2016 FO #2: Skew socks

There is not much I can say about the Skew socks that hasn't been said before.

With this pattern, normal striped yarns do crazy wild things.

Knitting the heel involves a huge leap of faith - even now, after having knitted two of these heels, I'm not quite sure how the turn occurred:

And I'm very good at maths!

  

After the heel turn, a bunch of short rows are done so that the knitting is straightforwardly in the round again. It was very clever! 

I love my new, crazy socks (yarn: the appropriately titled Opal Crazy in colourway 1901).

WIP WIP Away!

It's been a while since I've done a WIP Wednesday, so I figured it was about time to get my act together and admit that every single project I am working on at the moment involves only the knit stitch...

I'm working on these ridiculously ugly socks in Opal Rainforest Hummel for my brother-in-law for Christmas. These colours scream 1970s kitchen appliance in a way that's completely not retro chic. I'm actually questioning whether I can even give them to him - they ares so very very ugly.

They're going slowly but surely; they'll get done soon.

I also knit a hat: a Rikke, to be specific. I love the knitted fabric and I know the hat is designed to be  slouchy but I think it might a bit too big. I have enough wool left over to make another one, so I am. I'm using eight fewer stitches in the second one (96 rather than 104). 

Why, you ask, would I be knitting a hat where the seasons are changing and the weather is becoming warmer? Well, firstly, I live in Melbourne so there is no guarantee that the changing seasons will result in warmer weather. I regularly have to put the heater on in the summer! It's mental. But the real reason I am knitting a hat right now is because...

..I'm going away! My university have given me a travel grant to do some archival research in the UK and I am jetsetting off very shortly. It's all been a bit of a whirlwind - I got the grant only six weeks before the conference date, so it has been a mad rush to renew my passport, book flights and find someone to housesit my place and look after Lucy. I leave in just under four weeks and I am SO EXCITED. It feels a bit weird that someone is going to be living in my house and playing with my stuff but I think I'll get over that really quickly when I have my first glass of wine on the flight. 

I haven't told Lucy yet, though. I don't think she'll take it well...

Viva Australia! And a non-starter on the sourdough starter...so far

Happy Monday, y'all.

I was super excited to get to my sourdough starter this morning because Peter Reinhart said there could be some bubble action happening...

..but no - it looks just the same as last time. I also found out yesterday that most people do their starters in jars rather than containers. This is about the point where I'd normally give up, but this time I'm sticking with it. I "fed" the starter some more flour and water (does anyone else find it oddly cannibalistic that the starter is fed on what it is - like it just keeps eating itself. No, just me? Okay then.) and I've sourced an appropriate jar, which I will sterilise tonight and have ready to use by tomorrow. I am determined to end up with some sourdough after all of this work!!

It has unavoidably come to my attention that there is currently a soccer World Cup happening. For some reason, people who I had previously considered sane and normal have turned into the type of people who get up at 4am to watch a game which doesn't even have their team in it! I do love footy and I watch footy all the time but only the Aussie version. I'm a bit of a bogan liket that. I'm used to lots of scoring and amazing feats of physical prowess and watching games at reasonable hours (although the AFL is doing its very best to change the reasonable hour thing). European football contradictorily makes me incredibly tense (Will they score! Maybe this time! Maybe this time! Maybe THIS time?) and puts me to sleep (Nil-all draw, anyone?). So, to deal with the fact I'm going to lose hours of my life that I will never get back to this contest, I thought I'd celebrate the event instead of complaining about it. It may be too early to start drinking at 6am but it's never too early to knit socks.

I thought it the colours would be appropriate because of green in the Aussie's green and gold...plus I just bought the yarn and I really wanted to use it.

Viva Australia! And (fingers crossed) viva my sourdough starter...

Merry Christmas! 2014 FO #4: I Heart Socks Socks

Last Wednesday's shocking discovery I have more than eight pairs of socks on the go at the moment shamed me into finally pulling out a darning needle and finishing the pair of socks that were 99% done.

I cast these on before Christmas so I could have easy, stress-free knitting and they were a delight to knit. They without a doubt helped through the too-many stressful situations that my December involves.

The body of the sock is in Opal Circus, with the ribbing in Opal Rainforest and the toes in Opal Petticoat left over from socks I finished in 2009. I cannot believe there are scraps of wool that I have been holding on to for five years! Possible hoarding problem? Oh well - they obviously come in useful at times.

The recipient was pretty chuffed to have a nice new pair of socks, especially since the Christmas socks I promised him didn't quite get done on time…

Six pairs of socks to go!

Opals in the summertime

Today dawned clear and bright, so we slopped on as much suncream as possible and went to the beach at the end of my street.

Have you ever seen a sky so gorgeously clear and blue (or a pair of Raybans so handsomely worn?)?

We initially set up on the beach closest to the yacht club because the building provided the shade I need to not burst into flames when my pitifully pale skin is exposed to the sun. This is the view from my towel.

Nice, right? But after three dogs urinated within five metres of our resting spot in ten minutes, we decided to move to the non-dog beach 200m down the road.

Not a bad view from the second spot when I am lying down, either!

These are the Opal socks as they currently stand. Due to a Christmas Day inability or unwillingness to count any rows, the heel flaps are different sizes so therefore so are the gussets. I don't think it'll be a massive deal but I guess we'll see. These socks are my stress-free pair so, honestly, I'm just not going to think about the possibility one of them won't fit.

I'm definitely going to run out of wool before finishing the pair but, again, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

For the moment, I'm happy enjoying my beach, sunshine and general summer holiday happiness :)

Crappy photos and finished socks (2011 FOs #9 & #10)

I mainly read knitting and cooking blogs.  I don't know what it says about me that I'd rather read about what Internet people create and how they do it than what bloggers feel and do...I suspect it just confirms how antisocial and introverted I am! Anyway, with these subject-specific blogs that I read, the good ones improve over time - the photos look better, the writing is more interesting and often the knitting/cooking improves.  This makes sense, because clearly if you do something often you're going to get better at it.

Well, unless you're me.  I've been sharing random thoughts and knitting projects on the Internet for over five years, and look at the best I can do:

I can't even figure out how to make them sit next to each other!  I am the worst blogger ever.

These are two pairs of socks  knitted for my big-footed boyfriend.  The first ones are knitted in Opal Rainforest in Raupe (Caterpillar).  Opal, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways - you're a wonderful hardwearing sock yarn that knits up nicely, tells stories with your colourways and also looks pretty.  You're the bomb. Incidentally, these were his birthday socks that I started knitting while in hospital.  His birthday is in May, I finished them last week...near enough is good enough, right?

The second pair are my annual footy finals pair.  Interestingly, two years ago I struggled to get a pair of short socks finished for Sam in the three weeks between the qualifying and the grand final.  These ones were longer with a deeper heel and I knocked them off in 10 days.  I'm definitely knitting faster, which is good to know.  These socks are knitted with Moda Vera Noir in Laguna that I got from Spotties on sale for $4. Cheapest sock yarn evah!  Not bad but definitely an inferior yarn to the Opal.  It'll be interesting to see how these hold up over time.

As I have mentioned numerous times, Sam has massive feet.  I recently realised that not only are his feet massive, the volume of his heel is huge also.  I don't know how to explain it well - he's got a high instep and his socks always strained around the heel area.  Following the advice of the great Elizabeth Zimmermann, I designed a heel that would accommodate that greater volume.  I knit the heel flap 1.5 times as long as the normal heel flap, which means I pick up more stitches from the side which leads to longer gussets and a better-fitting sock.  However, it uses a crapload more yarn - about 10-15% (maths is not my strong suit). But it's worth the extra sock-knitting for a sock that fits like a dream.

Because even though I suck at photography it doesn't mean I don't care, I broke out the iPhoto special effects:

I try!