End of year FOs

After a trip to the Kentish Weald to see Cosmo and his folks, I came away inspired by hats. Cosmo's mum was sporting a rather fine Urchin hat, which I decided to try making, with some of the yarn left over from my sister's christmas teacosy (Rowan chunky print, been in the stash about 14 months, discontinued).

Here's the teacosy (it ended up with a sprouting of i-cord on the top rather than a pom pom, and was very well received by its new owner!)


The leftover ball of yarn became the Urchin hat. Next one I make, I may adapt it to be slightly longer and a little bit looser fitting. The fact that I didn't have any 7mm needles didn't help, hence it was knitted on 6.5mm. And while I'm talking about Rowan yarn, I'll have a moan. In all my knitting experience, Rowan yarns are the ONLY yarns I have found knots in. Not just once, but more times than is acceptable. I had a particularly bad run a couple of years ago with a load of scottish tweed chunky. I got so annoyed after I found several knots in several balls that I complained to Rowan. What did they do? They sent me an apologetic letter and a free copy of their magazine, which was full of OTT catwalk designs that were of no use to me.

I was reminded of this episode last night, when I found TWO knots in a single ball of the Chunky Print. Am I the only one who's had this experience, or is it a common problem?


Mum if you are reading this, look away now!

Everyone else scroll down....














Despite the fact that they are Mum's christmas socks, she still hasn't seen them yet! Circumstances have meant that my folks still haven't got their christmas pressies, but I'm planning to remedy this situation very soon by tripping up home to see them.

The socks have been a long time coming, but are finally complete! Here they are hanging out on the balcony, drying out ready for wrapping and labelling!
They are my own toe-up pattern, I've included a rather nice Broken Rib Diagonal stitch along the front panel of the foot, and all around the leg. I picked the pattern out of the Harmony Guide 450 Knitting Stitches Volume 2. The yarn is Ophelia sock yarn from HipKnits - I like the variegated colour and the almost shiny texture of the yarn, which is 100% merino superwash, I believe.



I've also been busy with socks for myself - here's the first of a pair of basic toe-up socks knitted with the Halloweeny yarn I bought in the Yarn Yard a couple of months ago. Omigod the colours are gorgeous, and I am loving the way the colour comes out in huge diagonal washes across the foot. I also love the fact that my short row heel and magic cast-on toes end up with little thin stripes, it makes them stand out more.



They fit perfectly. I can't wait to get the second one done, and get them on! I've been modelling the first one with my Mary Jane shoes and jeans. It looks fab!

Just to finish off the new year, a Peculiar Fact about me. Am I the only person in the world who makes the effort to wind her yarn into centre-pull balls, then uses the yarn from the outside in?!