Mother's Day Monkey

I'm knitting my mum some socks for Mother's Day. In the UK, Mother's Day falls in March (22nd this year in case you need reminding). I am halfway through knitting Knitty's Monkey Socks. Love them and wish I didn't have to give them away, not an uncommon feeling for me after knitting pretty socks - I always knit far prettier socks for other people than I do for myself. I'm not convinced that I'll get the socond one finished in time, my mum is coming to stay on Friday so I only have 4 more days, I guess I had better get casting on. Too much knitting to do...

The socks are knit in Opal Handpainted yarn, colour 20 on 2.5mm needles.

A room to myself

I'm finally back at my mum's in Farnham after my two weeks in a youth hostel in York. It was so nice to have a room all to myself last night with no one snoring, jangling keys or getting up every hour to have a swig of vodka (seriously).

I am going to have a very lazy next few days and take advantage of the time I spend with my mum and spend it knitting without Mr H frowning at me because I haven't done the washing.

I am halfway through my Opal socks. I grafted the toe on sock #1 last night and I am very happy with it. I just hope I get to go home with it as mum has taken rather a liking to it. I love the colours, they're so soft. I particularly love the sage green in the sock. It didn't really look like much on the ball and I actually nearly changed it but I'm glad I didn't. I still need to knit lots more socks so I have plenty of yarn for my blanket.

The yarn for the socks is Opal 4-ply in 1917 - Fantasie.

I am now just looking forward to getting back to Geneva and Mr H and Trinny and to getting my 16 week scan, not long now!

Finally an FO

You may (or may not) have noticed that at the bottom of my WIP list there have been a pair of Wendy Fusion socks which have been there forever. Not anymore. Today has been rainy and horrible and I refused to leave the apartment but didn't feel like working on my regular projects, so I decided to dig out these long forgotten socks and work on them. Now, I have a pair of warm, chunky socks, yay!

I must have started working on these about a year ago. I originally knit a pair for my friend who was going back to Canada for college but ended up having to knit two pairs so they would match better as the colour changes are really long, so I ended up with one green sock and one purple sock. I got my friend's pair finished but never finished mine. I'm fairly pleased with them, although one is a bit longer than the other, but who's going to notice?

FYI, they are knit in Wendy Fusion on 5.5mm dpns over 32 stitches.

I need to knit more socks

If I am knitting a blanket out of left over sock yarn, I need to have knit lots of socks so I have lots of left over yarn, right? That is where my plan fails, I haven't actually knit that many pairs of socks so now I have run out of left over yarn. I really didn't think this one through too clearly. I must knit more socks.

Yesterday I cast on some Froot Loop socks from Knitty.com using Regia Bamboo Color. They are knitting up fairly quickly (as I type, they are twice as long as in the photo which I took about three hours ago). I have been doing a lot of knitting today though in place of anything else as I've been in pain for the past couple of days so it's always good to be doing something when I'm feeling otherwise useless. I'm not a huge fan on the colour of this yarn knitted up, although it looks great on the ball. It does seem to have the perfect colours for a Froot Loop project though. I also think the colours will look great on my blanket (still no pictures yet) and will really brighten it up, there's way too much blue going on with it at the moment. I am eagerly awaiting a package from my mum containing some of her left over yarn.

Unfortunately, since casting the socks on, I have been neglecting my February Lady Sweater, actually, I've been neglecting that for a few days now, which is just typical of me when I'm so close to finishing it. All I need to do is knit one sleeve and finish the bottom. I ripped back the bottom of the sweater to add a few more inches on and am leaving it on the needles until I've finished the other sleeve in case I have enough yarn left over to add a bit more length onto the bottom. I vow I will pick it up tomorrow to carry on at Stitch 'n' Bitch tomorrow night, I'm just putting off picking up the sleeves which is ridiculous as it's one of the easiest things ever.

I'm actually impressed I'm still managing to knit in this heat, it's horrible, especially the humidity. We keep having storms but they don't seem to clear the air. I'm not good with heat, copious amounts of iced tea and coffee for me!

Back From The UK

I arrived back in Geneva on Tuesday night after a week in the UK. I meant to post while I was there but never got around to it. It was so nice spending time with my mum, catching up and drooling over everything in the shop!

I came back with some Debbie Bliss Prima, some Noro Kureyon Sock and some Araucania Ranco Multy. I have already cast on the Noro sock yarn (I did that while I was in the car waiting to get on the ferry!). I'm going to knit myself a pair of socks in a 1 row rib, 1 row purl stitch pattern. My mum is knitting a top using this stitch pattern and it looks really pretty, so I'll be interested to see how it turns out on the socks. Of course, I will post progress reports.

While I was in the UK I knit Mr H a pair of red and white striped socks for his birthday as he was saying that he's the only person I haven't knit a pair of socks for. I did finish the first in the pair of his green and white socks but didn't take the second ball of yarn with me as I didn't expect to finish the first one. Mr H like the socks although he hasn't worn them yet. He called them 'Happy socks'. They were knit in Regia's Nations Colours which are meant to be Olympic colours (although my mum says they've actually discontinued most of the colours, which doesn't really make sense since the Olympics are coming up), they were knit on 3mm dpns over 64 stitches - my generic sock pattern.

The twins arrived yesterday morning, a boy and a girl as predicted, born at 12:14 and 12:15 am by c-section. They actually went full term and a day, which I find amazing! I haven't spoken to the proud parents yet, which is why I lack any further information, you can't trust a man to get all the vital details! I am washing their Baby Yoda sweaters as I type so I can get them sent off to them. It's just typical that they were born the day after I got back from the UK, I really should have gone to visit the parents while I was over but I refused to drive anywhere! At least Mr H gets to share his birthday with the twins.

I have given up on my Wendy bolero, decided I don't actually like the pattern and I hate knitting in black. I was going to knit it in the Prima but I still decided that the pattern was a little old fashioned so I am going to use it to knit a shrug instead. I just need to get myself some 4.5mm circs to knit it on.

Christmas is Over

Well, Christmas is over and I managed to get all of my Christmas knitting finished. I was particularly pleased with the Snowflake Slippers. I only finished them yesterday, but they are going back to england with my mum for my brother. I can't remember the yarn I used as I lost the ball band, but it was an aran weight wool from Manor. I used an aran weight on 5mm needles as the pattern was only sized for children or women. The thicker yarn and larger needles worked perfectly. I just hope he likes them!

I was also pleased with the socks I made for my mum's partner, which I designed myself as I sent along. It's the first time I have ever knitted cables and I was pleased with how they turned out and I managed to get them finished first thing Christmas morning after having to undo my toe grafting the night before because I had grafted them vertically instead of horizontally! I guess I must have been pretty tired!

Lastly there were my mum's Synesthesia Socks. They turned out OK but I did make quite a few mistakes on them. I knitted the heel wrong and there seem to be some extra holes in the pattern. Mum mum still loved them and has worn them about 3 times already! I've been trying to teach her to knit socks but she just doesn't seem to have the patience. I know that she can do it but she doesn't seem to see the point to it all! I have to say that I have gone off knitting socks for just a little while!

Now that my Christmas knitting is over I can finally do some knitting for myself. I have started to make good progress with my Debbie Bliss Rialto bolero and I hope to have that finished in a week or so. Also, I finally got my Rowan Cocoon in Shale so I can knit the Iceland jumper from Rowan magazine #42! I have been waiting since before my birthday for this yarn but neither my mum or the knitting shop in Carouge have been able to get hold of it. As soon as I finish my bolero I will be casting that on.

I have a little more time on my hands to knit now as I lost my job a couple of days ago, I was working on a temporary contract and they have decided not to renew it, which is a bit of the pain as I could do with the money but I didn't like it there too much and I have been a bit poorly lately too, so at least now I have some time to get better. If I can get my confidence up enough I will go and teach English for a while as the hours are flexible so I can look after my health and by bank balance at the same time!

Knitting Pal and Knitting Socks

I got *the* most beautiful parcel yesterday from my Swap Bot Secret Knitting Pal. It came from Italy and contained 17 (yes, *17*!) balls of Italian yarns, a pattern book and some other little things that my partner knew I would adore from reading my profile, I am so lucky! I can't believe she sent me so much yarn! I will have lots of fun trying to think of new projects!

It was so nice to get the package yesterday as I was feeling a little down in the dumps, not to mention a little hungover but I managed to drag myself out of the apartment in the rain to go and collect it from the post office. I was really surprised when I saw how big the box was, so I knew that I was in for a treat.

I also got a good response to the package that I sent out as part of the swap, I'm so glad she liked what I sent her.

I can't believe it's only 2 weeks until Christmas now. I'm still not doing too well with my Christmas presents. I've only done a small part of Nigel's socks, I just hope that I can get them done in time and I still need to finish off my mum's gift. I'm making up the pattern for Nigel's socks as I go along. If they turn out well, I will post the pattern. It's just a simple cable and rib pattern. At least I have the hot-water bottle cover finished so hope to get that in the post next week.

One sock, one slipper

Well, I'm not sure I'm doing so good with my Christmas knitting. I now have one sock, one slipper and a hot-water bottle cover. I wonder how useful one sock or one slipper could be to someone with two feet....

On the plus side, the slipper looks fantastic, even if I do say so myself! It's from Knit: Handmade Style and it't the Snowflake Slippers. The pattern only accommodates a woman or a child's size, so since I am making them for my brother, I used aran weight yarn on 5mm needles and it seems to have worked out perfectly. The other change I made (which was actually an accident) was that I knitted the top of the slipper in stockinette stitch instead of garter, I just didn't read the pattern properly, but I think it makes the slippers look more manly! I will post some pictures soon, I'm at work at the moment. The slipper knitted up really quickly, I started it on Tuesday night and finished it last night (minus the sewing up), so at least I know I will be able to have the pair finished in plenty of time for Christmas. I wonder if I could get away with knitting these for everyone this year? Probably not!

Knitting in the UK

Been busy again with not a lot of knitting time, except for last week when I was in the UK hanging out at my mum's yarn shop, so lots of knitting done then!

I decided to knit a pair of chunky socks for my friend who's going back to Canada next week, I finished them last night.

As you can see, they didn't really turn out to be a pair because the colourways in the balls of yarn are so long, so I have had to knit another pair so I can get matching ones! At least that means that I get a pair for myself, they're super warm and comfy and the cat seems to like them too! They were knitted in Wendy Fusion, but I can't remember the colour, sorry.

I loved making these socks because they were so quick to knit, you can knit one in an evening, no problem. I knitted them on 5.5mm dpns over 32 stitches if you fancy giving them a try yourself.

I really want to learn to crochet at the moment, especially with all the pictures of amigurumi dolls that I have seen lately, I desperately want to make some, but my crochet leaves much to be desired, but then I have only ever crocheted one edging on a baby cardigan and that's it, I guess practice makes perfect.

I love this doll on the right, it's so cute, in fact, I think all amigurumi dolls are cute. This one is from Gourmet Amigurumi.

Talking of cute things, my hubby bought me this cute Japanese cat on the left as a "good luck" gift for my new job. I love it, it's fantastic!

What with the new job and not getting home until 7.30-8pm every night, I'm not sure when I'm going to get time to learn to crochet properly, especially with all the knitting projects that I want to tackle. I got a copy of the new Rowan magazine when I was in the UK and I think there's about ten projects that I want to do. At least now that I'm working I will be able to buy some yarn and won't have to wait until I go to the UK to work in the shop and be paid in yarn! Plus, it's my birthday in 3 weeks and I'm pretty sure that I will get a few gifts from my mum's shop stock! Very exciting!

There's some beautiful things in my mum's shop at the moment, I'm loving this weaving mesh. In this picture it's had Louisa Harding Sari Silk woven through it, it's so beautiful. You just need 1-2 metres of mesh and one hank of silk (although you can weave whatever you like through it), I am very tempted to make one for myself. The mesh comes in different colours, I'm tempted by the cream and weaving a champagne coloured silk through it, very elegant.

Busy Busy

I've not had a lot of time for knitting the past couple of days, and won't do for a few more days.

I spent yesterday struggling away trying to build a new website for my mum's shop Interknit Cafe
(that's not the site I've been building, mine isn't finished yet, she might not even like it!).

Been viewing cars and am off to get my Swiss driver's licence today, very exciting! We have to do it this week because if you leave it longer than a year you have to take a test. Then on Wednesday I get to drive all the way from Geneva back to Farnham. The drive to Le Havre will take me about 7 1/2 hours, then I have a 4 or 5 hour boat ride before arriving in Portsmouth. Phew! It will be a very dull drive, especially since I have no stereo in my car as some kids stole the front of it, along with the gear stick knob! Little scoundrels!

I am looking forward to getting back to the UK though and seeing my mum and raiding her shop! She says she has loads of new stuff in and that the shop is bulging at the seams! So hopefully lots of knitting to be done!

My orange socks are coming along nicely, nearly finished the first one. I have to say that they are rather boring to knit as it's all one colour, but they are going to be a gift and there is a reason why they're orange!


Not sure red was the best background, but I couldn't be bothered to move off the sofa!

Let me begin

I probably should have started this blog ages ago since I've not been working for the past 13 months and so have been doing a fair bit of knitting. Typically, I start a new job on August 27, so won't have so much knitting time, but I will still fit it in!

I'm sure I won't be waffling on just about knitting, being an expat in Geneva, I'm bound to find other things to go on about.

Knitting wise, my current WIPs are:
1) A bright orange pair of socks (after spending 9 months trying to turn a heel on my first sock and finally doing it a couple of weeks ago, I seem to have become addicted to sock knitting!).
2) A beautiful cardigan jacket from the Debbie Bliss Out of Town book, which I'm knitting in Louisa Harding's 'Grace'.
3) A Freedom Spirit vest from February's issue of Knitting magazine
4) A little baby jacket from the RYC Classic Babies book, which I'm knitting in some Swiss yarn that I forget the name of.

I keep promising myself that I won't start any more projects until I finish the ones I'm currently doing, but I've just found a pattern for a really cute newsboy style hat, which I'm just itching to knit....

Here's that pair of socks that took me so long to do...