Halloween Cat

spring flowers

Lovely spring flowers!!!, I've joined my first knit-a-long (kal for short) the southern summer of socks. It's great to see so many fantastic sock knitters in one place and heaps of new websites to visit. Plus everyone's really chatty, I'm still shy with comments but I hope by blogging I'll be more outgoing.

first sock

This is the start of my first knitted sock, the wool is 8ply and easy to work with. I did a test square to check tension but when I knitted the rib my tension is looser so I'll have to go down a needle size for the band. The cast on is plain-purl to match the rib. I thought it would be a good idea to do a test sock first to sort out any problems, so far each step has had them.

knitting

I've become totally obsessed with knitting, when I was in school it was totally hopeless, to tight or loose. Mum was a basic knitter, she worked full-time so she didn't have much time to spend on projects, she'd knit something every couple of years or so. I tried again in my 20's but chose the wrong pattern and yarn for a beginner, a sleeveless polo-neck with a tricky stitch and shaping, yarn was a cotton loopy bobble blend in white, what was I thinking? anyway it was a total flop, it stretched and sagged and my flatmates said it looked more like giant sea sponge, this put me off for quite a few years. So back to this year, at the beginning of winter I bought a handmade pair of socks from a local fair ( we called it the granny stall, as all the items were made by granny's) the socks are the warmest, softest I have. I WANT TO KNIT SOCKS !!! when I looked on the net there were so many fantastic blogs, free patterns and tutorials, I never get tired reading them. Something clicked in my brain and I new this time I could do it!!!. It was crochet first, five scarfs later (2'd picture is alpaca scarf,Patons Inca) then I started knitting, lots of practice first, now I've completed my first ever knitted scarf, checker board pattern (first photo). The next step 8ply green socks, Patons pattern. I can now cast on and do basic stitches on 4 needles, the join is still a bit wonky but it's almost right.