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I’ve signed up for the Southern Summer of Socks knitalong - specifically for those of us in the southern hemisphere, but all are welcome. It starts on October 1. At last I will get to knit sockses with the best of ‘em, and count my pairs!

I worked out last night that I have enough sock yarn stashed to knit at least 30 pairs of socks. At least 30 pairs. That’s not counting the yarn that is not specifically designated as sock yarn, but which I intend to knit socks with. I am busy thinking up my personal Sock Challenge to complete over the summer!
In order to do this, I must finish my current pair quickly to begin anew. The current socks are in Tofutsies, which I am finding is lovely to knit with on size 2.25mm - I only wish it came in solid, or darker, colours. I also need to come up with a reward for myself, which shall be some of the ‘Raven Series’ of colourways currently teasing us on the front page of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I want more dark handpainted sock yarns so that I can get away with wearing them to work!
In non-sock news, a bunch of my lovely friends gave me a massive gift voucher from The Knittery for my birthday, which I have spent I got some DK silk/merino in charcoal, enough to make a fabulous cardigan/jacket for work; and I also got a skein of the silk/merino 2-ply in ‘Lime Delight’. Mmmm.

It was a busy weekend. I headed off to the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show with Lou on Saturday morning. After a brief stop at the Beechworth Bakery for breakfast, we found the showgrounds and entered the show, and were immediately swept into the throng of farmers, crafters and people out for a cheery morning. The sun shone brightly in the cool winter air; it was a beautiful day and I wish I’d taken photos.

Highlights for me were finally meeting Sarah Durrant, and hearing her enthusiasm about knitting, and (as always) the visit to the alpacas. With their bright eyes and cute faces, they’re so appealing, even if their plaintive cries do sound a little like stoned sheep

After the Show, we headed off to the Bendigo Woollen Mills factory shop. and especially to the famous bargain room. I picked up a couple of cones of 3-ply Classic in ‘Claret’ and ‘Sweet Pea’ - they’ll make great socks, and I should manage to squeeze two pairs from each cone. I also picked up some scraps in bright red and pumpkin orange 12-ply to incorporate into my latest no-brainer project - a Babette Blanket. Yes, it’s crochet - eeek!

I’m making my Babette Blanket from the scraps left over from Ben’s Magic Blanket. This is Ben’s Magic Blanket:

This was my major knitting project of last year, a special gift for a dear friend. The yarn is all 12-ply, most of it from Bendigo Woollen Mills but some from Nundle Woollen Mill and there are even a few scraps of Noro Kureyon in there. Ben wanted bright colours, and some of this is natural yarn dyed with Kool-Aid to achieve the requisite brightness. Every square is different. However, I have a lot of yarn left over, some in quite small scraps, and plenty from previous projects as well. Hence, the Babette! I’m actually making two of them - one in the 12-ply, and one in all my scraps of 8-ply. I’m hoping the 12-ply one will end up big enough to use as a spare blanket. I was going to do a sock yarn one as well, but given that the size of the blanket would be tiny, I’m debating that. I think I might make wee mini socks from my sock leftovers, as Christmas decorations for all my friends and colleagues, and incorporate any leftovers after that into yet more socks.

I also picked up some 10-ply in blue, to make one of those worsted weight American patterns I’m always wanting to make From the Bendy Show I got ‘Socks, Socks, Socks’ book and a couple of skeins of Colinette Jitterbug to try. It was so pretty! So I was fairly restrained

On our way back from the show we picked up Harry Potter 7, which I spent much of Sunday reading. Nope, no spoilers here. I feel a wee bit flat now it’s over

I have begun my first Bust Out of the Box sock - it’s in the Milanese Lace pattern from ‘More Sensational Knitted Socks’ and I’m doing it in the Brombeere Sockenwolle from Wollmeise. Pictures to come, when I’ve got a bit further along.

chocolatetrudi over at Knitting and Chocolate had a wonderful idea; the Bust out of the Box Sock Challenge!

This is exactly what I need. I have loads of sock yarn and loads of sock patterns, but I often find myself floundering in a welter of indecision over what to make with all these wonderful yarns. It’s as if I’m waiting for the absolute perfect pattern for each yarn, which is silly. So this challenge is just perfect for me. My books, and therefore my rules, are a little different to chocolatetrudi’s. Let’s see…

Over the next six months, I will knit at least one pattern from each of the following sources:

• Knitting Vintage Socks
• Knitting on the Road
• More Sensational Knitted Socks
• An issue of Interweave Knits magazine
• An issue of Yarn magazine
• An issue of Magknits
• An issue of Knitty

And I plan to knit one pattern containing each of the following elements:

• Lace
• Cables
• Colourwork (fair isle or mosaic)
• Textured stitch pattern
• Toe-up construction
• Top-down construction

And to help me with the adventure, I have just taken delivery of some serious yarn porn.

That’s my order from Rohrspatz und Wollmeise. Yes, it’s German yarn porn. Let’s check out the close-ups:

That’s Brombeere. It’s a beautiful deep claret, with some variations in and out of other wine-dark shades. Gorgeous.

And this one is Krauterbeet.

This one is Suzanne. Isn’t she beautiful? She’s my favourite.

I also ordered some samples of other colours.

Left to right, they are:  Rhabarber, Turkis und Karneol, Dornroschen, Poison nr 5, Pfauegnauge and Gewitterhimmel.

The samples are worsted weight (10-ply) wool, and they are gorgeously soft and squishy. The sock yarn is also soft and lovely, dyed with unusual and gorgeous depth and saturation, and in lovely big hanks so I can knit big socks!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some winding to do

I’m also hoping to be at the Bendigo sheep show tomorrow, bar ice and snow

First, let’s go to the vendors. Given my complaints about the difficulty of taking good sock photos, I decided to get some sock blockers, but they’ve proved elusive. I know the Loopy Ewe has them, but I also knew they’d be large and heavy to post from the US. Then someone on the Melb S’n'B list recommended Natty Yarns. I placed the order, and my sock blockers arrived this week! Here you see them each sporting a single sock whose mate is still a work in progress. Sock Blocker One is demure in a standard 2×2 rib creation in Trekking XXL. Sock Blocker Two sports sexy striped stockinette, which shows off the colours of the Kool-Aid yarn I dyed.

The sock blockers are made of wood, varnished very smooth and fine, with a cute picture of a lamb etched in. They’re bigger than I expected, but that’s because my expectations were out of whack - of course they’re big, they have ankles and calves. Duh. I just hadn’t realised how big a foot/ankle/calf is in flattened mode! They’re fabulous. There were no problems with the transaction and the blockers arrived promptly so I do recommend Natty Yarns for Australian sock blockers - look under ‘Accessories/other’ for the blockers. I think it cost me about $33 including postage, which is a good buy.

Next, Simply Socks Yarn Company, who sent me my latest stash.

Top to bottom: Two skeins Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in ‘Mother Lode’; two skeins ditto in ‘Irving Park’; one skein Schaefer Anne in ‘Scotch Thistle’. The yarn is beautiful - I had been wanting to try Anne for some time, and the Lorna’s comes in such luscious colours.

As for the vendor, I am very happy. I was quite surprised by how quickly the yarn arrived; I think it was exactly seven days, which is damn fast for shipping from the US. The yarns were packed in a little box, just right for the size of the order and well sealed. I will definitely use them again. That’s Simply Socks Yarn Company. Very happy with their prompt, accurate dispatching of my order!

I still have other vendors to try - most particularly the Loopy Ewe. I must admit to being tempted by the idea of free goodies and frequent shopper benefits I’m just waiting till she restocks on some of the yarns I am especially wanting - and she’s also going to be getting Wollmeise, so I think I’ll wait for that too.

I am eager for Ravelry to send my invitation and/or get out of beta testing. I signed up what seems like ages ago; I understand they’re going through them as fast as they can. I hear it’s absolutely wonderful and am itching to get in there; I’m sure it’ll happen! Reports from people who are using it are excellent. The creators have now quit their jobs to work on the site full-time, which means it will be ready all the sooner; I intend to donate to them as soon as I get my invite, because they deserve it. I hope quitting the jobs will be worth it for them

I am on leave this week, and have been spending my time well!

First, here is a pair of Monkey socks:

The yarn is Merino Cashmere Sock from The Knittery. Here’s a closer Monkey so you can see the curvy pattern a bit better:

I love this pattern. I can see why it’s been so popular online; it’s extremely quick and easy to memorise. Once you get into the flow, it almost knits itself and all you have to worry about are heel flaps, heel turns and shaping

My other project during this time of rest has been dyeing.
A while ago, I bought some undyed merino cashmere from The Knittery. I’ve wanted to make my own self-striping yarn for some time. Some US friends were kind enough to send me some Kool-Aid, so I could join the Kool-Aid dyeing frenzy. Here is the journey…

First, you take one skein of innocent virgin yarn:

And you stretch it out into one really long loop:

and soak it in plain water for a while. Next, take some strange bright neon powder which I’m told some people actually drink:

Mix it all up in a saucepan with some water. Soak one section of yarn in it, and dump the rest in another saucepan to bide its time:

Simmer gently until all the dye is soaked into the yarn and there is none in the water:

Then repeat with another saucepan and a different colour:

Rinse and repeat. Just as well you have three saucepans!

Finally, give it all a gentle warm bath to rinse:

And here’s the finished product, knitting up!

The purple is two packets of grape Kool-Aid. The green is two packets of lemon-lime with a hefty dollop of tamarindo to tone down the colour, and the red is two packets of black cherry and one of cherry.

Finally, here’s the latest addition to the stash:

Courtesy of my latest crack dealer vendor, Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions, these are: top row, L-R: Meilenweit Multiringel; Opal, one of the limited “try-outs”; Trekking Pro Natura, which is wool and bamboo fibre. Bottom yarn is Regia Bamboo. The Trekking and Regia are my first bamboo yarns; at first touch, they are extremely soft and light, and the bamboo is very silky. I’m really looking forward to trying them out!

At last the time has come! At last… Bendigo Knitting Mills have a website! Feast your eyes and credit cards upon the wonders of www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au!

OK, so there’s nothing especially spectacular there, but for good plain yarns in a wide variety of colours and plys, you can’t lose. Cheap! I am resisting… for a short time

She was a sock knitter
Double pointer, yeah
It took me soooo long to cast off, but I cast off…

Sorry. Just me being silly.

This week I finished my first pair of socks in Trekking, which I love. Here is the flaccid sock:

And here they are with feet in them!

The pattern was the Simple Trekking Sock, with one variation; I didn’t do the fancy broken rib at the toes. I did discover that I like Trekking XXL, very much. The subtle colour variations are magic, the yarn is just fine enough without being too thin, and it should prove hardwearing with the nylon addition. The one thing I don’t like about it is that if you drop a stitch, it’s difficult to pick up without splitting the yarn; but I can live with that. I made these with 2.25mm needles, dropping down to 2mm Addis when I finished the gusset shaping.
I’m still trying to work out the perfect socks for me. I have thick calves and ankles and a very high instep, but my feet aren’t long in proportion with that. I have found that I need a very elastic cast-on with a lot of cuff stitches, and that I need a fairly roomy gusset and instep, but I can decrease stitches and/or needle size for the rest of the foot. So far a 72-stitch cast-on on 2.25s seems ample for the cuff and leg; I think I may have to decrease it down to perhaps 68 or fewer on the foot. Next time I’ll try that, and I’m sure that I will eventually work out my Perfect Socks. In the meantime, these are pretty damn close. There’s plenty of yarn left, too; I could have made the legs longer, and next time I will.

Last week I also received my first Etsy purchase, from the Etsy store of White Willow. It’s a sock yarn called Avalon, and here’s a picture:

It’s plums and purples and a clear cobalt blue, lovely. And it came with a wee stitch marker attached to the label!

Isn’t that lovely? I’m on the lookout for other Etsy sellers who ship sock yarn to Australia - or who are actually located here. I have completely forgotten the idea of knitting from the stash