Latest creation

I know I know, I've been absent for a week now - the crush of deadlines at the beginning of last week was followed by me taking a breath before having to clean the house from top to bottom for the arrival of guests.

Just had the folks down for a very pleasant weekend, the first bit of real sunshine all summer which was a bit of a pain for my mum as she has very sensitive skin and has to keep herself covered up in any sunlight, never mind the scorching weekend we just experienced! But it didn't stop us doing lots of fun things like the London Eye, a trip on the river, and a visit to the Red House in Bexley, which was the home of William Morris and birthplace of the Arts & Crafts movement (how appropriate!).

I've not been idle with the knitting either; here's the first of a new pair of socks that was originally destined to be my mum's christmas present. I conscientiously measured her foot, did a swatch, worked out the right gauge etc, and then went and ruined my careful planning by forgetting how stretchy lace patterns are. Be gentle with me, it's my first original sock design! I picked a lace pattern I liked out of one of my stitch directories, added in a moss stitch border (just to make it even bigger as it turns out!) and now the sock is large enough for me, way too big for my mum. Back to the drawing board on that one!

I think I have to either use a cable pattern, which won't be stretchy, or cut the number of stitches by about a third if I want to add in some lace. Harumph! I'm not downhearted though - I'm going to finish these socks for myself, then try again for mum's present. Still got a few months to play with, after all!