2023 Projects 005 Grey and Blue Scrappy Socks

Dear Readers,

This next project was actually started in January but as it was made with lots of sock scraps I didn’t want to take it with me to South Africa and potentially lose something. So it got set aside and I have only recently picked it up and finished them off.

Mom’s Scrappy Socks

At the end of last year I really got bitten by the Scrappy Sock knitting bug! So I asked my mom if she’d like a pair of scrappy socks. Since I finished them so close to her Birthday I landed up giving them to her as part of her Birthday present.

South African hand dyed sock yarn plan

Dear readers,

I have an exciting plan for some South African hand dyed sock yarn.

African Expressions

I am cataloguing all the sock yarns that I have knit with. Find the link to the other collections here or by clicking on the Socks Tab in my menu.

Here is the collection of African Expressions socks I have knit so far. I will update this post as I knit more of their colourways, although this is unlikely to happen much as I no longer live in South Africa.

Drops Socks

I am cataloguing all the sock yarns that I have knit with. Find the link to the other collections here or by clicking on the Socks Tab in my menu.

Here is the collection of Drops socks I have knit so far. I will update this post as I knit more of their colourways.

West Yorkshire Spinners Socks

I am cataloguing all the sock yarns that I have knit with. Find the link to the other collections here or by clicking on the Socks Tab in my menu.

Here is the collection of West Yorkshire Spinners socks I have knit so far. I will update this post as I knit more of their colourways.

All about Sock Yarn

Dear Readers,

Today I want to talk all about sock yarn. That is, what kind of yarn can you use for making socks. I am specifically not refering to it as wool as that could be confusing.

Crafty to-do List

Hello again,

My week has been odd progress wise… I got flu, badly, so I have been out of action for about 8 days. This has meant that although I have gotten very little else done I have done quite well on the sock front.

I was silly and I didn’t take a picture of my grans finished socks but I will ask my mother to take a picture when she gives them to my grandmother.

I have not yet got the hang of the “two at a time” method where you use an 80cm loop. But I do my own version where I do the rib of 1, then the rib of 2, then the ankle of 1, etc. This way it still helps me combat SSS, otherwise known as second sock syndrome, that is where you finish the one sock and then don’t feel like even starting the second one.

Unfortunately, and I blame this on being sick, I managed to start the toes of the second sock about an inch too early so after I had even sewn the ends in and everything…. I noticed that my two socks were not the same size, so I had to inset a life line (in yellow) and pull it all out. I am so glad that I learned about life lines otherwise this would have been very painful to try and undo manually.

And here is a visual version of my crafty to-do list.
I have two pairs of socks to finish, both for my mother. And I have a crochet blanket that I need to finish for myself. I actually began the blanket last year sometime. My husband generated a list of numbers 1-4 in a random order so this is my random stripes blanket. I assigned a colour to each number.

I feel so bad about not having finished my blanket but I also want to get the socks done for my mother. And in the end they all gang up against me so that if there is anything else that I am wanting to do, they all sit there are tell me that I should be working on them.

I hope that your week was better than mine health wise.

Diella

knitting for love

So this is what is on my needles at the moment.

A scarf and a pair of socks. Both for Mr T. Clearly I think he likes wearing blue. 😉 

I am also currently drawing the Greek pantheon. I.’ll post more about that later in the week. 

Diella

Weekly Update 1

Hi again,

Here’s a quick update on my crafty goings on from last week.

First my mother bought some stunning hand painted sock wool. It came in skeins so I spent a good half hour balling it with the help of T.

I now have a lot of socks to be making. I do plan on doing a post on all the socks that I have knitted so far but here’s the list of future socks that I am making; in order. Socks for me (half done), socks for T, socks for my grandmother, 2 pairs of socks for my mother, socks for me again. I already have all the sock wool enticing me to carry on. In fact it is so enticing I have totally abandoned my blanket that you can see pictured below. I even took that blanket on Honeymoon with my to work on. Crocheters gonna crochet!

I’ll do a post on that blanket too sometime when it is eventually finished. It is done using a random pattern that T generated for me.

Then there is the sock that I am working on for me, here you can see Salty and I cuddled together working on the sock. It is the same wool as I used for my mother-in-law’s socks because I just loved the colour so much.

Then the other day dear Salty decided to get involved. Usually she is only interested in my actual wool. Acrylic yarn doesn’t seem to interested her as much. However balls of yarn that roll clearly are fun to play with. She didn’t just tap it around, from what I found she seems to have picked it up and run around with it which leads me to believe that the fun was in annoying me not in the actual ball. 😛

Finally I had an urgent order for a scarf for father’s day, I received the order on Saturday night at 11…. and I managed to have it done by 2pm on Sunday, and I even still cleaned the kitchen first and did some grocery shopping in that time too. I think it took me between 3 and 4 hours. I am pretty impressed with myself because although it may take me that amount of time usually I don’t usually work that hard and fast for that long. Usually I pace myself and do other things as well otherwise I risk getting a stiff back / shoulder.

Well that’s it for last week.
Feel free to leave a comment below or ask me any questions.

❤ Diella