Lovely stripey socks

Shortly after I took the (blurry photo) above (while on the Metro in Paris), we were approached by an extremely fashion forward gentleman in Galeries Lafayette.  We were browsing the men’s shoes department, when the fashion forward gentleman sidled up to me, and whispered in a english accent “I’d recognise Blundstones anywhere!” I was trying to think of a clever reply, but he had already moved on.

For those of you who are not familiar with Blundstones, they are an Australian work boot that is comfortable, light, water resistant (and at least in Australia) relatively inexpensive.  I paid AUD $45 for my first pair (a loooong time ago), so it startles me to see them on sale for US $150.  The Fireman’s Blundstones fit perfectly with handknit socks, and he had warm dry feet in below freezing temperatures.

The socks are knitted from hand-dyed self striping yarn from StudioAvenueSix.  I met Rachel at Sock Summit, and have been delighted with the yarn. She might be persuaded to ship internationally if you ask her nicely.  The colours of her yarn are lovely (which is not always the case with self-striping yarn), and stripe perfectly.

There’s not much to say about the knitting of these socks, except that the second sock was made a lot quicker through the policy change in the Australian Government which finally allowed legal knitting on international flights.  I had been knitting on international flights for years, and had only had my needles confiscated twice, but there was always a frisson of excitement as I passed through security screening to see whether a 2.5mm circular would be deemed a risk to my fellow passengers or the plane.

The pattern is my standard, a Classic Sock by Nancy Bush.  Next pair of socks to be commenced will be a little more challenging – I’ve been itching to restart my project to knit every pair of socks in Knitting Vintage Socks, and have commandeered my sister’s copy while we await the unpacking of our house.  I did buy some sock yarn in Paris, and will be casting on soon. 

In other news, we will be moving into our “6 month” house at the end of the month, and leaving the temporary apartment.  The girls are back in school, and I am trying to figure out business establishment in Australia for the re-opening of Yarn Workshop.  Paris seems a while ago now.

The problem with product knitting

The problem with product knitting, is that the receipient often has inconvenient opinions about the finished object.  The Fireman had a lovely storebought hat – it was a possum wool blend, extremely warm, purchased from the Woolshed in Canberra.  It disappeared at some point early in the trip, and the hunt was on for a  quick replacement.  I figured that NZ possum yarn was going to be difficult to find in Paris, and went to Le Comptoir, and purchased some Rowan Lima, which very conveniently was on sale for 40% off.  The problem was a knitting needle – and Le Comptoir was out of stock of 4.5mm circulars.  I had not planned on knitting with worsted weight while on holidays (don’t worry, I did bring three other projects with me).

Continuing the hunt,  I went to La Droguerie when it was completely swamped (something about a snowy Saturday afternoon in Paris), and purchased possibly the world’s worst circular needle.  It has a completely hard cable, and a bump to mark the join between the cable and the needle.  Being disatisfied with this purchase, I stopped in at the local yarn shop, and got a much better set of Prym needles (well not Addi or Knit Pro, but workable).  I needed an uncomplicated pattern, because I am once again sharing a computer, and don’t have access to a printer.  I chose A Hat fit for a Boyfriend, and quickly knocked the hat out.

The only problem was,  the Fireman wanted his ears fully covered.  While I was admiring how the decreases looked, the hat actually wasn’t performing its key fuction, to keep his head warm.   Shortly after this photo was taken, I had to undo the decreases, and knit an extra 2″ (making the length 8″ before the decreases).  The Rowan Lima, which had been a dream to knit to date (and it is a lovely soft, lofty yarn), was a complete nightmare to frog.  Part of the blame must rest with my poor night vision, and dark yarn, but the knitted yarn construction seemed to make picking up the stitches very difficult. Anyhow, it has actually been finished, and the Fireman says the alpaca is definitely warmer than pure wool, but not as warm as possum.

Who knew that the Hall of Mirrors would have good light? I’ve also finished some socks for the Fireman, but they can wait for another post.

P.S.  If you are looking for a way to help Haiti, try an undirected donation to Medecins Sans Frontiers -Yarn Harlot can show you how.

Loving the hand knits

So, we had a flurry of knitting to get the family as warm as possible for the trip.  These socks were finished, and photographed without being blocked.

The colourwork was spectacularly unsuccessful.  Next time I will use a better contrasting yarn – using a hand dyed yarn with lots of the dominant colour of the socks means that the pattern really doesn’t stand out.  The pattern is the romantically named “sheep’s eye” from Folk Knitting in Estonia. However the socks are warm, and were worn by older daughter yesterday. The socks are basic stockingette socks from Folk Socks.

This hat was finished and blocked, and nearly came to disaster when if was spun with a pair of socks that were still leaching a little dye (entirely my own fault).  I’m glad to say that Dylon Colour Run Remover is safe for cashmere.The hat is too large because I did not check gauge, but older daughter is very happy with it, and it is being worn every day.  You can also see a little of younger daughter wearing this hat.  So where is this cold place?  Here’s another clue.

We didn’t realise that cold weather could close the Eiffel Tower to visitors.  We have nealry two weeks left in Paris, so should get to go up the Eiffel Tower at some point where the weather goes over freezing.  Today the maximum was -2° C!  In addition to wearing my Koolhaas hat (now reblocked even larger), I’m also wearing a gorgeous scarf knitted by my sister for my birthday last December.  You can see a much better shot of it here. I love the way that wool keeps you so warm – in particular, I plan to wear only hand knitted socks while I am here.

I’ll post more about our Paris adventures in the next week.  I will be doing some yarn and pattern shopping, and was able to do heaps of knitting on the flights.

Happy New Year

We’ve had a good end to the year - A German Cherry Christmas cake was made in time for Christmas Day.  As it turned out, actually having the Nigella Lawson recipe was not the only problem that I faced.  I had forgotten that her recipes tend to rely on weighed measures of ingredients, and my kitchen scales?  They are in the sea freight.  There was lots of approximation, after googling ingredient volumes, but the cake turned out surprisingly well, although a little dry around the edges.

My mother’s Christmas present? This red striped laptop from Dell. She is still waiting on delivery, so a real life photo will be later. 

Since Christmas, we have been catching up with lots of old friends, and have made these new ones.

When I went on maternity leave with older daughter, I was startled on my first day off to hear a knock at our back door, and to see a sulfur-crested cockatoo there, looking at me expectantly.  These rainbow lorikeets aren’t quite at the stage of knocking on the door yet, but they are very happy for me to get quite close while they are eating apple.  I’m going to try and see if I can get them used to the big camera and the macro lens next. The abundant bird life is one wonderful thing about Sydney.

As for new years resolutions, I’m not much for them.  I am going to knit socks toe up this year, having just bought Socks from the Toe Up, but apart from that, I’d like to spend less time in medical settings.  I’ll be posting in the next couple of days with quite a few finished little items – I’ve been knitting as fast as I can to keep my family warm for the upcoming trip!