Darkus

The mystery socks I designed for Tangled Yarn have been revealed!





The yarn is from Juno Fibre Arts and it's very lovely, I was really inspired by the colour and I wanted to design something dark and mysterious (they were mysterious by definition).


I came up with the name DARKUS. As I was putting the pattern page up I thought I'd better check that with a quick google search, just in case its rude or medication for an unfortunate condition, it turns out it is the name of a Bakugan. A Bakugan, for those lucky people who don't know, is a kind of small monster toy, it folds up in to a ball then explodes out when you put it on a metal surface:





They seem to breed in my house, I find them on door knobs, attached to bathroom cabinets, on the fridge. No wonder their names are flying around my subconscious just waiting to come out as pattern names.





The socks have twisted stitches, lace and cables. The pattern is still available as 4 clues but I've also added a full version, with all the instructions in one document, the pattern page is here or you can. for £3.50





There are lots of lovely versions in the Tangled Yarn group and the Coop Knits group on Ravelry.

Resolved

I'm really good at making resolutions. REALLY good.


I'm not as good at actually doing the things I resolve to do. I'm going to make some for 2013 anyway, they're quite realistic, I hope I achieve them.


1. I want to knit 3 garments. Wanderer Cardigan, Beatnik and Goodale.


I've got yarn for all 3 in my stash:





So two cardigans and one jumper, two items knit in pieces and one knit in the round. A good mix I think.


2. I want to knit one For the Tree mini stocking a month, I'll be adding more variations to the pattern along the way and I'll have 12 by December.


3. To spin a little bit (almost) every day. I started doing this at the end of December and it is going swimmingly. It turns out stuff gets done if you actually DO it, who knew?


4. To continue with my Van Gogh socks - I would really like to finish all 8 pairs this year, so far I've finished 1 pair and 1 and bit of the second pair.





These are my personal goals, there are lots of exciting professional things happening in 2013 - more on that soon!

Echeveria

Happy New Year!


I am working on plans and resolutions post but in the meantime I thought I'd tell you about the mystery sock I designed for the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry.

The theme this month is Flora & Fauna, I was inspired by puffy little leaves to design Echeveria.


The sock includes a small amount of stranded colourwork, I chose this lovely soft green for the main colour from The Knitting Goddess and undyed cream for the contrast.





There are lots of socks in progress, with lots of beautiful colour combinations. Come and join in!

Join the CLUB!

This is a bag of socks.





That is all the socks from this years When Granny Weatherwax Knits Socks Club. Lovely hand-dyed yarn knitted in to 12 pairs of squishy socks.


It's been a great year, I think my favourite pair is Conina:





The patterns are now available as an eBook collection - 9 patterns are available now and the remaining three will be added on the first of each month until March.


In 2013 I'll be teaming up with The Knitting Goddess again, this will be our third year and it's going to be great!

You’ve heard of the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon game – where anyone or anything in Hollywood can be linked to Kevin Bacon in seven steps or less.

But what does that have to do with socks? Is Kevin Bacon a knitter?

For 2013 we’re offering you the Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon sock club. But there’s a twist. Instead of linking things to Kevin, we’ll be using Helena Bonham Carter as our starting point. We've come up with 12 gorgeous semi-solid colours and you'll get 12 original patterns by me.

All the details are here, sign-ups for January will be available until the 24th December, there's still time to get a present for yourself!

Talia Socks

I designed a pattern for the Winter issue of Pom Pom magazine, Talia socks:

photo©Juju Vail


I love everything about Pom Pom, I love their ideas, the patterns, the articles, the design, the paper they use, EVERYTHING.





I'm very proud of these socks, they are knee high with a twisted stitch cable on the cuff and stranded colourwork on the leg.





The yarn I used for these was Northbound Knitting Superwash BFL fingering, it's a lovely yarn and the colours are amazing, Lisa has an amazing talent for grey and grey holds a special place in my heart, but the absinthe green in these socks is BEAUTIFUL.

photo©Juju Vail

There are lots of lovely patterns in this (and every other) issue, I love the cover jumper which is Moira by Anna Wilkinson and the Edda hat by Lisa Mutch is amazing, I need one for me and I know some little boys who need one each too.

I need a tree

I love Christmas and I love Christmas trees. I just haven't got one.


I had a Christmas tree once but I lent it someone a few years ago when we were going abroad for Christmas and I'm not sure it came back.


I'm a Christmas nomad, I travel from house to house, all the houses I visit have trees, they are my adoptive trees.


Last year I went to my sisters for Christmas, I took my For the Tree samples for her tree, she wanted to keep them and I love her so I said yes.





This year I made some more for a swap, I rather like the colour scheme I used for these and I picked up some felt decorations to go with them.





Then I made some Minikins. These are too cute and super quick to make.





I gave them to someone who I will be apart from at Christmas as a reminder of how much I will miss them.


Now this ornament is different. I can't give it away. Jen made it for me and I love it so much.





There are so many details, the mittens are different on the front and back, the collar and pockets are adorable. This is the ornament that will make me buy a tree.

Rosaleen Cowl

The Rosaleen Cowl pattern has been added to the Winter One collection.





The pattern has instructions for 2 sizes, the small one (in the picture) can be knitted with 175 yards of DK weight yarn. It's a quick knit - perfect for last minute gifts. The large one can be wrapped around your neck several times.





I'm knitting one of the large versions with this Rowan Felted Tweed in a lovely dark blue/grey.





It's going to be warm and versatile - the best thing about cowls is that they don't unwind themselves and fall off when you're walking down the street.