Alice Jean

A pair of socks for Dory, made with the leftover of the Stansfield Pennants and a bit of the second ball of that yarn. I must confess not to be entirely pleased with them, they don't fit very well. Instead of the short row heel I did the heel-flap heel and that part turned out too high. Next time I'll make the heel-flap shorter. The gusset will be less then as well, but that won't be a problem.

The yarn came from me, Darcy did a wonderful dye job and returned the dyed yarn. I knitted a pair of socks and they are now on their way to California. The idea for this pattern is from More Sensational Knitted Socks I got in the Caffeine Addicts swap . It is barely visible due to the colourful yarn, but the leg part is done in the Stansfield-16 stitch. These are the completed socks. The upper foot is the Pennant stitch pattern. Again not very clear. :-) Nevertheless, it was fun to knit them. I hope they'll find a good home.

Finally finished, a pair of Gentleman's socks with Lozenge Pattern. Used yarn: Regia, the blue yarn I got in the Vintage Sock Swap .

Not the most beautiful photo, I know... These are the Child's French Socks I made Tessa in the '(handmade item for) Mamma swap'. Used yarn is 75% BFL/ 25% nylon, dyed in pink and lavender.

They are finished! Easy peasy to knit and they fit well. Although if I do them again I won't go for the seed-stitch heelflap, it makes the heels a bit too wide. And then a Tri-Peak hat . Easily knitted and kitchenered,I think it took not 3 hours. The wool is the handspun Corriedale I got from Sarah , brilliantly hand dyed by Dory . When I saw the Tri-Peak I suddenly knew this wool was perfect for it.

Or a great example of pooling... The upper parts of the socks were knitted on a 2.25 mm needle. It pooled badly, I considered to frog the whole thing and restart this pattern with another yarn or knit another sock pattern with this yarn. But the working needle cracked. Happened of course when I was in the train to Birmingham... any idea how frustrating it is to be in a train for over an hour, have to wait another hour at the railway station due of a cancelled train and sitting in the train back for one hour and a half WITHOUT any knitting to do?! Well, let's not ramble about these things in life (in future I'll always have a spare needle with me). Anyhow, I don't have any other 2.25 mm needles, so I switched to a 2.5 mm. And the pools became stripes. The Rollicks are fun and easy to knit. The yarn in use is Stroud Wool SuperSock yarn, colourway Pink and Rust.

Arrived Friday! Of course one of those hectic days, no time to blog. I was in luck, the parcel was delivered when I was not home, but the postman left it in the porch instead of taking it to the delivery office. Complete wit a friendly note he left it there to save me a trip. Yes! The package came from Norway, from Johanna. Oh my, she did spoil me! And not only me, for Dory there was a colouring book with some stickers inside. 'Hello Kitty.' She loves it. With the book removed, the box was still filled to the nose... with hazelnut coffee beans (delicious!) and yummy dark chocolate... Regia blue sock yarn. Excellent to cast on another pair of Vintage Socks... if I could find that book! Where could a knitting book hide? The grey sock wool is the leftover from my socks (later this post). I think it might be enough for a pair of socks for Dory. A candle with a lovely smell, darning needles and a tape measure. These stitch markers are brilliant. Johanna did make them herself. A love...

These are for my downstream partner in the Knitting Vintage Socks Swap . It was a nice pattern to knit, the Fancy Silk Socks. This was the first time I blocked socks, the sock blockers are made out of placemats by myself, very easy to do and cheap (sometimes I like to be cheap :)). I've also gathered some other nice goodies to send with the socks. Before the box goes overseas, I'll snap a photo of it. And yesterday I started with the Magic Watermelon ball. I will knit a pair of mittens out of this, I am a bit concerned the yarn is not strong enough for a pair of socks. It easily snaps. In fact I don't wear gloves or mittens very often, but it has been cold here the last few weeks. Maybe we will have another cold period this winter and they might be very useful. Can you see the cute sheep marker?

Huge rave for Annemarie ! She did a wonderful job putting this ball together, I love(d) every part of it. I am still in awe with the colours of this Jitterbug and it is really a pleasure to knit. My two socks, knitted in that amazing Babyrib. One pouch. And the gifts I found in the secon part of the ball. More chocolate :), mocca beans and a card with beautiful buttons of Storm in the Attic Some more pictures of the crafty work I also knitted a little cardigan for this pink teddy Almost all the yarn is used, about one meter left. Thanks so much Annemarie, you are the best! This angel has nothing to do with this Magic ball, but with another. Since it is revealed, I'd like to share it with you. I think this Magic Ball deserves its own post. Next post will be about 100

This Jitterbug is a real pleasure to knit! And thanks to yvonnep I have the perfect pattern to knit a nice looking pair of socks. One of them is finished, the second is almost at the heel. Annemarie did put this ball together with a lot of care. In the notecard she said it is a ball with a theme... after a few coffee-related presents I guess the theme is coffee . What I've got so far: 'Sinterklaas koffie'; a bar of Latte Macchiato (great for that 'coffee with...'); an hazelnut-coffee scented candle, and a needlecase. This one is for circular needles and already in use. Here the 2 cases I got in one weekend. They are both fabulous! I feel truly spoiled already!

I love to do them! And currently I'm participating in more than one. Through the Caffeine Addicts group at Ravelry I joined the Caffeine Swap. So I put some Whittard coffee of the month, Chai tea, a travel mug, a few goodies and yarn in a box and sent it out. Unfortunately I forgot to take the picture and my swap partner does not have a blog, so there is nothing to show. But she has already knitted a nice hat with the Araucania Pomaire. And then we have the Magic Ball swap, officially between residents of the Benelux. So I sneaked in I guess :). I have wound a ball for her . No secret anymore, as I am the only 'Briton' there it was not hard to figure out who was the sender of the British package. Just finished my project in the swap of the Dutch soaker knitting group . No secrets this time, so no problem to publish the photo's of the Tunic Dress I made. I used Scottish wool, dyed with Indigo . In this dress 300 gram of wool, about one meter left. And then I am in the...

What makes a pair of socks special? Nice fit, soft and warm, beautiful and hand knit by someone else. Have been to, heard her speaking and being touched by the Yarn Harlot is absolutely a must ;). Here they are, hand knit in Cherry Tree Hill Super Glitz by my dearest friend Darcy . And also in the package these 2 balls of gorgeous BFL/nylon sock wool, brilliantly dyed be her and Laurie . Thanks SO much!!

If you find anything in this pattern that needs clarification or is incorrect, please don't hesitate to let me know! Lyonesse , semi cabled socks, aka faux cabled socks. The idea of the pattern is not mine, I found this stitch in The New Knitting Stitches Library by Lesley Stanfield. The only thing I did was 'building' a sock around it. These socks are worked toe up on a circular needle, the ‘magic loop’ technique. Directions are written for one sock. Materials 1 circular needle 2.5 mm, 60 cm. If you are planning two socks at the same time you should use a needle of 100 cm at least. 100 gram sock yarn. I used 100% Blue Faced sock wool (tension/ gauge about 28 stitches), but any fingering weight sock yarn would be fine. Tapestry needle. Abbreviations K = Knit P = Purl YO = Yarn Over SSK = Slip 1 stitch knitwise, slip 1 stitch purlwise, knit these 2 stitches together K2Tog = Knit 2 stitches together P2Tog = Purl 2 stitches together Sl = Slip stitch W = Wrap stitch Toe Cast o...

Okay, I knew from the start the socks would not be very original when I decided to use a stitch pattern I found in the New Library of Knitting stitches (by Lesley Stanfield). I thought it would be fun to write down every time what I had done while knitting the socks (I did them both at the same time on one circular) and to publish the pattern when they were finished. It took me some time, I started knitting them somewhere in August and only yesterday they were finished. Not that I am a slow knitter, but I had to work on more projects. When I was not half way with these socks, I saw a post on her blog, picturing a pair of 'Snake River' socks which were very alike! Unfortunately the link to the pattern did not work at the time, so I was not sure it was exactly the same. I decided just to proceed, working out the pattern while knitting the socks. Today I have tried the link again and yes, it worked. And yes again, the same pattern was used. It does not state where the pattern c...

For some weeks now Dory has blisters on both big toes. On the outer side, a very unusual spot for blisters. I checked and rechecked her shoes, they could not be the problem, she should have enough room for her toes. Nevertheless, we went to the children's shoe shop today. One of those recommended by podiatrists. The shop assistant took a close look at Dory's toes and feet and agreed the shoes still fit. But some people can't endure the seams on the toes of socks and it is very likely this is causing the problem. And then she came up with the solution: "Some children have to wear their socks inside out or hand knit socks." Yay! We did buy a pair of boots anyway :)

I assumed the Beatrix socks would be easy to knit on the go as there is only a pattern in the back of the leg. Not entirely true. The pattern is not hard to follow, but is worked over 29 stitches, without any obvious repeating. So I had to pay attention to my knitting while doing the pattern, not always easy with a demanding toddler and two teens around. But the result is still neat. The used yarn is ' September ' of Fyberspates , 50% merino and 50% tencel. Needle size 2.5 mm. And these sock are also made during the holiday with leftover BFL sock yarn. Little Victorian Lace socks.

The June pattern of Six Socks . Easy and fun to knit. I did them toe-up, magic looping two socks at one time. No gussets. They fit great. The used sock yarn is 75% BFL/ 25% nylon, named 'Roses'.

Actually I was thinking to put down ' Ravelry ' as title, following the tendency of many bloggers lately. Yesterday I got their invitation. Reading through the guidelines I found out I should better use FireFox with Ravelry. No, I did not download it, I think it can be interesting to find the bugs while using IE. But the main reason is I am very used to Internet Explorer of course, LOL! Another thing was I have to use Flickr for my photo's. So I have to transfer a lot of pictures once more. And that means a lot of work, because I decided to browse all my folders again in order to find all my knitting and dying projects (I'm more organized in this for only the past year and a half). I found far more than I thought I had, so now I am questioning myself what to and what not to add to Ravelry. For now, I want to share some of those pictures with you on this blog. They are about 3 years old :). My first attempt to embellish a soaker. The soaker was knitted of Texelaar wool h...