FO: Zauberball Serpentine Socks

Not going to lose these in the dark, am I?

Pattern: Serpentine Socks by Wendy D. Johnson [Ravelry Project Page]

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And steroids, but mostly the former.

I am still really behind on my blog-reading (someone in my feed has sixteen! unread posts) but I haven’t been entirely idle during my inflamed-sinus-sabbatical.

I’ve finished my Serpentine Socks (and even managed to stay upright long enough to photograph them) so there’ll be an FO post soon.

Progress has been slow on the Funkadellic Frolicking Reindeer Socks

Hmmm... gusset ...

But mostly I was spinning as part of the Tour de Fleece.  I finished the naturally-black Shetland/bleached tussah silk fibre and made a DK-weight 2-ply yarn with about 240 m/260 yds

1 pence piece for scale

And I also learnt a new technique which allows you to create a 3-ply yarn without needing to spin all your singles at the same time

Superwash Blue Faced Leicester - squooshy!

And I joined a fibre club. It’s just for 3 months (uncertain as I was to my academic/financial status for 2012) and it’s by Anne of Wooly Wonka Fibers

Merino/silk - yummy

These aren’t my “usual” colours, but isn’t that the point of a club?

For the next 7 days I’m going to be “enjoying” the benefits of pharmacology and I don’t know how I’ll be affected. If you catch my raving on the internet, it may well be ‘roid-rage. Alternatively, I could just feel better!

The long and the sock of it

I think I'm gonna need a bigger sock blocker!

The first of my Serpentine socks is complete (pattern from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, yarn Zauberball 6).

Boom-chicka-wah-wah

If you’re offended by the upper motif, I suggest you focus on the lovely snowflakes!  I’ve now finished the gusset decreases and it’s just plain (!) sailing to the toe.

Most of my energy (what little there is) has been focused on Tour de Fleece:

I’m behind on reading/commenting on blogs so if you normally hear from me, don’t worry, I’ll get to you at some point! I’ve got raging sinusitis and I’ve been threatened with steroids if my new nasal spray doesn’t work and I’M SO BORED.

May you live in interesting times, indeed.

FO: Slip into Spring Socks

The time: Mid-March.

The challenge: make my mum a pair of socks with no lace, no cables, no short-row heels but which will be fun and interesting enough for me not to want to stab my own eyes out.

The result: Slip into Spring!

Fifth Letter of the Alphabet

First things first; thanks for the compliments on my recent finished objects! I blog for myself, but it’s nice to know that someone else is reading it!

Right, on to the post proper.

Today, the blog is brought to you by the letter “e”.

More specifically the mathematical constant known as Euler’s number (this wikipedia page is very good for explaining everything. WARNING: CONTAINS CALCULUS).

So, what does this have to do with knitting?

Ta-da!

This is the start of a knee-high sock striped using the digits in “e”. So I could use all ten integers from 0 to 9 I add one to all the numbers so 0 = 1 round, 1 = 2 rounds and so on.

I cast on my usual toe with the yarn I’ll be using for both toes and both heels, switched to my bright yarn, knit 3 rounds (the first digit of “e” is 2), switched to my dark yarn and knit 8 rounds (the second number being 7), and so on.

These are all the yarns I’m planning on using for the socks.

For the second sock, I’ll keep the stripe sequence the same, but change the contrast colours.

The pattern I’m going to use is the gusset heel basic sock from WendyKnits (the same I used to make these socks) and this calf-shaping template.

This is my challenge for the December KAL over at the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry.  And boy is this going to be a challenge!

PS: I’ve caught yet another virus (it’s really odd, it feels like ‘flu but not) and I was all up to date with everyone’s blog postings before this.  I’ll get there soon, so if you haven’t heard from me I’m still here, but just not necessarily very vocal right now!