The shifting sands

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so" - Douglas Adams

Somehow, imperceptibly, and in a manner that leaves me questioning the reality of today as Friday evening, another week has skipped by and my blogging has been lax; photographs piling up in flickr as a teetering, toppling, virtual to-blog list.

It's quarter to eleven at night and I'm sat at the computer because after much narrowing down and deliberating, I have finally decided the shortlist of six photos from which to choose my three entries in the photos category at the village show tomorrow.

I have also baked and iced three cakes and a round of shortbread for the kitchen classes and selected some knitting and other bits and bobs for the handicrafts section.

This is the first year that I've entered the show and I've now idea what the competition is like. H, encouragingly reminds me that in the kitchen classes I'm up against the grannies of the village and if they're anything like his granny I'll have my work cut out. Personally I think he may just be after the sticky ginger cake (4 slices on a plate).

So, in between the manic baking, what have I been up to? Well in a move which will shock you all to the core, I've knit some socks:


First off the needles, the fraternal twin Noro stripy sock.

This is Noro Kureyon Sock, colour 95 which H bought me for my birthday last year.

I went down a needle size and knit a 68 sts sock, changing colours every 5 rows including at the ribbing and the toe. The heels are all one colour to make life a little easier.

I like the Kureyon sock a lot more than the Silk Garden sock; it's easier to knit with, less splitty and gives a cleaner finish and I'm looking forward to having some fun with the other ball in the stash.

The second second sock was to match my beautiful first Kai-Mei.

According to Google, Kai means continuous (as in continuous silken thread) and Mei means beautiful so these are continually beautiful socks, and I think they live up to their name.

I also think that you can see little blue butterflies in the patterning - what do you think?

The pattern is from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book and it is deceptively simple. It looks very impressive but it's a quick and easy knit and firmly in place on the "I can knit these quickly enough for Christmas knitting" list. Mum, would you like a pair!?



These ones though are mine all mine; although I've knit a pair of socks from handspun before, this is the first time that I've had enough yarn to do something more exciting than a toe-up sock with added prayers that I'll make it to the finish. I even have leftovers, I'm thinking of knitting up little squares with the leftover handspun as I just can't bear to see it go to waste.

Finally, I've been spinning.


Three bobbins of purple Shetland from Artist's Palette Yarns at Wonderwool which H chose for socks yarn for him. I've since plied them up and the resulting yarn is going in the show tomorrow as a bit of a wild card for the 3D handicrafts category - I suspect I may be up against a whole load of model planes, only another 16 hours will tell.

Wish me luck!