Craft Combo

I recently bought myself a new sewing machine. Yesterday I sewed with it for the first time. I had to concentrate to keep breathing--I was so excited about it. And I've recently joined the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sock.* What better way to celebrate the occasion than to make a neat little roll to store my sets of double-pointed needles.

My sewing machine behaved beautifully. I got to use my cute sheep fabric for its intended purpose and my life is tidier as a result. That's a happy combination.

*Ummm, that's not an official membership or sisterhood or anything  as far as I know . . .

And One More

I had double pointed needles on my wish list when I went to the Craft and Quilt show on the weekend. It would have made sense to look for them the week before at Bendigo, but that was my play it by ear visit and I went without a list. The dpn's I found were bamboo--that's a good thing. I'm enjoying the extra bit of grip they provide. And they came in a set of five, rather than four. I'm surprised at how much easier I'm finding it knitting with this set. Stitches distributed over an even number of needles just seems to make more sense to me and despite having one more pointy stick in my hands, I'm actually finding it less of a juggle.

There's just a tiny bit of this mohair left, so these wristies will be just a little more than woolly bracelets. I found the blueberry pudding set almost too warm when I wore it on the weekend.

Pointy Sticks

For the past few years I've been edging myself towards the possibility of knitting socks. My main obstacle was the fact that I normally knit with one needle tucked under my arm. If you think about the geometry, you will soon find that there's no way to make a circle of knitting with an armpit in the middle. Believe me!

This year I've done several small projects on circular needles. That's been ok. So, now for the challenge of double pointed needles. Four of them:
Please note: this is not a sock. If all goes well, it will be a little wrist warmer. I like to break my challenges down into small, small steps. For the first few rows I was constantly dodging and rearranging needles. Now I've got a bit more of a rhythm going, but it's still rather awkward. It seems as though there's more bulk of needles than actual knitting in my hands. Come to think of it, I guess there is. So, I'm persisting. I'm given to understand--isn't that a great cop out phrase!--that if I just keep knitting along, I'll eventually stop worrying about the four pointy sticks I'm holding and get back to enjoying the knitting. OK, knitting, knitting, knitting . . .

More Christmas

They say, "Christmas comes but once a year". Somehow this year mine is extending beyond the usual limits. One of my gifts on Christmas morning was a bright, original, creative gift voucher. It was so nicely done that it would have made a gift in itself, but it actually had money in it too. My friend A knew that I would like a textile book as my gift, but they don't have a good range of those where she lives. Since she's only 16 and works hard for her money, I particularly appreciated her generosity. This week the Guild Craft Supply is open again. The voucher felt so special, that I took the whole thing along with me to chose a book. I'm not sure that the women on duty quite knew what to make of it: it's big and bright and was quite obvious in my hands. I found this book on sock knitting: It fits all my criteria for a good textile book: clearly and attractively presented, with lots of principles and techniques and a few good examples of work. It seems to cover all the basics of knitting socks, plus contains lots of scope for exploring and designing my own.

I've been wanting to learn to knit socks for a few years now. The major impediment--apart from my usual preoccupations and distractions--is the fact that I normally knit with a needle under my arm. That just doesn't go with the 4 double pointed needles required to knit a sock. I've gradually been getting used to using circular needles and am just about ready to try the double pointed ones again. Of course, my usual preoccupations and distractions haven't gone away; and I do have the work for my Spinning Certificate folio to get done, but now I have one more valuable resource to help me, and the added motivation of a happy Christmas gift to encourage me on my way.