A trip to the beach...

My pattern First Beach Socks (Rav link), which were the second socks in the When Vampires Knit Socks club, is available to buy today. You can buy it on Ravelry or here:

These socks are inspired by Bella’s visit to First Beach where she is reunited with her childhood friend Jacob. When this happens in the book, the weather is unusually nice* and in the sunlight the seemingly grey pebbles on the beach reveal a vast array of subtle colours – gold, green, lavender, blue. The socks begin with ribbing with a little shell pattern and the pattern on the leg is reminiscent of the gentle rippling water in the tidal pool where Bella sits and lets her mind wander….

*when they filmed this scene the weather was not nice, scenes had to be changed to include hats, coats and blankets, I am staying true to the written word on this one!

These are my favourite out of all my sock designs, I love the longer than usual patterned cuff and thats definitely something I'll use again in future designs. The colours in this yarn are just gorgeous - Joy, The Knitting Goddess will be dyeing more for her shop, I will be sorely temped to buy some!

Wedding Fever

As I write this the Royal Wedding has just finished and they are waving like crazy at the people who have turned out to see them on the Mall. I'm not that fussed about the wedding, I wouldn't have gone to London for all the money in the world! But it's a bit of fun, but the hype over the last few weeks/months has been driving me a bit mad!

These are the 'souvenirs' I have bought:



2 tea towels - royal wedding tea towels just seemed like they were the right balance of tradition and kitsch

2 skeins of self striping yarn, one in Kate (blue for the ring, brown for her hair) and one in Wills (blonde and blush!)



And a set of stitch markers from Fripperies and Bibelots, these were mystery markers and I love them! My favourites are the flag and the cake, but they are all fab!



The rest of the day will be spent knitting and drinking champagne - if you can't beat them, join them!

St Marco Socks

This is the April pattern for the When Vampires Knit Socks club - St Marco Socks (Rav Link)



These are the seventh socks in the ‘When Vampires Knit Socks’ club, the pattern will be available to non club members on 25th July 2011



These socks are inspired by the St Marco Festival which is taking place in Volterra when Bella arrives to save Edward. The colour is the red of the cloaks of the people attending the festival, with darker flashes for the folds in the fabric. Down the front and back of the sock are the hoods that the people gathering in the square are wearing and traveling down the sides are the banners they carry, twisting and rippling in the breeze.



The last seven months have gone so fast!

Bit of this, bit of that...

I've been doing little bits of a quite a few things for the last week or so...

I've finalised the design for the mystery sock which will be starting on 1st May, all the details are in the Knitting Goddess group on Ravelry and all the proceeds will be going to Macmillan. The pattern is designed for self striping yarn but will work in pretty much any sock yarn - I've used this lovely self striping from The Knitting Goddess in Flower Power (insert obligatory 'groovy baby, yeah!' here)



I have also finished one of my pink stripy socks:



This is my first afterthought heel and it's a bit pointy. I decreased down to 10 stitches, I'm going to unpick and graft at 14 stitches on each needle, I think that will be enough but I won't weave the ends in until I'm sure this time!

This is a sneak peak at a pattern I'm putting the finishing touches to....



It's a lacy beret using a silk blend sock yarn, perfect for spring and summer (if you can't rely on your summer to be hot and sunny all the time like me!). The pattern will be ready in a week or so and the First Beach sock pattern will be released on Sunday, it's a good thing I like to be busy!

Easy Stripes

I've been knitting this months When Vampires Knit Socks pattern, parcels will go out on Monday so I can't show you yet but having the Easter holidays are definitely slowing me down!



My car/cinema/pub knitting at the moment is this plain sock in the new Knitting Goddess self striping yarn, I am using some chocolate brown malabrigo sock for cuff, heel and toe and I'm following The Knit Girllls afterthought heel tutorial for the heel - thats what the sexy yellow stripe is for. I'm going to put the heel in soon, before I get to the end of the foot, so I can be sure of the fit, as soon as I've got some free needles!



I love spring, I don't even mind rain at this time of year but blossom is my absolute favourite thing about this time of year - there are blossom inspired socks in the not too distant future......

Ianthe Socks

This is my new pattern - Ianthe (Rav Link)

They are designed using The Knitting Goddess Take 5 sock yarn, so they are stripey, there seem to have been a lot of stripes in my knitting lately (and there is more to come soon). These are lacey and delicate but also have strong lines, they are perfect for summer, which is good because spring has arrived with a bang here and the last few days have been hot and sunny - although at the start of last week I was wearing a woolen scarf so I'm not ruling out the return of the cold horrible weather!

The Purple pair are colourway Chocolate Box and the green pair are colourway Meadow - I love green, more than any other colour, the greens in this set are so gorgeous, olive and moss and deep forest green, I loved knitting with them.



You can also knit this pattern in just one colour - this pair are The Knitting Goddess Merino Nylon Sock in the Birthstone Club colour Aquamarine - this is my sisters favourite colour so these are a gift to her (also as a thank you for modelling for the photos!)



You can buy the pattern here

And the lovely Take 5 yarn is here - my particular favourites in the shop at the moment are Aqua and Not Just Pretty