Knit Nation part 2

Knit Nation was amazing. It was fun. I had a great time catching up with old friends, making new friends and honing new skills. I was part of the volunteer crew again this year. But this year, my friend, Kate and I were in charge of the Knit Nation and Socktopus Stand. We were selling Knit Nation merchandise of mugs and projects bags and Sokkusu O yarns. It's the first time where we've had a range of the colourways available to purchase. Everyone seemed to enjoy being able to fondle the yarn - which is amazingly squishy and soft!

This was the selection of colours that we had - most of them proved very popular.
And we had a selection of socks knitted up in the yummy yarns. No - I didn't knit all of them. I knitted 1 pair - the red ones! The socks will be appearing in Alice's new book - Socktopus.
The trouble with manning a yarn stall is that after 3 days of being surrounded by yarn, I didn't have much desire to shop for yarns! Isn't that just awful! Fear not - I did buy some yarns, a project bag and some fun notions. But that's for another post!

Knit nation - Part 1 - all about the shawls!

I've suddenly realised that I haven't updated my blog in ages!!!! So - firstly, I must apologise for not doing that. Secondly - it was because I've been super busy doing mummy things - like attending the children's Summer concerts, end of term parties, birthday parties etc,etc and also getting ready for Knit Nation!

Alice from Socktopus was showcasing the Sokkusu yarn at the show. I had volunteered to knit up some shawl samples for the show. In the period of 4 weeks (give or take a day or two), I transformed myself into a shawl knitting monster and finished (and blocked!) 3 shawls!! Dear readers - if you're surprised, so was I.

The first shawl I finished was a Swallowtail in Sokkusu O in Denim Blue. The only modification I made was to not knit the nupps in the edgings, not because I don't like them, but because I wasn't sure if I'd have enough yardage. Looking at what I have left, I needn't have worried!!

Next up is Gail (aka Nightsongs) in Sokkusu O in Fontainebleu. I made 1 small modification in the pattern - I didn't knit the double YO's in the centre of the shawl, instead I knitted a centre stitch. Looks pretty good!


Last but not least, it's Gingko Shawlette in Sokkusu O in Goldenrod. This shawl nearly didn't get finished on time! I finished it at 12.30 midnight and was blocking by 1 am. By the time I took it to Knit Nation at 7am in the morning, it was still slightly damp! I think the shawlette is a bit on the small side. I think I will undo the edging and make a few more repeats of the leaves.

One final word - it's about the yarn! It is sooo lovely to knit with. It's a high twist, superwash merino - custom milled for Socktopus. It's extremely squishy and soft. The stitch definition is amazing. Anyway, I'll sign off now - as that's more than 1 word. My next post will be about KNIT NATION and the amazing time I had!!!