Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Watermelon socks

Remember when Aidan dyed his own yarn and I knitted him a pair of socks. Well - the girls decided to play the jealousy card and insisted they needed to dye their own yarn and I had to knit them socks too. What could I do except give in! I had some undyed sock yarn, out-of-date Kool Aid packets and some time on my hands - so we embarked on a little home-dyeing.

Zoe insisted that her socks had to be Watermelon socks. She was very definite about this point as 3 year olds can be. Unfortunately, I had only 1 packet of lime flavour, so the green is a bit washed out. I even added Berry Blue to brighten it. It's still not quite right - but it'll do.I'm making short socks - plain vanilla socks. Hopefully, they'll be done in no time at all.
Speaking of watermelon - I love Watermelon Martinis. I usually make them over summer. I haven't made any it this year!! I guess I should rectify this soon! I make mine with these ingredients:

Fresh watermelon juice
Fresh lime juice
Martini
Extra vodka
Sugar syrup

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Socks for my little man

Remember back in March when Aidan learned to dye yarn with Alice - well, he's finally persuaded/begged me to knit up some socks for him. We checked out some patterns from my books and from Ravelry and he decided he liked 3x1 ribbed socks with short row heels. Luckily, he has small feet and skinny legs, so I could make quite fast progress. In less than a week, they're finished. He's very proud of his colourway and has even named it. It's Poseidon. (And it might even appear in Alice's shop - Socktopus!)


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Shawls, shawls, shawls

In the last 2 weeks, I was a demon with the shawl knitting. Not only did I finish 1 shawl, I finished 2 shawls. I mean - who would have thought that!!!

First up - Spriteling. Remember that lump of pinkiness, well it became this. Isn't it gorgeous. I have to say big thank you to Alice for a gorgeous design and a fun Mystery KAL.



Next up, Holden Shawlette.

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Unearthing treasures

Way back in 2005 (OMG -that's 6 years ago!!) I started knitting a whole bunch of mitred squares when the first Mason Dixon book came out. I'd occasionally knit a square or 2 over the years but did nothing with it for forever. As I was tidying up one day, I found a boxful of squares. I don't remember what I intended to do with the arrangements of the squares, so I just put them together and spent some time sewing up. Look what I managed to do in a few days.


The original plan was to knit a blanket big enough for my super king bed. The revised plan is knit a few more squares so that the blanket measures 3 x 4 big squares. I have 7 finished squares so far, so I might have a finished blanket in the not too distant future. (Please don't let it be another 6 years!)