The Curse of the OCD Sock Knitter

In which our nimble fingered sock knitter swears a lot and throws cashmere across the room in a big old huff...

So. I'm on my 4th redo of my other half's birthday socks (his birthday was Monday) and I've only got myself to blame.
It's this great pattern Riff with a nifty running stitch cross pattern over the instep and up the back heel.

Of course muggings here couldn't possibly knit the socks in the recommended yarn.  Oh no, only the best Mongolian cashmere for my loved one. It has the same stitch gauge as the recommended yarn but a very different row gauge (who has time to do a full swatch for socks these days?!?)

What I couldn't forsee is that when the row gauge is different the lovely crosses in the pattern don't line up. It took me 2 redo's to work this out. Throw in a couple of rows of tired knitting when I crossed stitches in the wrong direction and the thing gets thrown across the room and called a C U Next Tuesday more times than I can count on one hand.

"Don't worry about it" says my love "no one's going to notice, I can't tell the difference so no one else will." Ah yes my dear, but I'll see it every time you put your feet up on the coffee table in front of the telly and It. Will. Drive. Me. Nuts.

So, redo number 4 and we're as far as the heel turn. Lessons have been learned:
1. Do a full swatch of the pattern (especially meeting points on travelling stitches)
2. Don't knit complicated things when tired (I already knew this but ignored it)
3. Socks take longer than I think to knit of there's a deadline involved

Finger's crossed I don't cock it up when it gets to integrating the heel pattern with the instep...

Finished objects

This lovely lady's my mother-in-law modelling a cardi and hat made by moi. The cardi's my own design and took quite a lot of swearing to make.

One to watch - Inge Jacobsen

an interesting and humorous embroidered take on Vogue by Inge Jacobsen:

Shadow art

amazing what you can do with a cleverly bit of creased paper....  Here's the link to the shadow art top 10:

A lesson in dye lots

I had two dye lots for yarn to make up a cushion and baby blanket a while ago. I had enough of one dyelot for the cushion and the rest for the blanket. I couldn't tell the difference between them in natural light in any case so it shouldn't matter right?

Wrong. So very wrong.

I made the blanket first and before I made up the cushion cover I thought I'd better compare them 'just in case'. Bloody good job I did - the cushion cover was much yellower and slightly lighter than the blanket. The difference wasn't discernible between two small balls of yarn but very obvious when knitted up in a big piece.

Lesson learned. Only ever use the same dye lot when making matching stuff (or be prepared to throw your work across the room and call it a C U Next Tuesday several times when you realise only a reknit will do)













@*#!ing Cushion cover left

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Wind-powered knitting machine

Look at this - a wind powered knitting machine (thanks for the link Emily!)
http://www.merelkarhof.nl/merel_karhof_-_product_design/wind_knitting_factory.html

Robot baby bib

It's been a while since I've posted anything, mainly because I've been so busy cramming for a book-keeping exam, working on my City & Guilds knitting course and training for a triathlon in June!

Here's a little baby bib I made for my mate Jo's boy Wilf - it's my own design, inspired by a fair isle exercise in my current City & Guilds module.  I'll write up the pattern to post up on Ravelry when I've got a mo (at this rate that'll be July!)