Another lovely day here; sun is shining, but that's by the by, 'cos I've been huddled over my computer hacking around with my website, and so far as I can tell I have in fact created a new spacious look there without breaking it. And I am having a lovely day again, but I think I probably only post here anyway when I'm having a lovely day, because otherwise would be too stressed knitting, writing, flailing around amid wool and packaging. So, always a lovely day on my blog, mind you, the blogging is a bit infrequent, hmmm.

Please do let me know if you notice anything not quite right at www.violetgreen.co.uk....

Oh, and I will have a sock club picture to show you soon, since the club packages should be arriving at their new home about now.

I'm having such a lovely day today, it's very windy here, and I love a windy day even more than sunshine. The wool is going crazy outside on my hanging doo-dad. I've dyed all the sock club yarn, and I'm really pleased with the result. I think I have finally cracked how to do big lots of interesting colour-ways. I did have a bit of a panic, seeming to have done my occasional (ahem, quite frequent) trick of re-dyeing the last month's club colours for the next month. However, on reflection, and having had a scout around on Ravelry for pics of last month's wool, this is qualitatively different. I think I just do go through colour phases for a few months at a time, working something through, and gradually moving it along into something else.

The sock pattern is coming along really nicely too, after a last minute change; I was going to do an owls and flowers idea, inspired by the Bloddeuwed fairytales and folklore kal on Ravelry, but when I did finally get my interlocking owl pattern to look like interlocking owls, I decided the pattern was just a bit too low-key overall. So, now I have something a lot more punchy on the needles. I would love to show you, but my club peoples got to see it first, and all at the same time.

I can record last month's sock pattern plus the lace club shawl here now though:

Queen of Spades Shawl



Baby Beanstalk Socks

Another triumph for obsessive knitting!

I finished the lace club shawl on Sunday; I'm wearing it as I type.

The yarn is all dyed too, and drying efficiently in the lovely spring weather that has appeared here.

I am doing a last check through the pattern today (made some last minute tweaks as I got used to the way the pattern repeat worked), and will be sending the lace club out this week, to arrive at/by the weekend.

Exciting!

look, my Evenstar mittens
The one on the left went in a 75 degree wash (an accident) and turned all the school shirts pink, but stayed the same size more or less. To even up the pair I put the other one in a 40 degree wash with some coloured things, as a start, and the colours didn't bleed at all, but the mitten shrank.

interesting, huh?

darn-it, I rush, rush, rushed to get all the sock clubs out yesterday (in fact two are here and didn't quite make it into the bag), then I was lying in bed this morning, enjoying a happy moment as I reflected on my productivity, mentally working my way through the pattern with pleasure, but then, shudder, on reaching the toe, realised that I hadn't worked a decrease in the patterned area before the toe shaping occurs.

This is what it should say just before the toe shaping starts:

On your last go through the patterned area, do not work the yarn overs: this will decrease by four the number of stitches in the patterned area. Then, work the following decrease round:
[Knit 1, Knit 2 together, Knit 1] repeat 10 times, then knit to the end. You should now have 60 stitches in total, two lots of 30, separated by markers.


Sorry :( (not a terribly debilitating prob. in the context of the whole pattern though :) )

If anyone would like a new copy of the pattern with this correction included, I will be happy to email one out to you.

I have managed to dye some of the new aran silk/cashmere; it's a really lovely yarn, a keeper I think. The colours come out really rich on the silk/cashmere base, but I've had a lot of trouble making the photographs look accurate.
this is a richly coloured and variegated greyish green, but you can't really see it from my pic.

I am going to do a beanstalk-patterned thing in this yarn after I've finished (i) the new sock club pattern, which is racing along, and really nice, I think VG club people will like it, and (ii) working out a felted witch's hat in memory of Dee.

couple of new things today,

1, new sock pattern: beanstalk gauntlet sock, has a shaped top, and a beanstalk pattern which condenses at the toe of the sock until it disappears. I knit it in Stellar (favourite) in colour primeval

it was going to be the club project, but I've got time to do another before I need to send the club parcels out next week

2, new yarn has arrived, an aran weight version of the gorgeous 55% silk & 45% cashmere, haven't had chance to dye any yet, but it is top of the list. v. v. nice