chaussettes, calzini, socken, calcetines, носки

I'm off to buy sock yarn for my monkey sock swap pal tonight - hoorah! And as the site I will be buying it from has a £19 minimum for free postage, I will just have to buy myself something too!

Monkey swap 3 questionnaire

Monkey Sock Swap THREE Questionnaire

The basics:

Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep?
Beginner – have just finished my first pair (and am very pleased with them)

The measurements:

Shoe Size: UK 4 (Europe 37, US 6.5)
Foot circumference: 8 inches
Foot length: 9 inches

Yarn Preferences:

What colors do you love?
Blues, greens, “colours from nature”

Do you prefer solids or variegated?
Solids with a textured pattern, variegated for plain socks

Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn?
Wool or cotton

What colors would you never wear?
Orange

What are your favorite brands of yarn?
I don’t have a favourite brand as such, I tend to prefer unusual, locally produced / spun / dyed yarns – things that I can’t buy in John Lewis (big department store).

Are there any new brands you would like to try?
I was interested to read about the new yarns with unusual components, for example, I’m knitting a scarf with soy bean protein in it, Bamboo is great for everything – yarn, needles, socks, chopping boards, dishcloths, floorboards … and I love the idea of Seacell (yarn from seaweed – ha!)

Cookie A. Patterns:

Which of her patterns have you already knit?
None

Which pattern(s) would you like to knit and don’t already own?
Rhiannon is lovely, but I love any sock pattern with cabling.

Other pertinent information:

Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US?
I’m in the UK, so don’t mind, although for swapping interesting things, a pal abroad would be good.

Do you have any allergies?
Nuts, but that’s not very relevant for sock knitting!

Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals?
I have 2 cats, who will try to get their paws on my socks, but I’ll do my best …

Are you on Ravelry yet? If you don’t mind having new friends, what is your Ravelry name?
Not yet, only 4000 people in front of me though …

yarn over, and over, and over again

Doh!

I have just discovered to my annoyance that for the entirety of my first Breeze sock I have been yarn overing in the wrong direction. I did wonder why my nice lacey holes were not nice and lacey (or hole like) but I assumed it was a tension / yarn gauge issue. Now upon starting the new sock, I have been yarn overing and I have holes! Sigh. I guess I must have picked up some dodgy instructions about yarnovers at some point, and not paid enough attention to what I was doing when I was following the pattern.

That'll teach me to knit on the train when I really should be napping!

Socks!

I am nearly 5 inches into my first ever pair of knitted socks! Thanks to a sock-knitter from my knitting group, who inspired me to request this book from the library,

Easy knitted socks: fun and fashionable designs for the novice knitter
Jeanette Trotman
ISBN 9781844482146

and once I had found the 2.5mm dpns in a charity shop there was no stopping me!

So here is my first sock effort: OK, so I botched up the rib to main sock transition, when I knitted instead of purling, but I guess I'll just make the sock a bit longer, and fold over the (rather loosely knitted) rib section to hide it :-)

My sock knitting inspiration's blog, with most marvellous socks on it amongst other things is to be found here: Random knitter