A mismatched "pair"

 I've been having some fun playing with a ball of Zauberball.  This one's a crazy Zauberball & is called "tropical fish".  Very appropriate, wouldn't you say?

The pattern is Marietta rib socks from Cool Socks Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby.

They don't match.  At.  All.

I don't usually try to make my socks match by rewinding the ball for the second sock so the pattern deliberately goes the other way, but for some reason when I rewound this ball, it had other ideas & reversed it's patterning so the second sock would have been almost identical (close enough that it would have looked like I'd tried to match 'em & failed).  So I rewound the ball again & continued on my merry way.  (We will not speak about my inability to count during the production of the second sock.  My language would not be ladylike.)
The first sock is on the left, second on the right.

Love those scallopy edges!

These will be a pressie for my lovely friend D (although she doesn't know it yet) who loved the yarn from the moment she saw it.

Quant the 2nd, a hat & a shawl

My adventures into the land of entrelac continued when I discovered I had enough yarn left from my original ball to make another one!

 


I'm not overly fond of the yellow, but all in all it's quite a pretty little thing. (Feels great to wear too -

nice & soft)

I'd originally bought the Noro Taiyo with this hat in mind but was waylaid by the call of the Quant.  Happily, I still had enough to make one!  I love the way the colours look like stained glass against the black.

Turn a Square



Herbivore in a yummy Silk/Merino blend

And because I love the one I made for my beautiful daughter so much, I made one for me too!  This is a yummy hand-dyed 50/50 silk/merino blend which has a gorgeous stitch definition & drapes devinely.  Yum!

Entrelac adventures

I purchased a ball of Noro Taiyo from my favorite yarn shop a while ago, just because it was pretty (as you do) & thought it would make up into a perfect gift for my gorgeous friend D.

But what do you make with 200m of BRIGHT aran weight yarn?  A hat?  A scarf?  It's a bit warm where we live to get much wear out of those ...

I was trolling through Ravelry this morning, & stumbled upon this little cutie.  It's called "Quant".  It's a headband, but wide enough to warm your ears without baking your head as well.

It was also a really good opportunity to give entrelac knitting a go for the first time (yeah I know, I've been knitting for so many years now I can't quite believe it either).

All in all I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.  It was a bit lumpy bumpy at first but now I've blocked it (it's still drying) it's flattened out quite nicely.  AND it only used up half the ball.  I've got enough left for another one! (The other half of the ball has most of the bright colours in it - go figure ...)

Free pattern ...

Here's a little gift for you.  This is my interpretation of an AIDS molecule ... a bit of fun.

AIDS MOLECULE KNITTED PATTERN

Worked in the round.

Cast on 6sts using figure 8 method.

R1: Kf&b all sts (12sts)
R2: K
R3: K1, Kf&b; rep from (18sts)
R4: K
R5: K2, Kf&b; rep from (24sts)
R6: K
R7: K3, Kf&b; rep from (30sts)
R8: K
R9: K4, Kf&b; rep from (36sts)
R10: K
R11: K8, Kf&b; rep from (40sts)
R12-14: K
R15: K8, K2tog; rep from (36sts)
R16: K
R17: K4, K2tog; rep from (30sts)
R18: K
R19: K3, K2tog; rep from (24sts)
R20: K
R21: K2, K2tog; rep from (18sts)
R22: K

(stuff ball at this point)

R23: K1, K2tog; rep from (12sts)
R24: K
R25: K2tog; rep from (6sts)

Cut yarn & thread through rem sts on needle.

For suckers, place these wherever you feel they are appropriate, however many you like.

Pick up 4 sts (2sts in one row, & 2sts in the row directly above).
Work 2 rounds on these 4sts, then:
R3: Kf&b in each st (8sts)
R4: Kf&b in each st (16sts)

Cast off & darn in ends.

Quick pressie!

What to make for a dear friend who you're seeing the next day & have just found out it was her birthday last week ...

I raided the stash & came up with some 8ply cotton & raided my bathroom cabinet for a yummy bar of handmade soap to match that I buy from the local market.  Next came my "go to" pattern for facewashers & approx 2 hours later I have this.  In my haste I managed to flip the washer around when it came time to do the graft (my preferred method for a seamless object) & the join is screamingly obvious, being stocking stitch on a garter stitch background.  Oh well.  I hope my friend E likes it! 

Another FO

Yep, another pair of socks.  But not Jaywalkers!  These little cuties are Marietta Rib Socks & are destined for a 7 year old girl in Cambodia.  

And look!  As a happy & completely unplanned accident, the colour pattern matches exactly!

I hope she likes them (& I hope they fit - I've taken a complete guess on her foot size & am hoping the 2x2 rib is forgiving ... )