Saturday 29 January 2011

Ski Socks

Here is the latest pair of socks, these are knee length, so take two balls of yarn. I did not have two balls of the same colour so I have combined two yarns. They are from different manufacturers but knit to the same tensions. Here is the result.


More yarns have arrived too.




Soon I shall have to change my profile entry to "The Sock Knitter".

Saturday 15 January 2011

More Sock Yarn Arrives







These are the latest yarns!! Lovely bright colours, they were collected from my local PO today. Picture below each ball of yarn gives you an idea how it knits up.  These three brands are the very, very best and therefore are the top $ price. Opal. Trekking and Schoeller+Stahl can't be beaten. All are 75% New wool and 25% polyamid, machine wash 40c, Do NOT Tumble.

Mad Socks can be made using several different balls of yarn for one pair. These will be totally unique.



More is on the way, ebay buys, as all the best sock yarn come from Germany. 

Thursday 13 January 2011

Swapping Stuff

I belong to a web art group and last year one member offered a swap of stuff. You know we all have lots hidden about our dwellings!!! 



First off I owe Trudy a big SORRY!!! My postie left her parcel in my shed and forgot to pop a note in my door to say she had done this. DOH its winter time, who goes in the garden shed, its raining freezing cold and I'm going to garden. Any way yep there the parcel sat for days and days. 

Good news is I got real excited when I realised who it was from. This is what I got..................

MILK???? No read on lol.

Just Knitting patterns??? No read on..............

OMG loads!!!!

Buttons

Jewellery and beads.

Thank you Trudy. Now I got a hard task to find enough good stuff to send back.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Shetland Wool - Felted Snuggle Blanket





This is the finished blanket. 

Picture 1 Folded ready for use.
Picture 2 Draped over my 2 seater settee so you can see how big it is. 7x5ft !!!
Picture 3 Inside/wrong side showing seams.
Picture 4 right side showing edgings.

The more you wash it the softer and fluffier it gets. Hand wash then spin/rinse in your washing machine.

It took a whole kilo of yarn. That's 2.2 LBS.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Sock It to Me Baby!!!!

Ok so I am just going nuts on knitting socks. It must be all the cold weather!!! Plus I found a bargain from Germany, six balls of sock yarn, on auction just before Christmas day. Not a good deal for the seller but oh boy I did well!!


I've knitted the red/black and grey pair for my friend Ann, she deserves a treat and these will keep her nice and snug when she's out walking the dogs. So these took me 4 days of knitting whilst watching TV, or having a game of scrabble on facebook. 


Today I started on a brown pair, going to do these in a man's size, perhaps I'll sell them at the village fete later this year. Oh it will be summer then, I hope.






On the machine knitting front I have been experimenting with felting Shetland lambswool. It comes on huge cones and I have more than several cones. So I thought it would be nice to knit some snuggly felted blankets. They take a while as each one has 3,600 rows for the main part and another 4,000 or so for the border. And I have to join the strips of knitting. Phew, first one done today. Then chuck it in the washing machine and 30c quick wash, delicate setting. Its come out looking good, now it just has to dry. 

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Leftover Socks - just like the Turkey leftovers!!!





Yarn remaining from another project. Too much to waste, not enough to make a whole item from any one ball. What to do with it.


Well first its sock yarn so knit socks!!! Firstly I just knitted in each colour as they are on the ball. But I did not really like the results.


Then I had an idea, why not just knit one row from each ball. So I did and that's the really multi-coloured pair.


I think they are brilliant!!! No one else will ever have a pair exactly the same. They are just so individual and really the only thing a Mad Bird should wear!!!