• three days on the Gold Coast
• four days in the Northern territory (well, five if you count the overnight flight back which makes the next day pretty much a write-off)
• three separate day trips to Sydney
• several functions in Melbourne

And each of those trips required some kind of public speaking, speech or giving of workshops – especially the NT which involved three four-hour workshops in three days). But it’s over for the year now! No more public speaking and no more travel! I’m back, baby!

Given all of that, I haven’t had much time to get any decent knitting in. The Gold Coast and Darwin were both too hot and muggy to think about knitting, and the Sydney trips were all day trips meaning I had carry-on luggage only and couldn’t take needles. Since I do most of my sock knitting on the train or whilst otherwise travelling, this prety much knocked out most of my sock knitting for the month.

The other hassle has been that I’ve been going through a kind of sock-related ennui. I haven’t really found any satisfying patterns that work well with my huge and ever-growing sock yarn stash. That sounds ridiculous, but I think it’s partly through too much choice. I have also had some discouraging moments. I was working on the Embossed Leaf Socks from ‘Favorite Socks’ in Fleece Artist Sea Wool. I was very happy to have found a pattern that worked with this yarn, which I have had a lot of problems with; either my tension is too tight, or it’s too loose. I think the kind of ropey/stringy texture (albeit a silken rope!) has something to do with it, Anyway, once I got down onto the foot, I tried the sock on. It’s too small. Too bloody small. I can’t get it over my instep. I am torn between keeping going and making the socks for someone else, or just ditching it altogether, or frogging and redoing the pattern with a few more purl stitches between repeats. Trouble is, this yarn’s been frogged so many times already that it is looking seriously ratty.

I’m also making the ‘Gentleman’s fancy sock’ from ‘Knitting Vintage Socks’, and while it’s not going to be impossible to get that over my instep, it will be discouragingly tight.

So I’ve made a decision: If it’s not toe-up, and I can’t modify it to be toe-up, I don’t make it.

I feel much better now

In the meantime, I’ve been knitting non-socky things. I’m partway through a top from a back issue of Knitter’s, which I’m making from Lincraft Bamboozle; and I’ve also begun on ChicKnits’ ‘CeCe’ using Cleckheaton Bamboo. The Bamboozle is quite splitty, and I suspect it will look a bit crap after a few washings. The Cleckheaton, though, is beautiful to knit with; silky and shimmery and soft. I’m really enjoying it and only wish the yarn came in some better colours (what is with that pastel mix? It looks like baby yarn!)

On the bright side, I am typing this on the train, using my latest toy – the Eee PC. If you don’t know the Eee, let me just say that it’s a laptop which is small, has built-in wireless and heaps of open source software and comes ready to use right out of the box, costs $499 AUD and weighs less than a kilo. I love it madly and am going to find it an incredible boon to take on business trips with me. There’s apparently a waiting list of thousands, but for some reason I managed to just walk into Myer in the city and walk out with my own Eee

And it’s nearly christmas/generic December holiday! Yay! This means that the Riverkids Shop is open again and this time they have some stuff that will be utterly fabulous for knitting. I’m already using the silk pouches I bought from them last year to organise my knitting bag, but this year it’s even better. The pencilcases (made from recycled mosquito netting) are perfect for crochet hooks and DPNs, and tough as boots. The Pretty Packs are just the right size for small knitting projects (I can fit sock, needles, 100gm ball of yarn and folded up pattern quite nicely) and I reckon the Mary Poppins bag would be the perfect knitting bag. And they’re recycled, and $5 US flat shipping to anywhere. What’s not to like?

I have a lot of travel over the next few weeks. Two nights in Sydney next week, giving workshops; three nights on the Gold Coast the week after that, attending & presenting at a conference; and three nights in Darwin the week after that, giving more workshops. Blech!

Anyway, here’s my latest pair for the Southern Summer of Socks – the MacApples!

Yarn: Apple Pie by Apple Laine, purchased from The Loopy Ewe. Colourway is ‘Macintosh’.
Pattern: generic stocking stitch toe-up on 2.5mm needles, over 60 stitches on the foot increasing to 62 on the leg.

I love this yarn, which is wool/mohair/silk/nylon! It’s very squishy and soft, with a bit of halo from the mohair and a lovely sheen. These are my socks for the spring evenings we’re having now, when my feet are cold but it’s just not cool enough to put the heating on. Special squishy shiny socks

I expect I won’t get as many socks in during my time of travel, which is why I’ve averaged a pair a week so far! But I’ll take yarn and needles with me anyway. I’ve also been neglecting the socks a little because I have started a jumper/sweater! Yes, at last I am biting the bullet. My reluctance to knit much in the way of bigger garments has partly been because I’m losing weight for health reasons – I’ve lost a stone over the past six months – and therefore I don’t want to knit anything until I’ve settled in to a reasonably stable size. However, this is just going to be a loose, cushy sweater. It’s Wicked from Zephyr Style, the laceweight version, and I’m knitting it in Colourmart fingering-weight cashmere in a pale cool pink with speckles of deeper pink and purple. Not really my colours but I bought it very early in the Colourmart days, when I feared they would dry up at any minute! I’ve only done the neck (using a double strand) and just started on the shoulder increases, so it will be a while. That’s my knitting for the times when I’m watching telly I need to actually concentrate on!

Now I need to go and work out my next pair of socks!

The good news is that as of yesterday, I’m on leave. We’re going to the Northern Territory for ten days. The bad news is that 48 hours before I step on the plane, I’ve come down with a nasty cough and overall crappiness. This often happens when I get a holiday, most notably causing me to miss Bath in its entirety while we were in the UK. Bah, I say! I plan to spend the next few days taking it easy and getting lots of sleep, hopefully to kill the evil little bacterial bastards before the trip begins.

So, knitting. I have added to my stash a little, with orders from the Loopy Ewe. I’ve also tried to use the stash a bit.

Here’s the Babette blanket I’ve been making from leftovers, so far:

And again:

This is Babette Grand-mere. Made from 12-ply scraps, she’s the grandmother; there will be an 8-ply and a sock yarn version as well. Good mindless crochet.

Here are the latest actual knitting projects…

Pattern: Falling Leaves from Knitty
Yarn: Anne by Schaefer, colourway ‘Scottish Thistle’
Needles: Two 2mm circulars
Modifications: used Wendy’s no-pick-up gusset heel.
I love the way the colour variations in this yarn are distinct yet subtle. It doesn’t detract from the pattern at all.

Next up:

Pattern: Generic stocking stitch toe-up over 64 stitches
Yarn: Regia Bamboo
Needles: Two 2.5mm circulars

You will notice that these are very long, plain socks. I am hoping they’ll be good to wear under my hiking boots. Again I used Wendy’s heel.

And finally…

Emily has named these ‘Eviscerated Seaweed’, which kind of suits them

Pattern: Broad Spiral Ribbing from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle, in ‘Suzanne’ colourway
Needles: Two 2.25mm circulars

Yarn and pattern work well together.

Again, I used Wendy’s heel. I’ve found that it really works the best of all for my high instep, and I intend to use it as much as possible from now on.

And last but not least, the Horcrux socks!

Pattern: Horcrux Socks by Susan Lawrence, from the Six Sox Knitalong on Yahoo
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in ‘River Run’ (from the Loopy Ewe)
Needles: Two 2.5mm circulars

This was a great, fun, easy pattern. The Sockittome yarn is very stretchy and the socks seemed to knit up really fast – I christened them ‘Greased Lightning’ because of that, and because of the lightning bolt. Here’s an in-progress shot showing the lightning bolt pattern:

I just love them The only problem is the heel – a horseshoe heel, it would be good for narrow heels but not as good for my wide heels. Ah well. I love them anyway

Well, I’m off to bed to sip Lemsip and try to get better before I have to go on holiday. Wish me luck!

I’ve recently discovered Trekking XXL. I’ve often lusted over the beautiful subtle colour striping in the ombre tones, but now I’ve discovered the place to purchase it: Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions. Lots of lovely sock yarn, lots of colourways; no handpainted, but the good basic workaday sock yarns. Yummy. I ordered three Trekkings and an Opal Handpaint, and they came within a week, for about what I’d pay for two balls of Opal plus shipping from most Australian online retailers. Don’t get me wrong; I prefer to support Aussie and NZ vendors when I can, and indeed have done in the past. But when I can get twice the yarn, just as quick, and more variety, from an overseas vendor… it’s a hard decision to make.

Speaking of overseas vendors, I’ve just discovered that Scout’s Swag has a colourway called Rosalie. Here is a larger version. It’s absolutely beautiful. Those are all my colours. And it’s even more appropriate because my grandmother, who taught me to knit, was called Rosalie. My grandmother was one of the people who made me what I am. She was a survivor, and she had a hard life. Here she is as a teenager, working as a housemaid in London:

She was working as a maid at the age of thirteen, at which stage both her parents were deceased. She looked after me when my mum worked, when I was little. She was of her generation; she and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but we had a deep affection for one another and she was my introduction to the world of knitting. My big regret is that in the couple of years before her death, I was somewhat estranged from my mother (her daughter) and therefore didn’t speak to her as often as I should have; family politics was in the way.

I’m going to get some Rosalie. It’ll have to wait a while, because I have one Etsy parcel coming and another one from Astrid – and even though we all know that sock yarn doesn’t count as stash, the rest of my stash is still big enough to fill a couple of wardrobes And I have to decide what I want; do I want to make socks, or do I want a special scarf or shawl, named after my Nanna (in my head, anyway!) and wrapping me up so that I can think of her when I wear it?

I myself had a couple of very pleasant train journeys – up to Gosford on the central NSW coast, then the next day down to Wollongong, south of Sydney. Both were beautiful journeys along magnificent coastlines and through gorgeous mountain ranges and I wish I’d taken my camera. I listened to Sticks and String on the way to Wollongong, and discovered that the Wollongong Stitch and Bitch are having an exhibition this weekend, which unfortunately wouldn’t have been ready on Thursday afternoon in time for me to go and peek at. Not that I really had the time, sadly – it was into Wollongong, do my stuff, back to Sydney and on the plane. Shame, because it looks as if there is some great stuff there. Next time

As for myself, I am finding my obsessions somewhat disturbing. What obsessions?

Well, here’s something that needs fixing up:

This is a pile of cardigan pieces – back, two arms and two sides – which merely needs sewing up, front bands and neckband knitting, and ends darned in. It’s made from pure cashmere from Colourmart and it’s soft and smells wonderful. It’s been in this state for over a week. Why has it not yet become a cardigan? Well you might ask. One reason is my utter dislike of sewing and of finishing. The other is my current terrifying obsession with SOCK KNITTING. After several years of avoiding it, I’ve succumbed to the addiction and it’s truly frightening.

On the train to Gosford, I worked on this:

This is merino cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery in colourway ‘Exotic’. I call it the Starfleet Sock, because the black and red remind me of the uniform worn by The Picard, and also because I plan to work some more on it while watching ‘First Contact’ tonight.

This is my second attempt with this yarn. I first began a simple Garter Rib on 64 stitches, and it pooled horribly; all the lighter shades would have been at the back of the sock and all the darker ones at the front. It just looked wrong. SO I frogged it and began on RPM from Knitty. Much, much better. The purl band spirals down the leg one way and the shading has a very slight tilt the other way; I like the contrast and it’s knitting up beautifully. Amazing how distinct the difference is; the gauge and needle size are exactly the same as the first attempt, but there is one less stitch on the needles. How that can make so much difference, I don’t know!
On the Wollongong trip, I cast on and knitted this:

This is another Baby Cable Rib sock (fast becoming my utter favourite pattern) on 2mm needles, 72 stitches, in Lorna’s Laces ‘Black Purl’ colourway. I pretty much ordered this just to see what all the fuss is about The yarn is nice, but the colourway is wonderful; I especially like the way it refuses to pool. Don’t get me wrong, I like pooling in some cases, but this looks nicer unpooled.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes… obsessions. I have completely fallen off the Knit From Your Stash bandwagon. Over the past week or so I have ordered some Trekking XXL from Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions (and by “some”, I mean “three balls, and goodness, how did that handpainted Opal get in there?”) and have made my first ever Etsy order, which was, of course, sock yarn.

What’s happening to me? Help!

Any other Aussie knitters know of great Etsy sellers of handpainted/hand-dyed sock yarn who definitely ship to Australia? I am on the lookout now.

I may well have to get rid of some excess stash through Good Yarn Karma.