Week 139 : New socks, a hat and sewing plans

This has been the first week of school holidays. We are taking a family holiday, within Australia, next week so the next post will be a fortnight in Week 141.

This last week I finished a hat for myself in Madtosh ASAP. The colour is Candlewick. Here is is modelled by my daughter with the assistance of her spaniel Toffee. My daughter is a shy model and wasn't really keen to be photographed today.

Very simple knit in the round on 9mm needles.

Socks are still being knitted.

I finished the Regia Landscape colours 'Storm' socks. here they are unblocked.

I have cast on the second sock of the Regia in the colour mix 'Persian Carpet'

Its very pretty and I am delighted the way the colour changes in the yarn sets up the pattern.  Its all I can do to put it aside.

I sorted though my cupboard and sorted sock yarn for the 'queue'. Especially for projects to take way with me next week.

Here are the skeins I've chosen.

From left to right: 

• Sundara sock yarn (which I haven't entered into my ravelry list yet. I think the colour is 'Travels to Greece', 
• Sundara Fingering Merino Cashmere in 'Guava', 
• Jill Draper Makes Stuff, Esopus Sock in 'Monarchs and Milkweed'
• Copper Corgi Fibre Studio Sock in 'Stay Warm' (this was bought last year on our holiday in Savannah.
• Madelinetosh Sock in 'Cosmic Wonder Dust'
• Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in 'Snapdragon'

Above Shibui Staccato Sock in a teal, which was bought as part of a kit (with matched silk cloud yarn. I won't knit the shawl so I will use the sock and stash the lace weight)

I started two further socks.

The first was a Wollmese Pure in the colour Bluebelle. I bought three skeins of this in destash but decided it was a bit too vivid for a sweater project. Its been in stash for quite a while. I decided to wind one skein and see how it knit up.

Unfortunately I don't like the pooling. The not quite spiral, not quite level stripes are very off-putting. I've unravelled this and I think all three skeins will go to a weaving project one day in the future.

My next sock project is more successful.

Its for my daughter (so I reduced the stitch count, although I'm wondering if I reduced too much. I would like them to last more than a few months.) 

She picked the skein. Its the Sweet Georgia Snapdragon from the above selection. 

Its knitting up with pooling but she still likes it and its a fun mix of colour.

I didn't get to finish, but I cut some fabric for a summer dress. 

The fabric is a cotton-silk voile with a border print that I'll arrange to be at the hem.

I've cut Vogue V1351. I've made this dress before in Week 103, so I know my length adjustments.

I bought this very cute bracelet on Etsy. Its made from a recycled china teacup. I have a fondness for blue and white china and this was too pretty to ignore. 

The Etsy maker is 'StayGoldMaryRose' (I've linked her Etsy shop). Lots of very cute things!

My daughter is modelling this, it sits a little smaller on my adult wrist.

Week 138 : Still knitting socks

I finished the blue Schoppel -Wolle socks I started in week 135. A perfect fit for my ten year old boy who is about to go on school camp.

Here he is.

The yarn detail again :
Schoppel-Wolle Admiral R Druck in colour 1566 1641 wel / Variegated blues.

The pattern is The Sock Recipe otherwise known as a 'good plain sock' by Stephanie Pearl McPhee in her book Knitting Rules.


I cast on a new sock. This yarn is Regia Design Line Effects and the colour is Persian Carpet.
I am absolutely enchanted by the dyeing of the yarn which produces this 'fair isle' effect when I knit it up.

This sock is knitting quickly as I'm motivated to continue just a little bit more to see what happens with the pattern.


The school holidays are coming up however and I would like to finish at least one sweater. The closest one to finishing is the Plucky gradient yarn. Hopefully I'll be able to post that soon.

Week 137 : Finished NY Cape, new socks

I finally got to sewing buttonholes on my NY cape. It is now finished and ready for wearing!

I chose black leather buttons bought from All Buttons a couple of weeks ago. I used eight, four down the front and four (paired) holding the underarms together.

I am still knitting the second blue Schoppel Wolle yarn sock from my last post. I cast on a second pair in this Regia 'Design Line' sock yarn as well.

The colour is Landscape Storm by Kaffe Fassett.

I have three balls of this, but only need two for socks (when I bought this I wasn't a sock knitter and had a different plan for it). So I'm going to be left with a single ball which won't be enough for more socks. Perhaps fingerless gloves would be an option.

Week 135-136 : First sock

I didn't mean to miss a blog week, but the days just flew by.

This past fortnight I have made a sock. Singular as I still have to complete the second. But it is my very first completed sock and the first time I have constructed a heel. Also the first time I've had to graft stitches (for the toe). That isn't quite so neatly done and better not viewed in close up. I need more grafting practice (and to make myself a cheat sheet reminder so I know which step I'm up to).

I'm very happy with it though. The yarn is Schoppel-Wolle Admiral R Druck in a variegated blue. Learning to magic-loop made all the difference. I had tried socks before but that was with DPNs. The extra needles were fine if I was watching what i was doing but not convenient for my usual 'waiting in foyers' or 'supervising kids' sessions.

I immediately stashed a bit more sock yarn and have cast on another pair.


I finished two hats for my kids. Both are in Madelinetosh ASAP. The colours are 'Sun Rose' and 'Black Walnut'. I still have another two hats in the queue. 'Candlewick' and 'Vintage Sari' colours.

And then finally I saw some interesting jars in my not-so-local supermarket. They have a two part lid which I realised was exactly as I've seen on other "pincushion jars" in pinterst. I bought two boxes (of 12 and got to pincushioning. Its very quick to make when the lid already has the cutout.

These diamond pressed jars are smaller than the others Ive been making for my kids school fete. But I think for a very simplified sewing kit they might be very attractive.

I bought some larger jars as well, they have the same lid (so these are interchangeable) but the glass has a more prominent motif and also capacity measurement lines. I'm not sure if they'll look as good. 

So I made them up and if we end up preferring the smaller jar, I'll switch everything around and keep the larger jars for jam and pickle making.

Week 134 : Book Week Parade

Its Book Week again and my kids have very specific ideas about what costumes they would like to have for the parade.

So it has been a weekend of busy crafting.

Firstly my daughter wants to go as Anna from the movie Frozen.

I bought some cheap acrylic fleece and cut a cape, a sleeveless top and (with some cotton) a simple a-line skirt (elastic top).

The dress form isn't a nine year old girl size, so things aren't sitting very well. 

She painted the 'embroidery' design. Not that any of the fabrics were particularly likely to fray but the paint finish gave the edges a nicer looking weight.

We glued sequins on the cape spots and sprinkled glitter over the top of the paint. 

The real challenge is going to be the two hair braids. Hairstyling is NOT something I have very much success with.

My son wants to go as a wolf monster from one of his adventure stories. Usborne "Quest of the Gods, Shadow of the Storm Lord"

The key elements as far as he is concerned, are a blue wolf head, gold armour and the two swords.

We're not finished yet. I made the base pieces with box card and he painted them. Now that its dry, he has to add detail lines and stick on teeth.

Both costumes have to be finished for Friday's parade.


I haven't done very much other crafting this week. I finished a hat in Madtosh ASAP. This colour is called Cove. I added more stitches and length as its for my husband for those wintery dog walks.

I knit rows on the yellow Sundara cardigan and bought buttons! Little glass ones from my favourite button shop All Buttons in Newtown. I'm a few inches from finishing the body fabric. I might then go straight to the button band and do the sleeves last.

Week 133 : NY Cape in progress

I am almost finished a Tessuti NY cape. I used their wool knit "double tweeded check" which has worked really well. I had to be very careful of the fabric, it had a tendency to stretch more than a woven.

The wool binding I bought for the edging, in the end, wasn't used. It was the wrong shade of grey and especially when seen with the internal finishing on the hood.

The interior seams were bound with a simple fine cotton/poly bias binding instead (its unlined) and it was such a good effect and colour that I simple continued that for the front.

It has a hood and you can see the binding on the edges of the seams. Its a lovely finish.

I still need to buy buttons (a few on the front and one each to separate the 'sleeve' from the body. I think I'm going to go with a black. I can't find my leftover fabric otherwise I'd consider a self covered button.

Week 132 : Pink hat

Hat number two is finished. Exactly the same as last week's green hat but knitted at a slightly looser gauge with a 9mm needle so its a little bigger.

The yarn is Madelinetosh ASAP in the colour Posy.

Other than this hat, I have knitted on the brown gradient Plucky Bello sweater. I am half way through the second sleeve. I hope to be up to knitting the yoke this coming weekend.