Project details:
Pattern: Spindle socks by Anna Bell
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby 2 balls
Needles: 2,5 mm
Alterations: Knitted from the toe up. Directions can be found here.
More: I’m totally addicted to knit socks from the toe up! All yarn can be used up, and you’re not let with those irritating small balls, too big to throw away and too small to make anything but bear clothes from. And the fit of this heel is perfect for me.
First thanks to everybody for all the supportive Venezia comments! I loved reading them, and I found several interesting new blogs from following the commenters’ links.
I have been starting a couple of small projects since finishing Venezia and the spring cardi (I have buttons now; modelled pictures will be up soon). This post will be a short overview of what is on the needles now.
First up are the socks that figured in the seven facts meme. The model is Spindle socks, and the pattern is a freebie by Anna Bell. They are knitted with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby, and the sharp eyed can see that the colour is the same as in the spring cardi. I thought it was a suspicious small amount of yarn stated for the cardi in pattern, and ordered two balls extra, thinking that I’ll make the socks if there is anything left. The amount of yarn, 10 balls for my size, was enough, and the two extra balls went into these socks. They are knitted on 2,5 mm needles. Anna’s pattern is knitted just the regular way, but since I wanted to use all the yarn for the socks, I decided to knit them from the toe up, using this pattern by Brooke Chenoweth Creel for the toes and the heels. The magic loop cast on for the toe she is using is made up by Judie Becker. It’s well known that I’m no fan of short row heels, and this pattern combines the toe-up style with a traditional heel. Perfect! I love this pattern. First sock close to bind off.
The second project is my penguin manufacturing. There is a cute pattern in Knitty, and I had some Novita Seitsemän veljestä yarn in black, almost a ball of Regia Silk in white and two different yellows in Jamieson’s Spindrift. Regia Silk doubled and the yellows doubled equalled almost the Novita yarn. There will be two penguins with different colours on the beaks and feet.
The third project is also a pair of socks. My youngest daughter is playing football in a team called Mimmitiikerit (a Mimmi is in Finnish a small girl, and also the name of Minnie Mouse, girlfriend of the mouse called Mickey, tiikeri is tiger). I have a 100 gram ball of Opal sock yarn in the colour way Tiger. What you see here is the beginning of a tiger coloured football sock. They are knitted from the toe up according to the same pattern as the Spindle socks, and the ribbing is the traditional football sock ribbing, 5 knit 1 purl stitch. I’m using 2,5 mm dpns, and I’m afraid the leg part will still take forever.
Edit note: I wrote I speak English. Well, perhaps so, but I don’t seam to be able to write it. I –twice- wrote Germany when I of course meant German. Error corrected nothing else new in this post since first posted.
Grandma Flea has tagged me for the 7 random facts meme -
Rules of engagement: "Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog".
So here goes - 7 random facts that you would not know from reading this blog:
1. I love Japanese cuisine. The first real restaurant I visited together with my now husband, about a month after we had met, was the Japanese Yokohama on Tehtaankatu in Helsinki (they closed it some 15 years ago). He had been there with his parents before, and liked it. We had saved money in order to be able to go (we were poor, young students). It was love that was about to last. We have been married for almost twenty years, and I have loved Japanese cooking since that day. The next year I bought my first Japanese cookbook, and I have thus been cooking Japanese for almost as long. Good for hubby he too still likes Japanese cooking.
2. When visiting new cities I always hunt down not only yarn shops, but also shops specializing in Japanese cooking utensils and china ware. Twenty years ago you didn’t get these things in Helsinki, and even if we have a good shop today, I always keep my eyes on new and unusual bowls and plates for my collection. My first were bought in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1986.
3. I try to learn Japanese, both because of my interest in Japanese cooking, and because of my interest in bonsai. It’s the most difficult thing I have ever done. I speak Swedish, Finnish, English and German (or actually I haven't spoken German for a while, but I read and write). I have tried French, it was not my piece of cake, but I'm still able to read knitting intructions in French. They say it's good for the brains to learn new languages, I really hope so!
4. When I had my first exam in law in business school I promised myself and told everybody I would never read anything that had to do with law during my studies. I had bookkeeping, accounting and auditing as my major subject in the specialized studies, and soon realized it was a promise made a bit to fast. I had to take a course in tax law, I hated it, and in corporate law, bad, but not hate. Then I realized would be good for me to take a couple of courses in other business fields. And suddenly were all courses finished, and I longed for more. Secretly, only my husband (or at that time still boyfriend) knew about it, I read for the tests you have to finish in order to be accepted as a law student. There are way more people interested in studying law than there are places, and you have to have almost everything right in the exam. I decided to try once, passed it and was accepted as law student at the University of Helsinki. What you know from my blog is that I finished with a degree in – drum roll - tax law. Who would have believed in that some 15 years ago?
5. My grandma thought me to knit, and the first item, a small rat in red yarn, is still in my possession. The first big thing we were supposed to knit in school was a hat. It was a disaster, I had to take it home and knit on it, cried, my mother helped me, and of course you can see where her even rows were knitted. So my teacher realized what had happened, and I didn’t get a very good note on knitting. I found the hat two years ago, and throw it away. It was still able to almost make me cry, and now I wanted to get rid of it for ever. The memories are not as bad as the hat itself.
6. I can weave and spin, but don’t do either very much nowadays. I don’t weave because I don’t have space for my loom, a lovely old thing that has been in my husband’s family for at least four generations. I don’t spin because I, even if I am a person with a fairly good portion of patience, don’t have the patience for spinning. I guess this is a way to say I don’t find the process of creating yarn interesting enough to entertain me. But my spinning wheel is a beauty, blue grey in colour, with good balance even if it too is an heirloom thing, again from my husband’s side of the family.
7. During my life I have had all kinds of pets; hamsters, guinea pigs, budgerigars, canaries, cats, dogs, an assortment of bugs (didn’t like them much) and fish. I worked with horses during all weekends and summer holidays for about five years. I took care of my friends’ and the school’s pets during the summers, and was responsible for the aquarium in school a couple of years.
Since this meme has been going around for a while now, I don't want tag anybody. I know, it's against the rules, but still, it's not a new one, and almost everybody has it down in the archives somewhere. But if you feel for it, do it!
New sock from the toe up
