Botany Lap Waste

From World of Wool. Yummy!

I'm so lucky that I live near enough to just drop in after work (I was on a six / two shift today).

Not sure what some of it is but it's lovely!

Finished Bag

Well, except for lining it. That could wait for some time knowing me! Anyhow I've pictured it against the fabric I'm intending to use for the lining so you can use your imagination!

Close up of the detail. All the information about it is on my project page in Ravelry.

I'm already planning the next project. There was an open weekend at Texere this weekend, so being contrary I went to Coldspring Mill. I was hoping to get some Noro Sock or Silk Garden as I've seen some pretty nice finished projects using them. But they didn't have any Noro except that odd stringy stuff.






I did walk out with this though.










And this. Both are a cotton / hemp blend I'm thinking of a Ruana in a houndstooth weave. I believe that hemp softens up and drapes quite nicely when it's washed.

New Project

I've decided to weave another Tibetan Bag as I liked the last one I made. I wanted it to be a bit brighter than the last one so I've done a bit of stash diving and came up with this. For the warp I'm using some scarlet chenille, crimson boucle, a last little bit of green cashmerino and a tiny sliver of some lurex that a friend gave me.

The weft is the boucle and the chenille with a smidge of some fun fur as a trim. I quite like it but have to say I didn't fully think through the implications of using boucle as a warp. Now that I've got going it's not so bad but to start with I was having trouble beating the weft in. I used an afro comb as a beater for the first few inches though and now I'm okay and back to using the heddle.

Can't wait to finish it and get it sewn up, but I'm going down to Ro's this weekend and I don't think she's got room for me to take it with me. (I can see a twelve inch knitters loom in my future!)

In love with BFL

This is what the Blue Face Leicester fleece looked like when I bought it (together with free yellow flanelette pillow case).

You can see in my previous post what it looked like when I'd dyed some of it.

But this is what it looks like now I've run it through the drum carder twice. Isn't it beautiful?

To be honest I wasn't entirely convinced it was going to come out very well, it was very tightly curled and seemed a bit dense after I'd washed it. I did wonder if I'd felted it.

Once I'd picked through it though it went through the drum carder beautifully; much better than any other fleece I'd processed myself. Of course this could have something to do with a guild meeting I attended where Freyalyn showed us the correct way to use a drum carder (I'd been doing it wrong!)

I'm really looking forward to spinning this fibre, I bought some hand dyed BFL tops from Wheeldale Woolcrafts earlier in the year and loved it. I think this may be as nice as that. I can't decide whether to card it into a multicoloured batt and spin it as it comes or if I should spin the colours separately.

Suggestions?

Guild Meeting

Today I've been to the Victoria Hall in Queensbury for the Bradford Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers August away day meeting.

Freyalyn; one of our members was giving a taster session on dying which was great fun and not a little messy. I've done a spot of dying before using Kool Aid but that's pretty much as far as I'd gone so it was great fun to be able to do some more outside my own kitchen.

I took along a skein of undyed sock wool that I'd bought some years ago and some Blue Faced Leicester that I'd bought as a raw fleece and scoured at home. I quite liked how the sock wool came out but I love how the BFL came out.

It's scrummy! I'm so inspired that I'm going to do some more of this at home. A couple of weeks ago i got a very cheap knitting machine on ebay so I'm planning on knitting up some blanks and dying them.

More pictures of our dying day on Flickr.

Spinning

This is some BFL that I bought from Wheeldale Woolcraft. I got a50g of the dark blue and 50g of the variegated light blue. I spun them then plied them together (had a bit of the dark blue left so I Andean plyed that using my home made cardboard Andean plying tool).

I've never spun BFL before and bought these tops so I could try it out. I have to report that all the stuff I've read about it is true. It was fantastic to spin; very easy to draft. I'm not absolutely sure what I'm going to make with it. I've ended up with over 400yards of the variegated and just under 100 yards of the dark blue at about twenty WPI. I'm considering using it for weaving rather than knitting, but I'm not wedded to anything in particular as yet.

Just in time for Wimbledon

I've been stuck on the reception desk at work for the past two days rather than out driving because I have had a recurrence of the tennis elbow that I had last year. Unfortunately this time it doesn't seem to show any inclination to go away. So two weeks ago I told the transport manager that I wouldn't be able to drive my run (can't do the unloading). Then when they couldn't find a cover driver I said I'd drive but I'd need someone with me to to the unloading. We managed this for two weeks but then they got a cover driver so I'm stuck back at work still trying to avoid lifting things.

I hadn't done reception before yesterday but once I'd got the hang of the switchboard it was okay. I had a bit of paperwork that I could get on with and I had trusty Ravelry to dip into when I got particularly fed up. One certainly gets to see what's going on in the place; who's talking to who, and who takes the most cigarette breaks. I miss being out on the road though (my run was particularly easy this week, only eleven drops and nice weather. Typical!). I'm probably going to be doing some price comparison work tomorrow and next week I'm starting a project monitoring and improving supplier compliance on goods into the warehouse. One of the good things about working at SUMA; once they cotton on to the fact that there's a problem with your normal work (which has taken a bit longer than it could have) there's plenty of opportunity to do something different.

I'm a little bit concerned that although the original damage may have come from lifting heavy stuff, knitting and spinning may not be helping matters. still, I'm not getting actual pain whilst I'm doing either so I could be wrong.

On Saturday I went to the Piece Hall in Halifax to meet up with other Yorkshire knitters from Ravelry for World Wide Knitting in Public Day. WWKIPD coincided with the Halifax Gala and a food festival which was also taking place in the Piece Hall, so it was quite busy. The weather was fantastic (got a bit sunburned) and I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did. We decided that it would be fun to do something similar again so we may be having a picknit later in the summer. I have to admit that I didn't get a great deal of knitting done; I'd taken the socks that I'm knitting (Glynis from Cookie A's "Sock Innovation"). I'd finished one of the pair and had just started the second. Unfortunately this is the stage at which I think I know what I'm doing so I kept going wrong. In the end I gave up knitting and just nattered instead.

Handspun mittens and Prairie Boots

Last weekend I made these mittens. The pattern is Fern by Anniken Allis from the March issue of Yarn Forward.

The yarn I used was some that I'd spun myself on my drop spindle. It was some Jacob cross that I'd carded together with a little red and a little violet commercially dyed merino.

I'm really pleased with the way that they turned out and they're toasty warm.

The other knitting I've been on recently (well actually I finished them a few weeks ago) are these Prairie Boots. They were knitted from some Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed that I've had in my stash for some time (I love stashbusting). They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Despite using smaller needles that specified in the pattern in order to get the tension right they still seem a bit loose (and I made the smallest size). On the other hand they do the job that they're intended to do very well indeed. I made them because I was getting cold ankles from the howling gale that was blowing across my living room floor and they are brilliant at keeping my legs and feet from frostbite.

The buttons are some that I made myself from left over yarn. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the idea from.

Short and sweet (?)

I'm not going to post a whole lot of stuff this week because it hasn't been one of my best weeks. I had a bit of a rubbish time on my run this week which involved;

• leaving my sack trolley behind at my first customer so it wasn't available for the delivery where I can't park near the shop and have to take the order (three quarters of a ton) by hand off the truck and along the road into the shop;
• having an argument with a driver who just as I was about to leave said drop reversed right up to the front of the truck so I hadn't got room to pull round her car and when I tried to draw her attention to it just walked off and ignored me!!!! (I was quite rude to her);
• and to top it all when I stopped at the services on the way home because I was literally falling asleep at the wheel my truck got clamped because I'd inadvertently parked in a caravan bay rather than a truck bay (recently reallocated space, I hadn't noticed). It cost £250 to get un-clamped and I was raging as I'd been in the building less than ten minutes (toilet and a take out coffee) and it just seems so sneaky, they must watch out for it and pounce as soon as your back's turned.

Needless to say I was pleased to get home this week but there's talk of a "snow incident" later this week so that should be fun too. :(

I've been doing a little bit of fibrey stuff this weekend. I'm working on my longdraw technique using some Torwen that was given to me by a fellow Raveler and some stuff that came free with my Orkney when I bought it. This, together with a chunk of Herdwick which I won in the raffle at a guild meeting last year is going to be woven into a small rug. I need to get a new heddle for the loom, 5dpi or 7.5, not sure yet. Ro gave me some warping thread a while ago so that's what I'll be up to next.

I'm also spinning up some silk hanky that I bought from Wingham, but I'm doing that on my drop spindle. It's a really pretty colour, very deep plum, black and brown. Here it is together with some silk that I spun from a hanky before on the spindle and another (cerise coloured) hanky. Bit wild eh? I thought they might knit or weave up into a nice little bag or something?

My first (woven) scarf

And I'm soooo proud of it. I took it in to work and showed it to everyone (even the ones who weren't interested!). Mostly people were very polite and said nice things. One said he thought I'd cut up and dyed an old sack but that's about what I expected from him and I think he was quite impressed really!!!!

The edges are a wee bit wonky and the fringe went sort of floofy when I tossed it into the washing machine to full it but I'm quite pleased with it. It has a very nice drape to it.

Now I have to decide what my next project will be. I quite fancy a bag using old plastic bags, but I also quite fancy tea towels or something a bit different. We shall see.

Following my post about Turtle Bags last week I was pleased to see when I stopped at the service station on the M6 this week that the M&S food shop there was selling them. I'd sort of got the impression that it was a bit of a cottage industry but if they're in M&S they're obviously bigger than I thought. Way to Go.

New toys and turtles

Last weekend I finally crumbled and went to Wingham Woolwork on my way home from Ro's. I deserved a treat as we'd gone to Northampton to watch Tigers play the Saints and not only had we sat for more than two hours in the freezing cold, but the Tigers had played pretty poorly and been beaten by the Saintanists (boo hiss).

So in view of the fact that I was in serious need of cheering up I went and splashed some cash and came home with a loom!!! I am now the proud owner of a Kromski 24" rigid heddle loom plus stand. I spent Sunday evening putting the loom together but couldn't finish the stand as there were a couple of bits of hardware missing. I wasn't too pissed off as I knew that I wouldn't be able to start anything before getting back from driving on Wednesday and I was pretty sure that Wingham would get the missing parts to me by then. I wasn't disappointed in them, the envelope was waiting for me on the mat when I got home.

Strangely enough having completed the construction of the stand I was a bit nervous about actually using the damned thing. I was in a paralysis of indecision about exactly what I was going to start with. I had some nice German sock wool that I'd bought some time ago from Astrid's Dutch Obsession and was going to use this for a scarf, but I'd also got some pink sock wool that I'd bought when on holiday in Norfolk which matched some of the colour in the german wool and I wasn't sure if I should use some of that too or just go for the simple option. In the end I decided to be brave and do a few narrow stripes of pink in among the warp.

I've been weaving most of this afternoon and evening and I'm not getting on too badly though my selvages leave a bit to be desired. I've got a few floats too but I'm fairly pleased with my first effort. Don't think I'll be wearing it tomorrow though.

I meet some interesting people with some interesting stories whilst I'm out doing my deliveries and this week I was talking to one of my customers about her business Turtle Bags which grew out of her involvement with the Marine Stewardship Council. Because leatherback turtles mistake discarded plastic bags for their favourite food (jellyfish) Turtlebags, by selling alternatives to plastic bags hope to reduce the number of plastic bags finding their way into turtles.

I particularly like the one made by a Bangladeshi womens' co-operative from recycled cement bags, very funky! Ooooh, wonder how it would perform as a knitting bag?

Well who'd have thought it?

When I spin on the wheel I spin S \ wise and ply Z / wise. I discovered at the weekend that when I spin on my drop spindle I spin Z / wise.

Go on, ask me how I discovered this. Was it perchance when I was plying (on the wheel) the two bobbins containing miles and miles of very fine Shetland/silk that I had painstakingly spindle spun? Why yes, I believe it was.

I decided it would be easier to ply on the wheel than on the spindle. I'd already wound my first single (green slubby) on to a bobbin by hand as I only have the one spindle. I wound the second one (gold shiny) using the bobbin winder I'd bought at a guild meeting (bargain it was too) and I just began plying. I wasn't too happy with the way it was looking but it wasn't until I was about two thirds of the way through that I realised what the problem was; I was plying it in the same direction as I'd spun it!!!!!!!!!!

After a bit of a panic I decided to carry on as I was and then run it back through the flyer spinning twice as much in the opposite direction. Luckily it seems to have worked, though I think it could have taken a bit more twist. I have 452 yards there. It's a bit brighter in real life (picture's washed out) and it's beautifully soft. Just have to find a project for it now.

Finished yarn is 60gms of about sixteen WPI (ish). Spun from some of the palest Shetland grey katmogget I bought at Woolfest. One single was carded together with some lime green tussah silk and some white silk noil. The second single was carded together with some gold mulberry tops (no tussah silk the right colour at Wingham when I went). There are about eight twists per inch (again this is very "ish" as it's not very regular due to plying cock up).


ETA: Hmm I wonder if that's what happened to the last lot? I just thought it had sprung into a disgusting mess because I forgot to tie it properly before taking it off the niddy noddy but I reckon it wouldn't have gone as ubertwisty from just that as it did. (no pics of that one; too embarrassing)!

Happy Holidays

I'm just dropping in to make sure the blog stays active. I've just read on Ravelry about someone whose blog disappeared without warning. (Gulp)

I don't suppose that anyone is still reading this as I've been so very bad at updating it but I'll start by wishing everyone who is a very

Happy New Year.

Hope you all had a good Christmas (if you do Christmas) and jolly holiday of other variety if you do that!

I seem to spend all my spare time on Ravelry nowadays which is why I've not blogged in a while, it's even more of a time suck than this is, and having a laptop doesn't help as it's there all the time unlike my old pooter which I had to go upstairs to use.

Since talking to you last I have started going to meetings of the Bradford Weavers Spinners and Dyers Guild and have met many lovely new people (in real life!!). I'm planning on joining this year. The Online Guild was great and some of their workshops were fabulous but I wasn't taking proper advantage of it.

My latest knitting is a pair of Pararie Boots to keep my poor cold tootsies warm. Because they're quite long they should stop the drafts that whistle across my living room floor from biting my ankles. The first one is a bit loose around the foot so I'm doing the next one on smaller needles. I may have to scoot over to the Texere open day and get me another 5.5mm circular.

Love to all

Bin spinning

When I went to Woolfest I took some wool/silk mix which I'd bought at Wingham ages ago to play with at the spin in. Since then I've been sporadically going back to it and spinning a bit more. This weekend I made a concerted effort and finally finished it off and plied it up.

I have to say that I'm really pleased with it, it's very soft and lovely and quite fine with occasional slubby bits. I'm thinking of a lacy scarf or something similar. There's 100g of it but I haven't measured the mileage yet. (Have now, it's 605 yards)

My second weekend project was finishing off some rainbow merino (also from Wingham) which I'd spun up and plied with some of the Manx Loghtan I'd had left on a bobbin. I spun the remains of the merino and plied it up with the remainder of the (already spun) Manx. It was almost a perfect match. Only a few yards of the merino left over which I used to practice my Navajo plying which is a bit crap.

There's not a lot of this (53 yards) but I really like the colour which is a greeny tan colour overall but has areas of other colours too. I've loads of the manx still but none of the merino left, may have to get some more and do enough for a project.

The Navajo plying was a lot better than previous efforts thanks to advice from some helpful Ravelers to the effect that I may do better if I slackened off the tension. Tried it and it worked. Hurrah for Ravelry.

Nice pic of both my finished efforts drying off.

On Friday I bought a book at the Oxfam second hand bookshop by Nicholas Crane (Coast, Mapman on the BBC) called "Clear Waters Rising: a mountain walk across Europe" ; an account of his seventeen month journey on foot from Finisterre to Istanbul. I have to say it's a fascinating read but the man is completely bonkers.

just stuff

Went to Ro's last weekend and we had a bit of a play with some scrummy Wensleydale that she'd bought at Woolfest. We wanted to wash it so that the structure of the locks was preserved so we set up a couple of bowls of hot water, one with washing liquid and one for rinsing and washed it lock by lock and laid it out on a towel.

When it was dry I showed her how to flick card it on one of her carders and we laid it out in a box so she can spin it worsted style.

This is it in it's finished state. Aint it lovely?

On the knitting front I've completed my latest pair of "left overs" socks. I decided that there was no way I was going to manage to match the stripes up on them as I'd pretty much just changed shades at random so I decided to go for a completely asymmetric look instead. I quite like them.

I'm really into knitting my socks toe up now. So much so that I've started knitting the tilting cable socks from Interweave knits but I've adapted the pattern to toe up. Seems to be working out okay so far and I got lots done last night as we had a co-op meeting which I knitted through. I'm enjoying the actual knitting but I dunno that I'm particularly thrilled with the finished object. I'll carry on though.

I was very chuffed this week as I had a delivery on my run which necessitated my driving past Get Knitted. As the run was pretty quiet I had time to pull over and go in. I bought a new cable needle (can't find mine anywhere) and some Regia silk solid sock wool in Tigers colours. I fancy me some silk socks to wear at the rugby this winter to keep my tootsies nice and warm.

Pastures new

This is where I parked up on Tuesday night. It's a lay by on the main road between Worcester and Hereford. I haven't parked up overnight in a lay by before, but it was okay. Bit noisy with traffic going past but I had my earplugs so I slept pretty well.

I was there because I'd been given a couple of drops off another driver's run because she was busy but my run was quite quiet. So I went to Hereford and beyond on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I neglected to get any pictures of Hereford itself which is a bit of a shame because it's quite nice and the Cathedral is very impressive. I did get a shot of the farm shop on the road to Brecon that I delivered to. It's HUGE!!! I was driving along, hoping that I wouldn't miss the turning when I came round a corner and saw it. Not much chance of missing it really?

On the fibre front I started having a proper look at the book I bought at Woolfest; Cat Bordhi's "New Pathway's for sock knitters". Here's a picture of one of the trial socks that I knitted from it last weekend. It's quite interesting constructing a sock in a completely different way from usual and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into a real pair that will actually fit me. The book itself is quite difficult to deal with though and requires a lot of flipping back and forth to get the information you require. I guess this is because it's an enabling book which explains individual stages rather than a series of set instructions which one follows strictly to the letter. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. There's a ravelry group devoted to the book and a number of the people on that have had the book spiral bound in order to make it easier to use. Worth thinking about perhaps?

Busy bunny

I've had all this week off work so I've mostly been doing fibrey things.

I've separated the Shetland fleece I bought at Woolfest out into four piles of distinct shades and have been washing them in batches in the bath.

here's the lightest stuff drying on the airer

and here's some darker airing off in front of the gas fire. Some more intermediate shade is already finished and bagged up (uncarded) and the darkest from the legs and belly is still waiting to be washed.

I've also been playing with my new drop spindle. I did a bit of Manx on it and then after plying that using the handy plying technique from Knitty I started on some of the silk caps which I'd bought at Woolfest last year but not done anything with yet. It's very uneven so far and it's hell on the fingers trying to draft it but I'm going to ply it up into an interesting slubby art yarn and make some sort of a scarf out of it I think.

I was very sad to hear of the death of Charles Wheeler earlier this week. He was the most amazing broadcast journalist. Listen again has broadcast an interview that Jeremy Paxman did with him when he was eighty. It's well worth a listen.

Woolfest

Firstly an apology; I forgot to take my camera with me to Woolfest so no pictures this year. Very very sorry.

Despite my inability to work out how many days there are in a week I managed to get myself organised in time (apart from the camera!). I was back from my run quite early as I only had two drops left to do on the Wednesday and a couple of pick ups. I was pleased to find that my parcel from Texere had arrived when I got home and that it had been put through the door as well so I didn't have to go back into town and pick it up from the sorting office either. I was able to carry on plying and emptied two bobbins to take with me for the spin in on the Friday night.

We had a pretty good journey up, though the weather was a bit horrible and we arrived at about four o'clock.

The actual show was great fun again, lots to see and do. I was a bit more restrained than I was last year as far as purchases were concerned. I bought a raw shetland fleece (a katmogget; white on the back and dark on the legs and belly.); a drop spindle so I can learn to spindle; Cat Bhordi's book "New Pathways for sock knitters"; twenty vintage buttons (five matching) and a Herdy the Herdwick mug. I also "helped" Ro to buy a black Wensleydale fleece as she was showing signs of not getting one!!!

We watched the parade of sheep which was interesting and educational as well as quite funny when the chap on the mike from the rare breeds survival trust offered to hold a Manx Loughtan whilst her owner said a bit about the breed. She decided that she wasn't keen on him and tried to leap out of his arms (for small sheep they can jump quite high!). The Alpacas also took exception to the Herdwick sniffing their bottoms, but in the main everyone was pretty well behaved.

We watched the sheep shearing but alas this year there was no audience participation (health and safety, not sure if this was in the interests of the volunteer or the sheep). And we went to the sheep auction which was such good fun. The auctioneer clearly thought that we were all completely bonkers, but he joined in with the spirit of the occasion in fine fashion and didn't turn a hair at someone bidding and breastfeeding at the same time (which I imagine was a first for him). Some of the sheep went for up to sixty pounds prompting the old boy who breeds Herdwicks who was sitting next to me to say that he thought he'd bring some dead ones down next time as they got better prices stuffed than they do live!!!

I didn't see as many people that I knew as I had in previous years but we met a friend from last year and met lots of new people. I also managed to say a quick hello to CarolL as I was shooting off on saturday evening. Oh AND as well as finding someone who will make bobbins to order from an existing one (Woodland Turnery) the chap on the Scottish Fibres stand told me that he adapts Ashford bobbins to fit Haldanes so I may be able to get some spare bobbins for the Orkney after all.

Got back home about four o'clock on Sunday absolutely shattered, but glad I went again. Roll on next year.

Managed a picture of my fleece after all, aint it a beut?

Rats, rats, rats!!!

I'm a bit harassed this weekend as I've realised that It's WOOLFEST NEXT WEEKEND!!! (gulp). Being my usual organised self I was not worried. Oh no. I'd booked time off at the end of the week so had it all planned that I'd do my run as usual, have the whole of the next day to get myself sorted out for when Als and Ro arrived that evening and we'd gently toddle up to Cumbria the following day.

Unfortunately I was working on the eight day week.

I still don't know how this happened but when I spoke to Ro the other night she pointed out that she and Als are actually coming up on the Wednesday evening (of course) because we're driving up to Cumbria on the Thursday. Well I'm driving on the Tuesday / Wednesday and have no idea when I'm going to get back as it's wholly dependent on how busy the run is and what the traffic is like on the way back up. So I'll get back at some time; have a bath (absolute necessity after being on the road for two days), get a meal ready for my guests (have to sort that this weekend as I'll have no time to shop on Wednesday) and prepare myself for the weekend away when all I'm likely to want to do is go to sleep.


How do I manage to mess things up quite so effectively? Never mind, at least I realised before Wednesday so I can spend this weekend getting organised. I've managed to borrow an air bed inflater that plugs into the car cigarette lighter so I won't have to cripple myself blowing up the spare mattress with a foot pump like I did for the Commonwealth Games so that's a bonus.


I also decided that I needed to finish plying the singles that I had on the bobbins of my Orkney as I'll need it for the spin in on Friday night. Don't know if anyone remembers that I was having a certain amount of trouble with this what with trying to ply from two lazy kates at the same time. (see here for details). I decided that it would be much easier if I had one lazy kate with all four plys on it so last night I got a bit of two by four that I had lying around; cut it to size and drilled holes in it to accept the metal parts of the two kates I have.

Brilliant! It worked like a charm and I didn't even need to tension it. I set about plying my singles. Half a bobbin later I ran out of the glitter thread that I'd been plying with the singles! AAAARGGGGHHHHHH! Of course I'd bought the stuff from Texere and they aren't open at the weekend so I can't get any more straight away! I've ordered some online but I dunno if it will arrive in time and if it does that'll be another thing to sort out on Wednesday evening.

Sorry this is such a downer of a post, I'm actually quite cheerful really. Who wouldn't be with next weekend in prospect? The thought of all that lovely fibrey goodness waiting for us would cheer even the most miserable person up. And who cares if I don't manage to get everything done? As long as we get there that's all that matters.

PS Dee, hope you're feeling better soon.
Oooooh Oooooh PPS I forgot to say that my "Sprout" is going to be on display on the Online Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers stand at Woolfest. I'm sooo excited.

I am a bad blogger, I am a bad blogger, I am a.....

Think you get the picture.

A lot has happened since the PINK!! Monkeys. In fact so much has happened I've probably forgotten half of it.

I've finished two more pairs of socks; firstly:

Elfine's socks from "My Fashionable Life" by Amela Raitte. I'm teaching myself to knit socks from the toe up and I'm particularly pleased to have finished these as many years ago when I first begam blogging I attempted to knit a pair of these but gave up at the short row heel. This time I had help from Ann Budds instructions published in Interweave Knits on how to knit socks from the toe up, which I found quite helpful.

I've finished my travelling sock (Basic top down Opal pattern in Trekking XXL)

And I've knitted a blanket from stash wool (what a good girl!) 7 skeins of Rowanspun Chunky Jenifer Crawfords "Feather and Fan Afghan".