the end of Winter and not craving my flip flops! I've loved wearing my socks and red boots so much this winter - the joy and the comfort of having warm, cosy feet tucked up inside all those itty bitty hand made stitches is not to be underestimated. It feels absolutely, stonkingly wonderful.

I realised this morning when I was taking my sock photos that I am building a little collection of left-over sock yarns, of course! For some reason I hadn't really given much thought to the left overs as I've been stashing them away in a small wicker basket and had forgotten all about them until today. I think I might have a go at some 'happy scrappy socks' (inspired by these ones made by Susan Anderson).

Now before I go, let me just quickly show you two inspirational sock drawers............

 

{sock drawer found on Flickr}

{sock drawer found on Ravelry}

Sigh. #operationsockdrawer is really rocking my boat.

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 ps I use Christine's fabulous Basic Sock pattern which you can find for free on her blog {Winwick Mum Basic Sock Tutorial}

If you want to find out more about my own sock making journey, all my posts are archived in the Sock category {my socks}

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Operation Sock Drawer

Hello my yarny friends! I thought it was about time I shared some more of my sock knitting progress with you, following my revelation about the pointy sticks back in November last year. Well the first thing to say is that I am still really enjoying this new hobby, there is quite a lot about knitting socks that brings  a heap of joy to my creative soul. The yarns, oh the yarns!! So many endless stripy possibilities in every colour under the sun, I've developed something of a love affair with these balls of 4ply yarn. Striping sock yarn is a smidge on the addictive side you know, although so far I have resisted the urge to stash. My first pair of socks (pictured above) was made from yarn gifted to me for my Birthday, when sock making still seemed very much like something other people did. I've since discovered a whole online world of sock yarn, virtual shelves full of the stuff, so tempting, so desirable, so very, very stash-worthy. After my first pair of socks was off the needles {Opal sock yarn :: Sweet and Spicy 2 range :: colourway Sprinkles}, I duly purchased yarn to make a second pair. But I promise hand on heart I only bought enough yarn for just one more pair, still very much all under control and absolutely no stashing. Are you impressed by my self control?? Admirable don't you think? I am strong, I can resist! I can look and peruse and drool and sigh.....and then I can buy just the exact yarn that I need for my very next pair. Go me!

This is the second pair of socks I made - I spent an absolute age doing all the perusing and drooling bit (hours and hours) before finally settling on these particular Norwegian inspired stripes in this particular colourway {Regia sock yarn :: Design Line by Arne and Carlos Edition 2 :: colourway Summer Night}

I absolutely loved using this yarn. I really got a kick out of watching these clever stripes practically making themselves as I knit round and round and round on my small circular needles. So very, very clever. I wonder if I'll ever lose this sock yarn amazement, it just gets me every time!

With this second pair, I messed up a little bit in that my row counting went slightly awry and one sock ended up shorter than the other. So although I meticulously worked the yarn to ensure perfect matching stripes (Christine's explanation for doing this is completely brilliant), my toes ended up a little different to each other. And somehow because of the messed up row counting and resulting mismatched toes, these particular socks ended up just an incy-wincy bit too small for my wide, size 5-but-almost-size-6 feet. My toes felt squished, and I really cannot bare squished toes. So I decided that I would wash and block the socks and then......................

..............I would give them away.

What a pleasing decision, I was instantly full of the joy of gifting handmade. My heart was full I tell you. And then I remembered that within Winwick Mum's SockaLong Facebook group there was a "File section" containing Useful Links. And within the list of Useful Links there was a place to got to where you could download and print some sock wrappers. Genius!

If you like doing this sort of thing, then I can highly recommend using the PDF on Buttons blog {here} A simple black and white paper wrapper to pop around your beloved hand knit socks, and there you have a most perfect gift.

I used Picmonkey to add a little bit of personalised text to the reverse and felt rather pleased with my attention to detail. I wrapped them up and gave them to my Mum who suffers from very cold feet just like me and had a Birthday in December just before Christmas. 

So my needles remained bare and sockless for just a short while, but faced with a 7 hour train journey (my trip to Dorset in December) I decided to purchase more yarn for my third pair of socks. This time I went for hot colours, as I thought they would look rather snazzy poking out the top of my red Fly London boots which I wear every day. The yarn is lovely to work with {Regia sock yarn :: Design Line by Kaffe Fassett :: Ombre Stripe, colourway chili pepper} with the stripes forming in a pleasingly ordered way.

I do still struggle with using the pointy sticks needed to shape the toes, but with each sock it's becoming less fraught and troublesome. Can't yet say that I enjoy "wrestling with the hedgehog", but at least I can manage to get through it in a relatively calm manner.

Now then - do you see my neat little stitch markers in the above picture, the little beady rings nestled amongst my stitches there? These are a recent discovery which I want to share with you, as I absolutely love them and they are pure joy to use.

I found them in a very round about way, the exact ins and outs I can't recall (it was one of those lengthy internet journeys where you hop from place to place to place without remembering a thing about it).

These gorgeous little markers are designed especially to fit small circular needles, and they are called Mini Ring O's. They are made by Sarah, who's small business on Etsy is delightfully named Fripperies & Bibelots, oh I do so love that quirky name! Sarah is a trained silversmith and jeweller who has created a wonderful reputation for herself designing and making the most beautiful stitch markers for us yarnies.

It was early December when I fell in love with these beauties, and Sarah was right in the thicket of making and fulfilling her Christmas orders. At that time there were no mini ring o's to be found in her shop, but after a few conversations back and forth, Sarah kindly offered to make a set designed especially for me - in full rainbow colour of course! She named them "Lucy's Rainbow" and I was so enchanted by them that I ordered six extra sets so that I could give them to my sock making friends for Christmas. As you can see from the above picture, these are teeny tiny little rings which slip easily on and off the needles. Because they are very small and smooth, they don't cause any snagging or accidental holes when passing them on your needles and knitting over them. The different colours mean that you can choose contrasting markers to show up against whatever colour sock yarn you are using, and you can choose two different colours to mark the two decrease points when you shape the gusset. I really do love using them, they are beautiful and practical and I LOVE buying handmade and supporting small businesses.

Sarah has just restocked her shop with some sets of mini ring o's, you can find them in her Etsy shop {here}. She also messaged me last week to say that she's been busy making some special rainbow spectrum sets inspired by the sets made for me last month, and they should be landing in her shop very soon (squeeee!!!!!). So please do keep checking back if you can't find them listed straight away, they will be there very very soon. Sarah is also very good with social media and shares regular news on stock updates via Facebook, Ravelry, Twitter and Instagram.

And now we are all up to date with my knitty goings on - I'm  currently about half way through the second chili pepper sock at the heel flap stage and I hope to have them on my feet asap. I can't wait.

I would love to know if any of you have been inspired to start on your own sock knitting journey and how you're getting on? Are you loving it? Are you wearing your first pair of socks yet? Remember you can find this brilliant Basic Sock pattern and tutorial for free on Christine's blog Winwick Mum {go here to find all the info and pattern links}.

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ps about the title of this post :: #operationsockdrawer is a brilliant hashtag on Instagram that has kept me inspired and amused for many months now, I do love a good hashtag. It's my aim to keep knitting socks in all colours of the rainbow until I have a sock drawer like this......

{Photo credit :: Nanette Blanchard via Fickr}

pps Wool Warehouse has recently increased their sock yarn stash and now have in incredible selection for you to peruse and drool over - do go and have a peep!

{sock yarn at Wool Warehouse}

ppps don't blame me if sock yarn accidentally on purpose falls into your virtual basket and then turns up on your doorstep, tis not my fault ok.

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Here are some useful links for you if you feel inspired to embark on your very own #operationsockdrawer....

Chistine's Sockalong Tutorials (all the help you need with choosing needles, yarn, matching stripes, casting on and knitting)

Sockalong Facebook Group (online support and all round lovely community)

Super Socks (Christine's book)

You will need....

100g ball of Sock yarn (I like and Opal and Regia brands, especially the lovely self-striping patterns)

30cm circular needle 2.5mm (eg Addi needles on Amazon)

20cm set of dpns 2.5mm (eg Addi needles on Amazon)

2 stitch markers in 2 different colours/designs, to mark places for decrease pattern (I like Mini Ring o's by Fripperies & Bibelots)

EDIT TO ADD >>

I have to share just one more inspiration picture - a very swoon worthy set of sock drawers.......

{photo credit :: Christine Petterson blog}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Joy of Knitting Socks

I absolutely hate having cold feet and ever since being a child I have suffered with poor circulation and chilly toes. I was cursed with chilblains every winter through my teenage years and the memory of that annual pain and discomfort in my poor toes is rather rotten. So it goes without saying that I always need my feet to be warm and dry in wintertime and that I also love thick, warm socks, the snugglier the better. I have a whole collection of commercial Snuggle Socks (you know, the really fluffy kind that appear in the shops just before Christmas), but I can confirm, through extensive testing and experimentation, that hand knitted socks are in a league of their own when it comes to warmth and comfort for ones feet.

Having my feet snuggled up inside hundreds of little woolly stitches all created by the hands of someone who adores the knitting process is just magic. Hand knitted socks represent hours of creativity, patience and love, and I am convinced that those feelings are embedded in every knitted row and therefore make one's feet feel extra warm and cosy.

The socks in the photos above belong to me (mine, all mine!), and those are my warm and cosy feet modelling them. Aren't they a bit gorgeous? Do you note that those knitted sock rows are rippling themselves gently up and down, kind of like my crochet ripple blanket? Well there is a little story behind these socks and the way they came to be nestled on my feet. They were designed and made by Christine Perry who writes a blog called "Winwick Mum". Now amongst other talents, Christine is a very accomplished knitter, and I'm sure she won't mind me telling you that she is a Sock Knitting Obsessive. Uh-huh, obsessed I tell you. Just as I have my addiction to crocheting blankets, Christine's thing is knitting socks. She knits all the time, every day. One pair of socks follows another, and another and another. And not content with just knitting socks, Christine also possesses the necessary know how to design her very own sock patterns - I know!! Clever or what?? And this is how I came to have this delicious pair of Neat Ripple Socks at the end of my legs - Christine came to say hello to me at Yarndale last year and asked for my permission to use the "Neat Ripple" name for her socks which were inspired by my crochet ripple blankets. I was only too happy for her socks to share a name with my beloved blankets, and hadn't in any way expected to be thanked so beautifully. What a treasured gift these socks are, I can't tell you how much I love wearing them (a whole lot of cosy happy for my cold feet), and how I love the friendship that came from these ripply stitches.

The above socks were also designed and made by Christine - she based this design on a knitted shawl pattern. I was so in awe of them when I first saw them, so unbelievably impressed by the notion of someone not only knitting their own socks, but somehow creating a lacy pattern at the same time - way beyond skilful in my humble opinion. You may be interested to know that Christine shares all her sock patterns on her blog for free, just the same as I do with my crochet patterns. She is an enabler, an inspiration and guru to would-be sock knitters all over the world.

As well as writing very clever ripply and lacy patterns for advanced sock making, Christine has also written a simple sock pattern to encourage complete sock knitting beginners. With years of sock making expertise under her belt, she has created not only a very nifty Basic Sock Pattern but also a full step-by-step tutorial to go with it. In her tutorial she covers everything you need to know about embarking on your very own sock knitting journey - lots of useful information about choosing the right yarn, buying the right tools (needles etc), how to match stripes so your socks come out like identical twins, how to cast on and make a tension square etc etc. It's a very comprehensive guide and really useful for complete sock-knitting newbies. Once you've digested all the info and got your kit together - a ball of 4ply sock yarn, small 30cm circular needles (2.5mm) , a set of double-pointed needles (2.5mm) and a couple of stitch markers - you are good to go.

With her brilliant tutorials (she uses lots of photos like me), Christine's basic sock pattern is written in easy to understand plain English with lots of helpful explanations along the way. But that's not all - back in the Springtime, Christine hit upon the idea of  starting up a Sockalong, a virtual knitting circle where she would encourage all and sundry to join in with her sock-making adventure and give it a whirl for themselves. Via support groups on Facebook and Ravelry, an exciting new community began to form and many hundreds of ladies began to discover the joy of knitting socks for themselves. Christine is a true inspiration - she is skilled at trouble shooting and offering advice and information, and as a result of her enthusiasm and the knowledge she shares via her Facebook and Ravelry groups, I know many, many people have successfully made a pair of socks for the very first time.

Here in Atticland, Christine's sockalong reached out and inspired many of my real-life friends to start their own sock knitting journey. It was wonderful to witness the joy of sock knitting in the hands of my friends, and truthfully a little part of me began to feel a tad jealous as they oohed and aaaahed over their achievements. I started to feel just a weeny bit left out when there was so much sock talk around the knit and natter table each week. As I really genuinely love wearing hand knitted socks, I found myself quietly wondering if this might be something I could have a go at. Could I do it? Was it possible? Me and the Pointy Sticks?

Christine says that if you can knit and purl, then you can definitely knit socks. She makes it sound very easy and achievable and rewarding. Now I can knit and purl, although it's been a very long time since I did so. I used to knit a lot through my teenage years, in the 1980's when big shoulders and mohair yarn were all the rage. I don't recall really being passionate about knitting when I was younger (I loved stitching and embroidery way more), but I did enjoy it as a hobby and loved wearing the things I made. And so the quiet little thoughts that sat inside my own mind (could I knit socks? could I manage to learn? would it be fun to join in?) started to leak out into real life and several of my sock-knitting friends picked up on my interest and began to encourage me. Go on - give it a go, they said! You'll love it, it's such fun, they said! We can help you if you get stuck! But more than anything, I think they thought it would be fun to see me put down my trusty hook and grapple with the pointy sticks! Haha, they wanted a laugh at my expense I think!!

And so that is how I came to receive a very special Birthday present from my friend Joy, who lives all the way down south on the Isle of Wight. Inside the parcel was a ball of gorgeous sock yarn, and at the end the of the yarn was a set of small circular needles with six and a half rows of rib already knitted up. Ready and waiting for me to carry on.............

So here I am at Coopers Café one Tuesday afternoon, with everyone watching me pick up those needles for the first time. Oh boy, I was so nervous (note the White Knuckles of Tension!) My hands aren't at all used to knitting, they aren't used to holding such small needles or working such tiny stitches with such thin 4 ply yarn. It felt very strange at first, and I had to concentrate like fury to get that ribbing done. Knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two. I couldn't really speak and count and knit all at the same time, so I just smiled, ignored the jibes about Going Over To The Dark Side, ignored the photos being taken and counted hard in my head.

Once the rib was complete, the knitting became much easier. Knitting on small circular needles is actually much easier than using sticks, and the best part is that you don't have to turn the work and make purl rows. You just knit round in a spiral, using a stitch marker to mark the start of each row. I found I got into a slow but easy rhythm with those 60 stitches - can't claim they were relaxing or especially enjoyable as I was still very tense at this point and had to knit in complete silence, but I began to feel ridiculously proud of my rows. Knitting!!!! I am actually knitting!!!!

The thing that most pleased me about this first sock was discovering the way the striping yarn worked. Oh my goodness, it was so fascinating and pleasurable to see the stripes emerge from the yarn ball as if by magic. There was no ball-band on the yarn that Joy sent me so I had no picture to tell me what the socks would end up like. I just knit, knit, knit those rows and watched as the stripes changed colour and made patterns all by themselves. So clever! I really, really, really love sock yarn.

At certain times during the knitting of a sock, you have to abandon the cosiness of those little circular needles and bring in the dpn's (double pointed needles).

I was nervous about "turning the heel" as there seems to be a certain mystery around doing this magical thing. Christine's instructions (with lots of pictures to help) made it very do-able even for a newbie like me. I did have to use YouTube to learn how to SlipSlipKnit (a form of decrease), but I got there in the end.

Oh just look at that!! I am very proud of my neat heel flap and gusset!

I had help from the Sockalong Facebook group when I got stuck at times (I experienced the joy of an online community always there when you need help), and I also had to learn how to unpick knitting when it went wrong. In fact, the hardest thing about knitting isn't actually the knitting or following a pattern - it's learning how to trouble-shoot when you go wrong. I found it very handy to keep a 2,5mm crochet hook near me at all times as I frequently had to rescue dropped stitches.

I progressed quite quickly with my first sock, eager to work through all stages of the pattern to see if I could do it. I became a little bit obsessed with it. I found that in order to knit successfully, I had to be sat at my dining table with nobody speaking to me, so it wasn't (and still isn't) a sociable hobby for me. Knitting for me is quiet time, me-time. I knit in the very early mornings or sometimes in little gaps of time in the day like after-dinner-before-bathtime when everyone in the house is occupied and will leave me well alone to concentrate. I find I can't knit in the evenings when my eyes are tired as I make too many mistakes and get too cross.

Knitting the toes is the hardest part of all. Once you've made the foot (oh hello easy rows of knit, knit, knit), you have to get four pointy sticks out in order to decrease to form the toe shape, and honestly it is a right mare. Christine calls it "wrestling with a hedgehog", and that about sums it up. I really couldn't wait to get those rows out of the way, I didn't enjoy them at all. Not one bit. But eventually there I was at the end of the toe, with the required twenty eight stitches, ready to get to grips with The Kitchener Stitch. This is a method of threading the yarn onto a needle and stitching the toe together so that your stitches mimic knitting. The idea is that you "graft" the ends together and make them seamless - it's not as hard as it at first seems and Christine explains it very well in her tutorial. If you are nervous about doing this for the first time, I would  advise going to YouTube and watching it in action - a lovely lady on my Facebook page posted a link to a short video and it made my second sock so much easier {Kitchener Stitch Video}

I have been really pleased to discover how easy it is to knit with these little 30cm circular needles, they really do make the whole sock knitting process pretty easy. There are different brands of needle that you can buy, I'm using Addi ones which are German and lovely to use. You can find them online (try Amazon UK / Amazon US)

Oh - errrr..................................Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made not only one sock, but a matching pair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to tell you, now that my socks have been washed and blocked, they feel amazing to wear. They are soft and oh-so-very warm and toasty.

I have really LOVED working with this gorgeous yarn too, thank you SO MUCH Joy for this wonderful gift, for choosing yarn that has given a huge amount of colourful pleasure and encouraging me to make a start. I owe you big time :)

So what happens when your first pair of socks is on your feet and you've got empty needles sat there in front of you?

Why, you spend a good many hours surfing the net looking for your next fix to feed your new addiction. Of course!

The yarn that Joy gifted me is made by German company Opal (this particular yarn is from the "Sweet & Spicy" Opal range, the colourway is called "Sprinkles"). Opal make a huge range of sock yarns in beautiful colours which really are lovely to knit with and produce stunning socks. 4ply sock yarn generally comes in 100g balls (easily enough to make a pair) and is made from 75% wool / 25% nylon. The commercial sock yarns are machine washable, and come out beautifully soft after washing, with no shrinkage or fluffing or bobbling. Once you start looking at sock yarns, you will seriously be spoilt for choice, they are all so appealing!

The self-striping pattern thingy that happens in sock yarn really has entranced me, I am fascinated by the way it works. If you've got a spare 6 minutes right now, do watch this little video about how Opal sock yarns are made, it's ace.

So I have a second pair of socks on my needles already, oh yes. In fact, the very same day I finished my first pair I ordered some new yarn online and it was on my needles the next day (thank you Wool Warehouse for such speedy, reliable delivery, you feed my yarn addiction very nicely!)

So what do you think of these stripes then? Aren't they cool??? It amazes me to look at the ball of yarn and know that it will produce these stripes and patterns. This is Regia yarn, another fab sock brand from Germany and this particular range has been designed by Norwegian knitting designers Arne & Carlos.

I've learnt that sock yarns come in different ranges, and within each range there are different colourways to choose from. So for this particular yarn, the brand is Regia, the range is "Design Line by Arne & Carlos, edition 2" and there are six different colourways to choose from (this is number 03657 Summer Night)

Once again, I have really enjoyed seeing the stripes emerge, they are very pleasing indeed. Clever yarn, it really is.

So now we are up to date with my journey, and you can see where I am at right now - almost finished the leg of my fourth sock. The knitting is getting easier for my hands, my tension is more even and I've not dropped nearly so many stitches with this pair. And I'm relaxing a bit more with it now which is good, but this is still a quiet, full concentration hobby for me. I'm told it does get easier.

Super Socks is the book that Christine wrote to accompany her online tutorials. Gosh, my friend wrote a book, and I am more than a bit in awe of that fact and very proud of her, especially as it's a very good book too.

Just like her blog tutorials, the book is full of photos and well explained text which accompany the pattern and help you along the way.

I found I much preferred having the book pages rather than a computer screen next to me whilst I was knitting, it really helped to see the pictures alongside the pattern to keep me on track.

Something else I want to tell you is about the knitting method itself - somewhere in the early rows of my first sock I decided to try and teach myself Continental knitting. This is where you hold the yarn in your left hand and use the needles to hook up the yarn (rather than "throwing" the yarn around the needles). I am still very much learning, but it has totally changed the way I knit and crucially the speed I can knit. It really suits my hands as I can hold the yarn in exactly the same way as I do when I crochet. There are masses of tutorials on YouTube teaching the basics of Continental knitting - as I say, I am still learning and haven't yet mastered purling the continental way, but it has encouraged me to learn more.

If you've been encouraged by my knitting journey and think you might like to have a go at making your toes cosy with some hand knitted socks, all I can say is Go For It, you will be so glad you did. Christine's pattern and tutorials do really make it achievable, plus remember you can join the Sockalong Facebook Group too which is just the friendliest community of people who will inspire you and give help and advice when needed.

Here for your info are some links for patterns and essential kit...

Chistine's Sockalong Tutorials (all the help you need with choosing needles, yarn, matching stripes, casting on and knitting)

Sockalong Facebook Group (online support and all round lovely community)

Super Socks (Christine's book)

You will need....

100g ball of Sock yarn (I like Opal and Regia brands, especially the lovely self-striping patterns)

30cm circular needle 2.5mm (eg Addi needles on Amazon)

20cm set of dpns 2.5mm (eg Addi needles on Amazon)

2 stitch markers in 2 different colours/designs, to mark places for decrease pattern (lots on Amazon)

I am really enjoying this new creative hobby of mine, but please rest assured that I am still first and foremost a hooker. Crochet is still the love of my life :)

Speaking of which, I'm off to darn in my ends as I've got some photos to take ready for my Sunny CAL tomorrow....see you then....

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Comfort Zone

Something occurred to me these past few days, a collection of thoughts, feelings and experiences which led me to this conclusion :: I have become deeply entrenched in my own personal  Comfort Zone. Now this is no bad thing in my opinion, for I am very, very happy and content tucked up inside my zone. And if happiness is a measure of success, then I have that in spades.

My life is fairly mundane for the most part. Days of low key, mellow routine which revolve around the needs of my family interwoven with my daily quest for pleasure and creative fulfilment. I am extremely fortunate to have a loving and stable home life, my health (which I never take for granted), friendships and freedom. I relish my freedom more than I am able to put into words - my days can sometimes feel a little adrift as I don't tend to have a huge amount of structure, but that is just a teeny tiny down-side with a very large up-side. I can wake up and choose what I do with my days, I can choose where I wish to spend my six child-free hours, I can do things on a whim, can chop and change depending on my mood, the weather, a whiff of a spontaneous idea - this freedom is sooooo precious and I consider myself very, very lucky indeed to have it.

In recent years, my life experiences have accidentally narrowed somewhat. By that I mean that I don't tend to ever venture very far from home any more. I used to love going down to London once or twice a year, getting on the train and setting off for a day of adventure in the Big Smoke. I used to love the thrill of it, used to crave the excitement of Big Shops, stimulation, inspiration, retail therapy. I don't recall when exactly I stopped wanting to go places, it just kind of dwindled down to nothing so that the idea of journeying for three and a half hours in order to spend money in shops just began to feel rather silly.

Every year we take our family holidays in familiar places within the UK - Dorset, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland. Every year I give quite a lot of thought to new places we might visit, new things we might try, and yet every year we settle with familiar routine and go back to the same places. It seems we still need to be in our comfort zone, even when we aren't at home.

Sometimes I get frustrated by the whole same-same of my days, this very ordinary little thing that my life has become, but truthfully that doesn't happen often. I have come to really appreciate the gentle familiarity of a small life spent in a small rural market town, being Mum to my three Little People and being the person I am without effort, struggle, stress or ambition. It is peaceful, it makes me happy, this small domestic life of mine.

On Friday I spent some lovely hours with J who had the day off work. I know he sometimes envies my days of freedom, and the days he has free from his working life are precious to him. I asked him what he wanted to do with his day and he said he'd simply like to walk by the river. Fine by me - lets go.....

He chose a familiar and favourite place of ours, the footpath along the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey (twice in one week for me!). It was damp and still, and aside from the rushing sound of the river it was very quiet and peaceful on this dull, cold, overcast Friday morning. It really does make you feel great walking amongst nature, it tops up the feel-good tanks somehow. Such fresh, cool, oxygenated air here under the trees as we teeter on the edge of Winter. We walked and talked and it was good.

After our walk we headed further into the countryside to one of our favourite pubs (the New Inn at Appletreewick) for a spot of lunch. This pub is so unpretentious, so down to earth and rustic, we love it's simplicity very much. On this Friday lunch time we were the only customers, we sat right there next to the log fire and soaked up the warm and cosy atmosphere.

This was the day before a Very Big Day Indeed, and there was a certain amount of nervous anticipation filling my mind. In the quiet of this small pub, J and I talked of what was to happen the next day, our Big Day Out, our journey to a city which was to take me way out of my comfort zone......

We had an early start on Saturday morning, leaving the house at 7am before the sun had risen over the hills. As we journeyed out of Yorkshire, we were surprised to see the hilltops of Lancashire dusted with a powdery covering of snow - Winter has arrived in a sharp, sudden snap of coldness here. Bye bye Autumn.

Travelling to Manchester was such a strange thing, it was nerve wracking and familiar all at the same time. Manchester is the city where J and I met each other twenty two years ago, where we studied, lived, socialised and worked for eight years through our twenties. We know the city well and loved our life there, and yet it still felt very strange to be back, so unexpectedly unfamiliar. And huge. Crikey, everything in that city is enormous! Very close to our destination we had a really stressful time in the depths of the city centre when our trusty sat-nav lady went absolutely bonkers and completely lost the plot. She had a total meltdown and started talking non-stop at us in her impeccable English accent "turn right, right hand lane, keep right, Albion Street, keep right, Manchester, Birmingham Airport, right hand lane, keep right, Birmingham Airport, etc etc...." What On Earth???!!!  I was sooooooo uptight, we were trying to find a particular car park and my heart was hammering so loud with anxiety that I thought I might just open the car window and throw up my toast and marmite. Luckily for me, J is a) a very good driver and b) unbelievably calm in times of navigational stress.

So eventually we found the aforementioned car park, and all of a sudden we were there at the (huge) Manchester Central convention centre. It's a really beautiful old building (an old railway station), constructed in a huge arc and kind of industrial but with so many curves it is rather graceful and lovely. The Handmade Christmas Fair was already under way (it had started on Friday) and there was a lovely atmosphere in the building. We went straight to the Super Theatre and I tried very, very hard not to be nervous.....

......gulp. So many chairs!!!! Yikes!!!! My internal dialogue was a little bit like the sat-nav lady at this point, kind of a slightly panicky, manic running dialogue of randomness. But, it was *OK*, I managed to stay calm and the team behind the scenes were friendly and welcoming and instantly put me at ease. I can't really tell you an awful lot about my chat with Kirstie as it all went by in a bit of a blur. There were around 180 lovely ladies in the audience, but it still managed to feel quite cosy and informal somehow. We chatted, I relaxed a little. We chatted some more. I talked about crochet, colour, blogging, all things I feel good about and found that I actually had quite a lot to say about (!) You can read a really great write up on Kathryn's blog Crafternoon Treats (Kathryn was in the audience).

It went by in a flash - forty five minutes of being very far out of my Comfort Zone, on the stage and in the spotlight, public speaking and all. SO far removed from my normal little Attic-dwelling life, but I surprised myself and really did genuinely enjoy the whole experience. My big hope is that I might have inspired someone to maybe start a blog of their own, find their writing voice, be brave enough to share their thoughts ideas and projects with others.  Becoming part of this amazing, thriving blogging community right here in the world wide web has changed my life. There is so much good here within the creative community, so much talent, passion and inspiration, and it's a real privilege to be a part of it. I love my little blogging space so much!!

Did I mention how BIG Manchester is?

City buildings and city streets, the height of the surrounding landscape, it was all quite overwhelming. I suddenly missed the hills, I missed the familiarity of feeling gently grounded amidst a rural landscape. J felt the same - there was a moment when we both stopped walking and looked at each other and communicated a "lets get out of here" thought. So instead of heading right into the city centre as planned, we turned right around, walked back to the car and drove away.....

.....not too far away mind you. We simply headed five miles out of the centre to the quiet leafy suburban roads where we used to live. We drove down our old road and past the old house which we shared with five friends, and parked in the car park of our old local pub where we once spent a lot of our time. It was refreshingly familiar and surprisingly unchanged since we left almost twenty years ago.

We plonked ourselves down on some saggy leather sofas next to  a glowing coal fire and breathed out. Phewwwwww. A large glass of celebratory vino and a very good hot steak sandwich later, and all was right in my world again.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a day of total slobbery. Arriving home on Saturday evening I had felt utterly exhausted and drained. I went to bed early and slept for ten hours straight, waking up with such a huge sense of relief and a lightness in my soul. I did it! I went well and truly out of my Comfort Zone, and it really was OK, I did OK. Still, this sense of relief stayed with me all day, and I made the most of it, allowing myself a personal little glow of pride whilst lounging around on the sofa in my pyjamas. We lit the fire after lunch (it's gotten really blinking cold here), and I settled down to immerse myself in those Sunny stripes of glorious colour.

At the end of my legs, my feet were cosied up in some rather lovely hand knit socks...........and that's a story I shall tell you about very soon :)

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