July's socks

Some of you might remember that, a few months back, I decided to follow the Yarn Harlot and set up my own personal monthly 'project club' - I set up a bag containing various smaller bags with the yarn and pattern already paired together. The theory was that, each time I finished a project, I would pull another one from 'the bag' at random....I will be honest and admit that the contents have been 'tampered with' a little - I've switched some patterns around. This is partly because my focus has switched slightly from socks to shawls - must be thoughts of Christmas being not that far away now.....

One of the projects that got 'substituted' was this pair of socks:

I'm really, really chuffed with these - for several reasons:

a) they only took 2.5 weeks, which when you think that they were mainly knit on the bus to / from work, is really not bad going

b) point a is even more amazing when you consider that they are made from a Cookie A pattern (Angee to be precise) - while I love Cookie's patterns, they are definitely not 'easy' socks and often require a lot of concentration (and some swearing at various points!)

c) I don't think the photos are doing them complete justice, but the colour is just gawgeous - the yarn is Colinette Jitterbug and the colourway is Morello Mash - says it all really! I had popped into my local yarn store (Loop, in Islington) to check out their new premises - and had been completely powerless to resist this gorgeous bit of squishyness - I cast on only two days later, which is unheard of in my world lol!

This is definitely one of my favourite colours - in fact, when I went to put the finished pair into my sock drawer (yes, I now have drawer specifically for handknit socks!) I realised that I had already made two pairs in a similar colour - predictable, me?

P.S. Update on the Knit-a-Square crochet-thon - 25 squares shipped off to South Africa this morning! Wonder if I can do better in August?

A busy life......

.....leaves very little time for blogging! No seriously, I can't apologise enough. Life really is very full these days.

A quick snapshot of the last six weeks or so:

- the new job is going well and looks set to last until at least September

- Miss A is enjoying spending more time with her Granny (who picks her up from nursery these days, as I can't any longer), but is still refusing to sleep in her own bed....

- Mr A and I took ourselves off to Spain for a week in mid-June (without Miss A who was looked after by my parents). Total bliss - long lie-ins, good food & wine, lots of sunbathing and book-reading - just what we needed. No photos I'm afraid as I deliberately didn't take my camera!

- we've all be suffering a little in the recent heatwave. I personally wouldn't mind it, if only I didn't have to sit in a hot, sticky bus for an hour each evening.......bleurgh!

- Miss A has just acquired her first pair of ballet shoes and leotard:

Can't wait to see what happens during her first class next Saturday.

- Mr A and I are in the throes of planning our joint 40th birthday party this weekend. We've discovered FOURTEEN bottles of champagne in the cellar......raspberry belinis anyone?

On the crafting front, the heat has pretty much scuppered most attempts at playing with wool, but I have managed a few things. While on holiday, I finally managed to make some progress on the Solid Socks May Mystery socks - those cables almost did my head in.....but I'm very, very pleased with the result:

I have also once again been completely taken over by the crochet bug - I can't express how much I love this particular craft. It's portable, doesn't require as much concentration as my knitting, and gives super quick results. I whipped up this little beauty in just under a week:

Partly due to the heat, and partly due to a recent urgent call by Knit-A-Square for over 55,000 squares by September, I'm devoting most of my free time to making granny squares:

These are just a few of the 35+ squares that I've managed to whip since the beginning of July. I'm hoping to send several large bags before the autumn. And it's a great way of using up scraps / spare wool! Talking of leftovers, I happened to mentioned this little 'project' to a colleague of mine and she mentioned that she had starting making a crochet blanket a few months ago, but got bored. So yesterday, I took delivery of this:

70 part-completed squares
and 15 very large balls of wool

Should keep me quiet for a while, no?

Naughty blogger

Yep, that's me: naughty blogger. No real excuses, apart from the fact that life is just very, very busy and full to the brim right now. The job is still 'going' - I can't/don't want to say any more than that really.....working in a client-facing job is most definitely not something I want to do with the rest of my life. Oh, and I keep losing my voice, which doesn't help much either!

Little Miss A is turning into a personality-laden little Madam (yes, that's a capital M!) - she informs me at least three times a week that I am 'not her friend', usually when I've told her she can't have / do something. It's amazing watching her growing and changing so fast - I heard her telling a bedtime story to her teddy the other night - wow! If only she would stop coming into our bed at 3am and breaking our sleep.....will there ever be a time when my normal operating mode is not 'on the verge of exhaustion'??

See what I mean? When I took this photo, she said: "shhhh Mummy, I'm working!!!"""

So I'm just about keeping my head above water - cannot remember the last time I cooked a 'proper' meal or watched a tv programme the whole way through without falling asleep.....

On the creative front, I haven't managed a massive amount recently, due to my knitting time having been slashed to almost nothing. However, I have finished the following:

A crochet chevron scarf to go with Little Miss A's new pea green duffle coat

(she's got a matching hat as well, but I haven't managed to take a decent photo of it)

Then it was time for the Ravelympics over on Ravelry (you got to set yourselve a variety of challenges that would be categorised by events such as the Lace Luge, Charity Curling and Hat Halfpipe, all of which had to be started/finished between the opening and closing ceremonies). I was quite pleased at how much I got done over the 3 weeks:

a cheerful, slouchy hat made using some chunky Phildar wool that I've had in my stash for well over a year (Yay!)

I then used the leftovers from the hat to make the following squares for Knit-A-Square:

The second load of squares were a bit of a personal challenge to see how many squares I could make from two skeins of sock wool (held double) - I managed five in all, which I was pleased with :-)

I also managed to finish something light and dainty for Mum's birthday - but I can't show it yet, just in case she decides to come over here for a visit beforehand. Next week, I promise (provided Royal Mail has got its bottom in gear and delivered the parcel on time!)

I have two pairs of socks on the needles at the moment - one is Pyroclastic in Araucania Ranco Solid - a gorgeous firey red. I've finished one sock, and the other would have been finished a long time ago, except I decided to make them almost knee-high - they will be ab-fab when they're done though!

Knackered.......

I have survived my first three weeks back at work - but only just! Exhaustion doesn't even come close.....aside from the physical / mental adjustment of having to actually concentrate properly for whole days at a time, there is an unbelievable amount of information to take on board. I've spent 7 of the last 10 days in training, with another two next week - and then I will be 'live' - feel sorry for those poor customers who come face-to-face with me next Wednesday!

In the meantime, all has most definitely not been quiet on the creative front :-)

First up, some winter warmers...these were most definitely NOT planned, but given that I started work during the worst cold snap that the UK has experienced since 1963 (apparently), I quickly realised that I needed something to keep my head and neck warm when waiting at the bus stop.

So, I have finished a hat and started a scarf. The hat is made using Mini Mochi yarn from Crystal Palace (colourway Violets Rainbow). This is gorgeously soft and comes in wonderful colours - but is not something I would choose to knit with again - it feels very fragile when you're knitting it and I was terrified of it breaking....

The scarf is being made using Mille Colori yarn by Lang Wools - my lovely Mum gave me these as a 'sort-of' Christmas present. I have two balls of a grey/aqua mix and two balls of a pink/berry mix - this probably sounds like a horrible combination, but thanks to a great pattern (Noro Striped Scarf by Jared Flood) and the long colour changes, I think it's coming out rather beautifully:

I have also finished yet another pair of socks - these are Wanida by Cookie A, and they were made using gorgeous yarn from The Knitting Goddess. This was a custom-dye colourway that I asked her to dye for me back in the summer of 2009 - I decided it was time I finally used it, and I'm really pleased with the results!

And the charity project is still going strong - I have made a few more squares (I think my total so far is now 10 squares) and an adorable little baby jacket, using the Bombay Love pattern from Ravelry. This was made using the scrummy aran-weight wool from Babylonglegs

Oh, and Ladybird? I have started your gloves - but you might not actually get them, coz they are coming out gorgeous!!!

Giving something back

So, after the last post (which was a little self-centred perhaps?), I had a bit of an epiphany on New Year's Day....

While browsing through the boards of a new UK-based group on Ravelry, I discovered this amazing charity project called Knit-A-Square. Basically, you knit or crochet as many 8" squares as you fancy and then ship them off to Soweto in South Africa. Once they have arrived there, they are assembled into blankets which are then distributed to the many, many AIDs orphans.

To quote from the Knit-A-Square site, "the AIDs orphans in South Africa belong to one of the fastest-growing, but least desirable groups of children in need, on the earth. Every 14 seconds a child will become a orphan."

Well, if that is not enough to make you want to do something to help, then I don't know what is.....

So, duly inspired, I trawled through my stash and pulled out all the yarns / leftovers that I thought would work for crochet granny squares. I wound them all up (have I mentioned how much I love my ball winder??), doubling-up the DK weights and winding the sock yarn into quadruple thickness (does that last bit make sense? hmmm...). I now have a bag full of lovely, multi-coloured balls, ready for pulling out on a Saturday morning to be turned into a square.

Yes, I've decided that my first priority for Saturday mornings in 2010 will be to make a square before I work on any of my other projects.

Since then, I have managed to whip up a total of six squares (I've managed to amaze even myself!):

More to come over the next few weeks / months, I'm sure!