Current Projects

Here is what I'm currently working on apart from the green doily.  It's been hot weather lately so my daughters have asked for some crochet crop tops.

 Here is one of them in progress:

I also have another pair of socks on the needles.  It's a pattern by Wendy Johnson from her book "Socks for the Toe Up".   I wasn't sure at all about the stitch:  it does look a bit weird and wiggly-waggly as you're knitting it... I didn't think I liked it but then I found that when worn and stretched on the foot, the pattern looks rather nice and unusual.  Still love that Cascade Heritage sock wool.  Second pair knitting with this wool.  Really scrumptious!

And finally, not a lot more progress on the green doily.  I finished the second rounds and started working on the third rounds of the scallops... but not got very far yet!

Hope you're all enjoying the sunny weather!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Quick Update

That's it really.

:-)

Best wishes,

Frivole

Mustard Socks Done

They are done.  A really nice pattern with the open work on the front and tiny cables on each side which are then repeated up the leg after the heel is completed.

It's a pattern by Wendy Johnson from her book "Socks from the Toe Up".

I used my crochet picot cast-off again but making a smaller picot this time.  As you can see, the cast-off edge does "frill" a bit in its unstretched state but when worn, this cast-off has enough elasticity to make it really comfortable to wear and easy to pull the socks on and it lays flat.

Can't get my camera to cooperate on colours!

The shade of yellow in the first photo is much closer to the real colour

but even with trying to adjust afterwards, I couldn't get the second photo

to show the right shade of yellow.

It definitely looks too "limey" in the second photo.

Mustard is should be!

I might as well show you the latest bit of progress on the green doily too while I'm here:

I couldn't make up my mind whether to do all three rounds of each side one after the other or to do the first round of all sides, then the next on all sides....  Which way would you have done it?

Best wishes,

Frivole

One Side Done...

.... Five to go!  There are three separate rounds with cutting and tying at each as unfortunately it's not possible to use split rings or chains to avoid doing so.  I'm therefore making use of my magic loops to do the least amount of sewing in as that's not my favourite job!

I can't believe I managed to make a mistake on the very first ring of the last round.  I only noticed it just now:  I joined at a wrong picot.  I am debating whether to correct it - and what would be the best way of doing that - or to improvise by pulling myself a new picot to join to when comes the time to join there.  I will carry on with the other sides and decide afterwards.

As I have often found to be the case, Jan Stawasz's patterns are not the easiest to decipher and this one is no exception with some discrepancies and some numbers missing altogether.  You have to work it out as you go and hope for the best!  But the results are always worth it...  I do like Jan's designs.

Best wishes,

Frivole

360 Split Rings Later...

Thank you so much for your comments on the previous post... you really inspired me you see!  I had a mad rush of activity on this and completed the third and last round of split rings in record time!

I can now move on to working on the shapely sides.

Yipee!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Split Rings... lots of split rings!

I hope you won't get bored with this piece as you will be seeing it many times before I get to the end! I have finally completed the second round of split rings.  I actually don't mind split rings at all... but I must admit that there is a definite lack of variety when you have to do so many in a row!!

And guess what comes next in the pattern?  Yes, another round of split rings!  But it will get more interesting after that.  I can't wait to get started on the round after the third row of split rings where there will be lots more going on.  I really like the shape of the six sides.  It will be a bit fiddly to start off as there will be quite a bit of cutting and tying for the smaller, inside parts until you get to go back to full rounds that go all the way around the whole piece.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Two-colour Mirabelle and more socks

A customer asked me a question about Mirabelle's construction.  To make sure I gave her the right answer, I decided to tat it as I hadn't made one for a long time.  I don't think I'd ever made it with two colours before.  I just picked up two shuttles that happened to have those colours left over on them and tatted away.

I'm afraid that's the only bit of tatting I have to show for this blogpost.  I've not made much more progress on the green doily yet.  But that's because I'm still enjoying knitting socks!

I made this two-tone pair with the left-over green wool from the pair I made for my friend's birthday. When I ran out of green, I just carried on with other left-over sock wool I had.

This is "Herringbone Lace Socks" by Leslie Verts again but I changed the open lace work panel for a small cable instead.  I also knitted these from the toe-up instead of from cuff down as per the pattern. I wanted to try a picot cast-off.  I did try it but did not like it!  So instead, I used a crochet to cast-off. And I found that works very well.  Looks really pretty, is very stretchy, and is easy to do.  Winner.

I then decided I really need to make a pair for my sister next.  Her favourite colour is mustard yellow.  This pattern is by Wendy Johnson from her book "Socks from the Toe Up".

I really like the lace work on these.  Really pretty.  And I've fallen in love with a new sock wool I tried:  Heritage Cascade Yarns Sock Yarn (because it was the only sock wool I could find that came in mustard yellow!).  It is so soft and lovely to work with.  I'm going to have to try it in another colour next.  It comes in a 100g skein which I rolled into two balls so I could knit both socks at once (definitely my favourite way).

On another note, I'm debating whether to move my shop from Etsy.  I would be sad to leave and I'm not sure yet where I'd be going but I'm not happy with the changes they are implementing.  It feels like a big upheaval to move and I still don't know what to do.  I'm looking into alternatives/solutions but need to make a decision pretty soon.  I'll keep you updated of changes.  Thank you so much to all of you who have supported me there over the last seven years.

Best wishes,

Frivole