It's all pink!

Yes, pink! The main colour of the things I'm mainly working on is pink. Well, right now that is. In an hour I might be working on something else, it all depends.

I started these 2 days ago :

These are the Mystery socks for Socktober designed by Through the Loops. I didn't really know what yarn to use as she said semi-solid, solid or light variegated would be best. I'm still not sure about my choice. This yarn is the KnitPicks Bare sockyarn, which I dyed a very long time ago. I'm amazed with how the colours are showing, and I'm amazed at how the socks turn out on 2,5mm needles! Usually I find the fabric on those needles to airy and for socks I want a firm fabric that will hold up long enough. So I hardly ever use 2,5mm on regular sockyarn.

What you see is clue one. Clue #2 was released today. Of course I'm working on 4 pairs of socks at the time at the moment. I had told myself I wouldn't start the second clue before the weekend, but I already started! :D I need to finish some other socks so I can start some new ones for the October Challenge at the SKA group.


I have not been spinning much but on my spindle. I got it a few weeks ago through Spunky Eclectic. I'm fairly happy with it though it's not easy learning (plus the hook came loose a couple of days ago but I used some superstrong superglue to fix that!).

If I was going to spin on a spindle I wanted one that could spin fine yarns and I'm quite happy with this one! I pack it in my stuff for work and spin a few meters every day between stuff. This is just a test fiber, I need to dive the stash to see what I'll spin next!

Coming December Amy is changing the prices of her fiber club. It will still be quite cheap, though all clubs are expensive for me as I live oversea in most cases and pay huge shipping rates. The dilemma is what to do then. Will I continue to take the sock yarn and one set of fiber every month? I love the sockyarn but it's always variegated and I'm more into knitting solids and semi-solids, or even tonal yarns. Not much into the truly variegated stuff anymore, as it usually clashes with the pattern I want to use. If I drop the sockyarn, I might go for a double dose of fiber as it'll allow me to spin for bigger projects then socks. But I think I'll regret not having the sock yarn. On the other hand, the sockyarn and a double dose of fiber is possible, but probably to expensive to do this monthly. But in January the club closes again and then it won't be easy to change your subscription ( spot has to open before you can get it/change your subscription).

I signed up for the new round of Hello Yarn as well. Man, I seriously need to spin more! :D



As for knitting, the socks are work/commute knitting. At home I'm still knitting pumpkins. I gave myself till this weekend to knit them and then it's done! I need to get some other knitting done and I'm sure I'll have plenty of pumpkins to display! :D I'll post some pictures for the new ones as soon as I can take them!

Autumn is here!

And I mean inside my house! :D (Outside as well, by the way. It's been very cold and rainy!)

I've been finishing these, and knitting more. I think I'll do another weekend of knitting this kind of stuff and then I'll move on. I love this but there is plenty of other stuff to knit.

Pattern : Miniature felted pumpkin

Yarn : 100% wool handdyed by me, 100% superwash merino in green for the stems

Needles : 6,5mm for the body, 4mm for the stem

2 of these were actually knit and felted (fulled) last year, but I never turned them into pumpkins. The other 2 were done this year and I just finished them all. I like them a lot. I just need to find a way to shape them better when drying. Maybe putting a balloon in them might help. But alas, I hardly ever see perfectly shaped pumpkins, so I like them!

Unfortunately one of the white ones has already been mauled by my pup. She managed to remove the stem before I noticed she had the pumpkin. Need to replace that one. Hopefully she'll stay away from them when they are on my big table.

Pattern : Pumpkins (small one)

Yarn : 100% wool, dyed by me

Needles : 6,5mm for everything

I love how this one came out! To bad it's so much work. So last night I knitted one in the round and I'm going to try felting it. See how it turns out. Knitting one in the round only took me a couple of hours (with tons of interuptions).

And as for the sock knitting, I finished up this one today :

BFF socks, one down, one to go!

I might just leave these at work as I have been having very cold feet all day and I can put these on when it's getting to cold for me! :D

Socktober Start

I wanted to start here with a picture, but with the busy life I've been having, the gloomy weather and the shorter days there was no opportunity to take the picture. But the good news : Kitty is back at home! I desperately wanted to take a picture of him (and all my other kitties), but he's been back to his usual self going out in the morning and returning around 10pm when it's feeding- and bedtime. So basically I can only take good pictures in the morning but I'm always in a rush to go out ...

He showed back up Monday around noon. He had been gone for more then 2 weeks then. He isn't extremely skinny or bad looking, so I have no idea where he spent the time away. He was extremely cuddly which was so neat.

So thanks for those who thought of him!


But, other news now. The last 2 days I was extremely excited to think that Socktober was starting! I had dedicated September to other knits as socks seems to be my main addiction, but after finding the Sockdown challange at the Sock Knitters Anonymus group over at Ravelry I couldn't keep myself from casting on more socks! The cast ons for the September challange were supposed to be done before the end of September. We have time till the end of October to knit the socks so I figured I could still join and make this a true challange. Knowing that I'm still in the 52 Pair Plunge II as well, more socks are welcome!

This month the themes were Cookie A. or orange, and there's a Mystery Sock to be knit in Orange yarn. Cookie A. wasn't a problem for me, I love her designs (biggest problem was which ones to choose!). I am however not a fan of orange and have no such sock yarn in my stash. The Mystery sock was/is designed by a genious sock knitter so I decided I wanted to knit that one too. So here is what I casted on the last 2 days :

Pattern : BFF by Cookie A.

Yarn : Spunky Speckled sock yarn in Cool Rain, one of the Spunky Club Sock yarns

Needles : 3mm KP circs (I think, I just grabbed them without measuring)

Started : September 29, 2008

Pattern : Hedera by Cookie A.

Yarn : Handdyed Sock Yarn by Hello Yarn (100% superwash Merino) in Blue Mountain

Needles : 2,25mm KP circ

Started : September 30, 2008

I'm not to happy about the yarn but I refuse to restart these. The yarn was pooling horrible again (tried it before with the same result) so I'm now knitting from each end of the ball, changing threads every row. Hope it'll be ok.

Pattern : SKA Orange Mystery by Jeannie Cartmel (Ravelry link)

Yarn : Handdyed by me, 100%superwash sock yarn

Needles : 2mm Addi turbo circ

Started : September 30, 2008

I died this yarn quickly on Monday evening so I could start the socks. They are certainly orange as the boyfriend asked me if I was dyeing yarn for a scarf for a Dutch Soccer fan! :D I'm not a big fan of orange but I need a pair of Christmas socks for my mother and this might be the perfect pair!

The new challange is already starting today so there'll be more socks in my future. I also hope to find time to knit Christmas socks for my family. The BFF pattern was perfect for a male family member but well, I'm knitting them for me. But these are going really fast so time enough to maybe cast on another pair.

I'm so happy to be knitting socks again!