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