Delicate

Well good morning, my lovelies! :) I have a new project to share with you, and it includes lace, melon pink, and perhaps even some sock yarn...

Earlier in the year I bought myself a skein Stylecraft Life 4 ply in Melon, from Deramores. I bought it in the hope to knit myself some socks, but not just any kind of socks, I was planning on making lace socks.

The chosen pattern was Herringbone Lace Socks by Ann Budd, from her (rather awesome) book, "Get Started Knitting Socks". This was my first time knitting a sock with a pattern (I've only ever knitted plain stockinette socks before now), so I was a little apprehensive on whether I'd be able to do it, but it turns out it is dead simple!!

The pattern calls for Sport yarn, and 3.75mm needles, so I changed this around a bit. The yarn I had chosen was Fingering weight, and so I decided to use 3mm needles. This, of course, made things smaller than they were meant to be, so rather than following the instructions for the Adult Small (which I am) I followed the Adult Medium instructions, and everything seemed to fit rather perfectly. I followed the instructions for Adult Medium until I reached the foot, then I just carried on knitting until I had 2 inches less than the length of my foot, then I began decreasing for the toe. This gave me the perfect foot length! (I've never had socks fit so perfectly before!)

My youngest sister, who I now help care for, has done rather well the past week, hardly any seizures and not too much fainting, which meant that I could just sit & knit while I kept an eye on her. So, within a day and half I had a sock, and by the next evening I had a whole pair!

I've kept the writing in this post rather short so that I could bombard you with pictures, so are you ready? Here goes!!

Yarn looks more orange than it really is, think 'melon pink'.

I'm really chuffed with them! I was expecting the top to curl, but it only slightly did, I was also preparing for the fact that they wouldn't stay up (since there is no rib in the cuff), but thanks to the yarns elasticity, the socks stay up.

Want to know what is even better? Ann Budd, author of this pattern, the book it is from, plus countless other publications, commented on them! And look, look what she said...

Click on the picture for it to be enlarged...

I grinned like the Cheshire Cat when I saw that! :D 

So, that is one more Year of Projects project ticked off, hooray! I do have another that is finished, but I don't want to show you until it is blocked, so you can see it in its full glory. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'm off to design a pair of socks...

#cute

Knitting is immediately linked to socks, crazy jumpers and comfy cardigans. I can knit socks, (not very well, but I can do it), I have no intention of knitting crazy jumpers, and I suck and cardigan knitting.

I made my youngest niece, Daisy, the Jacket with Moss Stitch Bands by Debbie Bliss earlier on in the year. I found it a little challenging, as I'm awful at picking up stitches. I managed to fumble my way through it though, and it didn't turn out too bad! But, I swore never to do it again. I decided I was more suited to knitting mittens and hats. 

My very lovely friend Jaz then knitted the Seamless Yoke Baby Sweater by Carole Barenys, which is a top-down raglan baby cardigan. I loved the idea of knitting it all in one, without the need of picking up stitches (you need to pick up a couple of stitches for the underarms, but that's it!), and was determined to give it a go. 

After a lot of 'no, I'm far too dumb to be able to knit it... I'll give it a go in a couple of weeks', I finally casted on. And it turns out, I'm not as thick as I thought! I used the pattern Baby's Raglan Sweater No Seams by Carole Barenys (and yes, I agree that a more creative name could have been used :P), a very simple pattern, perfect if you've never knitted top-down before!

When you knit a top-down raglan, you begin working flat. Once you've finished increasing you separate the sleeves from the body. The pattern didn't explain how to do that, but I found this brilliant tutorial on YouTube by Roxanne Richardson. Once you've moved the sleeves onto waste yarn and cast on the underarm stitches, you just knit flat! 

For some reason that I can't quite recall, I decided to make the cardigan shorter than the pattern requires. A decision I regretted later on. 

Once you've casted off the body, you move onto the sleeves. You knit the sleeves using DPNs, simply diving the stitches between the three needles, then picking up extra stitches for the underarm. 

Once I was finished, I felt the cardigan was a little too plain, and was in need for some decoration! I wanted this to be a very 'different' baby knit, so I decided to do the two things I never see on baby clothes. Pockets, and hashtags.

The pocket was really simple to do, I just picked up a number of stitches, knitted, the sewed the sides down. Then, using duplicate stitch, I put a little heart onto the front of the pocket. 

Hashtags are a big thing these days. You see them all over the internet, and now people even use phrases such as '#awkward' in their daily speech. I have never seen it on clothes, though, so I thought I would give it a go. Using duplicate stitch, I wrote #cute on the bottom of the left front panel. I have to admit, I think it makes the once rather boring cardigan, a modern must have! 

Techincally the cardigan isn't finished, as I have ends to weave in and buttons to sew on, but I have lost my wool needles, so for now this is as finished as it is going to get!

This was going to be given to my youngest niece, Daisy, but I think it is going to be too short :( So, for now its home will be the gift basket! :)