Strawberries and Seasides

Summer is here... well, it was here for a week or so and then it started to rain again but I'm optimistic it will return soon(ish).


Last weekend I went to the seaside for a birthday day out:





This photo would have you believe it was a sunny day, it lies. It poured down but, as this is a British seaside, there are shelters provided on the seafront for just this occurrence - what we lack in sunshine we make up for in stoic determination to enjoy the beach in all weathers.





I do love the seaside, I think it's a symptom of living as far as I possibly from the sea in every direction.





This is my new pattern: Strawbs - it's available when you purchase semi solid sock yarn from The Knitting Goddess until 25th June. It is inspired by strawberries which are in season now and taste so much better in these few weeks than they do for the rest of the year. (I bought some for the photo shoot, forgot they were for the photo shoot, ate them.)





There are lace and cable strawberry motifs with seed stitch and a lace-rib foot, the socks mirror each other.





(These shoes are Dr Martens, they were a birthday present from my sister)





These are perfect socks to knit along to Wimbledon to, we'll be having a knit-a-long in my Ravelry group - come and join us!

Jane Bennet Socks

The new Jane Austen Knits Magazine is out and I have a sock pattern in it - Jane Bennet Socks (rav link).


These socks are inspired by Jane Bennet’s quiet, calm, and elegant beauty— these are delicate, pretty socks with not a bad word to say about anyone! Beginning with a pretty picot cuff, the leg and foot are decorated with twisted stitch columns which in- corporate a lace pattern and diamonds.


 


I was so excited to design for this magazine, I'm a big fan of Jane Austen - designing and knitting items inspired by her work gives me an excuse to watch my extensive adaptation collection...





(and thats not all of it)





I used Socks That Rock Lightweight, which was a pleasure to work with as always - the stitch definition you get with this yarn is beyond amazing and the colour is such an interesting grey/lilac.








You can get this magazine as a digital copy or if you'd like a paper version there are a some UK stockists; Tangled Yarn and Hulu are 2 I know about. There are lots of lovely patterns in it, I'm really proud to be included!

Three's A Crowd

When I went to Wonderwool I bought 2 new spindles, one lovely wooden one and one inexpensive CD & dowel one. Because I am completely weak and empty spindles make me itch, I did the spinning equivalent of CAST ON ALL THE THINGS and now this is the situation I find myself in:

On the end is my orange spinning for socks, I really want to get this finished before Tour de Fleece (ever the optimist).





This is my lovely new spindle, I can't remember the name of the vendor but it spins really nicely. The fibre is from the Hilltop Cloud club, it's blossom-inspired and very pretty!





This the CD spindle, I bought it mainly for plying, I'll be able to fit more on to it so I won't end up with lots of little skeins, it's not great for spinning on but this fibre is AMAZING. It's Easyknits punk fluff, the colours are impossible to predict, I'm really excited about it but I might have to change spindles.


In my head it's totally reasonable to get one of these finished before 30th June so I can start something else for Tour de Fleece, in reality I keep doing a little bit on each so nothing will get finished, let's all hope for a miracle.

Jubilations!