Not much of a sock

I spent the weekend with a bunch of wonderful friends. I imagined that I would get some knitting done. Surely with no children (we have 25 between the 11 of us) and some plane and car time I would get lots done.

Alas this was my progress

My weekend was THAT good.  This is just a simple vanilla sock, I'm not following a pattern, I didn't think I would be able to while talking all weekend. hehe.

On my arrival home on Sunday night, I got some lovely mail - things I had purchased in a show case. How pretty is my new project bag?? Made by TinyLovely. It is waiting patiently for me to decide on my next project. 

I also got some yummy stitch markers. I hadn't tried this type until recently when 2 lovely Knitting Groupers forced some on me, when I mentioned I hadn't! This set is a Peacock themed set. Pretty.

I hope you are having a great week, mine is incredibly productive so far, making up for the last few weeks I think. Prototypes finished, patterns written, patterns edited - just got to make the most of the rain stopping today and getting some photos. Wish me luck.

Wednesday!

I love Wednesdays. I know I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again.

The Alec KAL is still running over on Ravelry, you have about 48 hours to use the discount code if you plan to. And anyone who finishes in June and posts a photo in the group, will get another to use on their choice of pattern!

I have joined in the KAL, knitting a pretty purple one for my daughter.

Just a wee bit more body to go, and then onto the sleeves! I have some perfect rainbow buttons for this one.

I have also been knitting a new sock design, which I am totally in love with. I don't want to show you too much, so just a sneaky peek. This is a yummy light mint colour, so pretty!

I'm currently reading a book that was recommended to my by a lot of people. The 5th Wave. Its a Young Adult book, but its really quite gripping and well written, I really want to know what happens!

I am 13 people away from 200 Facebook groupies ;) If you haven't clicked over and joined in yet, do it - I'll be giving away some more patterns as soon as I hit it! Facebook Page

Feeling Loved

I have bitten the bullet, and created a Facebook Page for Sezza Knits. I have ummed and ahhed over this for a wee while, but was a bit worried that people might feel I was spamming them. However I spend a LOT of time on Facebook, and I know a lot of other people do too. Its always in the background.
And so I figured I would start a page and see. I hoped I might get to 100 likers. (ever). Well imagine my surprise when I went and had a lovely dinner with some friends for a few hours, and came back to over 100 people liking my page! I'd love for you to join me too - it will just be another way to keep people in the loop of what I am doing.

I also noticed last night that nearly 1000 people have downloaded my Basket Weave Rib sock pattern - that is Unique downloads, so each is a different person, even if they have downloaded it a few times! 982 at the moment, wonder when it will hit 1000!

So overall its feeling like a wonderful day to be a designer - thanks to YOU!

I hope you had a nice weekend, mine was lovely, and tomorrow - work :) People say  'oh, where are you working?' I think its going to take a while for people to understand that my designing is actually work - in a good way. My husband got it when he looked over my shoulder one day and saw something like this.....

PS - learning to grade using excel or similar?? I learnt thanks to wonderful tutorials by the amazing Marnie, available on her blog!

Yarning A Long

Last week I mentioned I was reading Gone Girl. It seems to be a book that sticks with people, and I know I had heard a lot about it before reading. But in all honesty I didn't LIKE the book. I really wanted to read it, and find out what happened, and I thought it was well written. However I get really annoyed when I shut a book and I don't like any of the characters at the end of the story.

This week I'm reading a new book, The Birdhouse by Kelly Simmons, it delves into family secrets, dementia and family relationships and I am really enjoying it. I recommend this one (although I haven't finished!), but the characters are very like able.

I haven't gotten quite as much done as I would have liked this week, my son has been unwell since last Friday, and with him being off school, doctors appointments, and fighting over medicine taking, returning for different medicine, its cut into my time as well as my mood! He is fine though, its just tonsillitis and will be back at school tomorrow!

I have managed most of a Little Hoodlum - just have to knit the hood, it may be a game of yardage chicken on the hood, but I will just downsize it if necessary. Hopefully by the time you read this, I will be well on my way to done.

I hope you are having a good week.

June is a month of Knit A Longs

June has only just started and yet mine is already full with KALs I plan to join in with, and knitting plans.

The Knitting for Boys Alec KAL has started and I will be joining in, although I will be knitting an Alec for my daughter, she is much needier in the sweater department, especially now she is at kindy in the cool mornings, she has chosen the pretty purple.
You should pop over and join in ;)

I am also knitting her a Little Hoodlum as part of the Budding Designers Downunder KAL which Julia is hosting. I've chosen what I hope to be a hardy yarn from stash.

I'm also planning to join the Solid Socks KAL again this month, their colour theme is brown, and sadly I didn't have any brown for socks in stash, so I thought I would try out a new sock yarn. Her yarns don't appear to be listed on Ravelry (something I will remedy when my skein arrives ;) ) but Mum has used them happily before, so why not.

I'm not entirely decided on pattern for these yet.

I also have plans to turn this into a new sock design

and this into a new sweater design...

Plus I have a gift I plan to knit (possibly 2...), a girls weekend planned in the middle, FIVE designs currently in testing. And people dare to ask how I will fill my time with Amelia out of the house for 3hrs a day!

Have you got plans for June?

Nearly matching socks

In January, I cast on a new pair of my Basket Weave Rib socks. These were my easy take everywhere with me knitting. Which is why I have only just finished them.

Its a great idea in theory, but I don't actually get a lot of knitting everywhere time. However they have been great for picking up and putting down between more taxing projects.

Due to the prodding (and test knitting) from my Mum, I have also added a larger, man size, to this pattern. I'm not sure why I didn't from the beginning as they are perfect unisex socks! The pattern is still a freebie, however if you have downloaded it, you will need to download it again. Free patterns on Ravelry are not automatically updated in your library. You can do that here 

  

And no you are not seeing things. This sock yarn was dyed by me. And obviously I will not be taking this hobby up professionally any time soon, the 2 50g skeins dyed at the same time were very different. But I didn't notice, till I was halfway through sock 2. Luckily I don't mind at all, and neither do my feet.

Wednesday

Please excuse my cheating post today, but its winter and I forgot again to take a photo of my WIP in the daylight.

I actually took a day off today, although a mum of small children never really gets a day off, I did the best I could. We dropped Ms Mia at kindy, and since my husband had the day off, we went to a 10am movie - I did take my knitting though. Picked MM up and took her and met a friend at an indoor playground. Picked up J from school, dropped both kids home to my husband and went to donate blood. No knitting patterns. No charts. No spreadsheets. It was lovely!

Since my daughter has started morning kindy, which means she goes every morning, I have been doing more design work, which is wonderful. But now that I have that time, I am trying to treat it more like a job, rather than something I squeeze into every spare minute. Which means the odd day off! It was lovely, and just what I needed.

The knit I am working on at the moment is one you have seen before, hence the cheating photo I mentioned above...

Not really where I am up to at all!

That's right, I'm back to working on the Adult sized Alec.
You may recall that I played yardage chicken and I lost. Well the very wonderful and talented Jo of Jodulbug designs, who custom dyed the yarn for this project, dyed me up some more!
In anticipation of a different batch of hand-dyed yarn, I ripped back the body and am now re knitting it, alternating skeins as I go. Its going well. I had hoped to be finished it by now, but a hat design needed ripping, and re knitting a few more times than I planned on.

However my Alec XL is FAR further on than the photo above. collar done, both sleeves done and body about 2/3 done. It will be complete by the end of the week. Yes it will.

At the moment I am reading Gone Girl, but Gillian Flynn. I only started it last night, but with my day off and blood donation time, I am doing well with it, and really enjoying it. I like how it is written from different perspectives at different times.

What are you knitting and reading this week?? I love book recommendations!

My workspace

I am not a tidy person by nature, however I am highly organised. Give me a deadline and I will beat it. Give me a time limit in an exam and I will be out the door in half the time (or as soon as I'm allowed). I am a Virgo. Which means I should be highly organised, and dare I say it, Anal.

Well I'm not. I'm too lazy to spend my life tidying and organising. Now don't get me wrong, my house is quite tidy most of the time. Its a mixture of my Husband (he is a clean-freak) and 'quick Daddy is home, pick stuff up' and 'Quick so-and-so is coming to visit, hide stuff'.  In our house, its my pile of clothes that is out of control.

So its probably no surprise that my workspace hasn't been the tidiest. Which is why I decided it was time for a change. To be completely honest, my 'workspace' usually looked like this. I considered tidying it for you, but I don't think that would be as interesting.

So you can see, paper, printer, projects, swatches, laptop, paper, paper, paper, and as I am sure you can guess, I could never find ANYTHING! A stitch marker meant fossicking. The RIGHT piece of paper meant hunting through them all! (my computer doesn't recognise fossicking, so a link if you need one!)

Then I was perusing Ravelry, some would call it procrastination, but I call it 'keeping in touch' and read a thread about dream design studios. Now while I would LOVE a design studio, at the moment my only option is the downstairs bedroom. Which is just too far from my kidlets. And my comfy couch and TV... However a lot of people were posting about  how they use bookcases to organise their lives, and in an instant, I decided I would like to swap out that coffee table (that thing holding all that stuff) for a bookcase instead. Meaning more organisation, but also being able to USE the coffee table for more than hiding stuff under/behind (I didn't take a photo of that....) And so began the hunt for a bookcase that was not only the perfect size, but also within my price range. And I found it too! Its possibly not how a lot of people would like a corner of their lounge to look, but given what was there before.... it can't really be worse can it!

I am planning to add a few more boxes to it, the stuff in the brown on would look better in 2 of the navy ones, but for now I am really happy. Everything has a home, I know where to put things, which means I know where to look for them! My goal for May was to finish off all my nearly finished patterns/projects, and this has helped me immensely (except the 5 or so hours it took me to tidy/clean/reorganise) And yes I really do need 4 cushions. My husband often tidies them onto other chairs, but that just means I have to collect them for my chaise again!! Its been a week and its still fairly tidy, which means this might actually work for me!

Do you have a studio to make me jealous? a special chair? a corner of the lounge? or a bag that you take wherever you need it!?

Hanorah

My newest design is now available for purchase!  HANORAH is a girls coat, sized from 9months - 10 years and is designed to be worn as an outer layer, while being soft and comfy and perfect for wearing inside too.

Knit with a moss st edging and a moss waist band, and a lovely wide collar, you can add some special buttons, or an eclectic mix. Knit in an Aran or bulky yarn, this coat knits up super fast. The double button band gives the appearance of double-breasted, without all the extra knitting!

My test knitters did a lovely job with their Hanorahs, how sweet are they (and the models!)

It may seem odd to some of you, that I am releasing a winter coat, but I am in the Southern Hemisphere, and so are a lot of my test knitters, so I decided to just go for it! Feel free to pop over to Ravelry and have a look at some more photos/projects and details!

A Finished Object!

It seems like a long time since I have been able to share a FO with you. Its not that I haven't been knitting, but its been busy and there has been a wee bit of secret knitting.

I decided to cast on a new pair of my Scott Base socks this month. I love the originals, but I always feel like I shouldn't really wear all my pattern socks too much, in case I ever need them for something... what I'm not sure.


My favourite Sock KAL group had the theme of 'beach' this month and/or using the sponsors yarn, which I just happened to have in the perfect beach colour. To be honest, its not my usual colour, but I really like them.

The yarn is NOM in Pumpkin Pie from Gritty Knits.


In case you are looking for a project to knit in June, the Knitting for Boys Group have chosen Alec as their KAL pattern. They are a lovely KAL group as well, with no overly strict rules, and I have added a code to grab a discount on this pattern for the next month or so. Also if you add a photo of your finished Alec to the thread in June, I'll send you another discount so you can try out another of my patterns if you wish (not limited to boy patterns).

Are you a Knit-A-Longer? I love joining in, but not all the time, I like to be left to my own devices and deadlines too!

What a week!

It has been a crazy week around here, with grazed faces (5yr old), scaffolding and roofers removing the roof before realising the new roofing iron hasn't arrived, wisdom teeth trying to grow sideways into my jaw bone, on top of the usual busy and full life we lead!

It hasn't all been bad though, I feel like we have actually had a good week, its just been hectic! But there is time on the horizon, with my daughter being moved into Morning Kindy come next week (from 7 hours a week, to 20 hours a week AND less of a logistical nightmare as it lines up with School drop off) which is exciting, as I start to think about what my design goals are for the next few months!

Amongst the mayhem of the week, I took my daughter to see the new Disney Princesses and Heroes on Ice show. It was as much for me as it was for her, awesome!! I took, um, just a few.... (hundred) photos.

 

Snow White

Aladdin

Sleeping Beauty - complete with Fire breathing dragon!

Cinderella - loved the silly step sisters in this one!

Beauty and the Beast - No beast though.

Little Mermaid - this was the biggest/longest show

Rapunzel and the hosts, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Tinkerbell

Tinkerbell and the Finale

It was a wonderful show, and if you get the chance to take someone small(ish) I recommend it. It was a lovely morning out and a great end to a hectic week!

I hope you have a lovely, non-hectic weekend!

Circular Needles

Most of you probably have a wee stash of these metal circulars around the place. When I first dove back into knitting about 6 years ago, these seemed to fit the bill, were inexpensive and easy to get. And so I bought them for all my projects. My sister talked about interchangeables and I remember thinking they seemed incredibly expensive, and really, whats the difference.

Well I have seen the error of my ways, well and truly, and I really do not like knitting with these metal needles. Although I have some interchangeables (cough cough, quite a few) I actually prefer the fixed needles, and the Chiaogoo red lace are my favourite. I am slowly working on building up to a full set of all the ones I use.I love the way they feel in my hands, I even like the short length ones which with other brands hurt my hands, and I LOVE the bend in them.

Pictured - Fixed circs - Chiaogoo Red Lace (favourite!) look at that needle! LOVE.
Knitpro wooden circ and nickel - I do like both of these fixed needles, just not as much as the reds!

However that is not to say that my old metal needles are not well used. I use them often, just not quite for their intended purpose. Mostly I use them to hold live stitches. You know, when the pattern says, 'slip these stitches to waste yarn', I slip them to a circular. It can mean having quite a few circular needles hanging off a project, in fact the item I just completed, had at one point, 6 needles. But they are bendy and you can easily poke the ends into your knitting to keep them out of the way. And best of all, it is SO easy to return to those live stitches. I always found putting live stitches on waste yarn a bit of a time suck when I went to get them back off again!

Zita with Circular needles holding the sleeve stitches

Do you use some of your knitting (or non knitting) tools for things other than their pure intended purpose?? Which circular needles do you prefer??

ps this post is not sponsered in any way, its purely my own opinion and preference.

What am I reading?

I can't show you what I am knitting at the moment, but I thought I would share with you my favourite reading choices at the moment instead.

I finished reading  A Different Blue, by Amy Harmon last week and I really loved this book, the character Blue was just so lovable. I shed quite a few tears while reading this, but not all of them sad. Its quite different from anything I have read recently, which is always a bonus!

I am loving reading Michelle's blog, she is so creative and clever and is taking part in the Me Made May - I love seeing her outfits!

Fresh Stitches is getting a lot of reading from me at the moment, I am desperate to make the time to make some wee amigurumis, this will probably not be till June, but I will be learning! I can crochet, and have made a wee granny square blanket before, but the whole rows thing in crochet has stumped me in the past.

My Crochet Blanket, it appears I finished this nearly 2 years ago, don't think I have picked up a crochet hook since.....

Stacey has a great free resources on her site though, and I will be making use of those. Do you have a favourite Amigurumi (small crocheted softie) pattern? I haven't settled on what I will try first, and would love your suggestions.

Scott Base socks are LIVE

I wasn't intending to release these socks today, possibly tonight, but probably tomorrow. But I just received some gorgeous yarn that HAS to be knit up NOW. So, you know, why not release a pattern....  (yeah my brain is odd!)

 

I designed these socks to be unisex, and again, my kind of knitting. Easy to remember textured stitch, which looks great, is fun to knit while not being tricky and SO COMFORTABLE. Honestly you will have to knit a pair to see, but these socks are lovely to wear! 

 

The sample is knit in medium, with an extra long foot - this is totally adjustable as the socks are knit from the cuff down. I have included 3 adult sizes, including a big size for those with larger feet, even those big men in your life. The socks really stretch, so they are really easy to put on and comfortable to wear.

I have knit these socks with a semi-solid, because that helps you to see the stitch, however I think this sock pattern could totally cope with whatever yarn you throw at it! If you would like to see more about it, and even check out my tester projects (you should they are GORGEOUS!) then click over to Ravelry HERE. (you don't have to be a raveler to do this, or to buy from there, but I do recommend you signing up)

Scott Base Socks

I have a new sock pattern which is nearing release and I was actually surprised, looking back through my blog that I don't appear to have shared a photo of it with you yet - thats not like me!

So here is a sneak peek of my sample socks

I really love them, they are incredibly comfortable to wear, and snug without being tight. Some socks are difficult to actually get on, but these are not, the pattern has great stretch!

Which is why for the May Solid Sock Knit a Long, which I was determined to sneak into the month, I decided to cast on another pair. 

Pumpkin Pie in Gritty Knits NOM. This is not a colour I would usually pick but I am totally loving knitting it up!  As well as having my sock-requisite Nylon, it also has 10% cashmere. YUM. (or nom...)

I started these on Thursday evening and sock 1 is nearly done. Helps that this afternoon has been spent watching Toy Story 1 and 3 with Lego on the go, plenty of knitting time!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend and sneaking in some knitting time too.

Yarn

Who doesn't love a delicious woolly package delivered to their door (well besides my Husband, he isn't such a fan...)

I thought I should show you the delicious Color Adventures yarn I got recently via a Co-op. The main reason to Co-op this yarn on this side of the world is the Canadian postage, its really not Southern Hemisphere friendly. And getting the bulk sent to USA and then sent on from their individually actually works out much cheaper - crazy! However if you live on that side of the world,  you should try some. The colors are amazing, Elena manages to get amazing saturation.

Sweet Merino DK in Sour Cherry. Incredibly soft and a touch redder than in this photo(see below). I ordered this with the intention of knitting myself a short sleeved, sweater length, Winifred. 

Sock in Sour Cherry (this color is more accurate), Sunlit and Pirate's Treasure. How gorgeous are these socks going to be?! I'm not sure what they will become yet, but that 'golden' yarn will be the first to be cast on I think!

How understanding are your partners to yarny packages?? Mine has come to understand this is life now, but the less he sees the better for sure ;)

Yarnalong

Seems like it has been an incredibly quick week, and somehow we are back to Wednesday again! We are still in school holidays here, and we have had a busy week, and still enjoying a lazy holiday at the same time.

I have whipped up a new design this week, in the same series as last weeks Yarnalong project, in fact I am on #4 of the series now. Accessories are so much fun to knit, I do love the speed of them.

I'm reading the first book in a Michael Connelly series - The Lincoln Lawyer. And I am really enjoying it. I have read some of his other series based on a policeman, and I really enjoyed them too, they aren't the typical detective story and this doesn't appear to be  a typical lawyer story. I haven't got as far as I would have liked with either of these today though, I was too busy hand washing a woolen duvet ....

A cute book

Books are a big feature of our house, they were when I was a child myself. In fact I remember my Mum cataloguing every book in our, very bookshelf heavy, house at one point of my childhood (in the days of typewriters), its probably no surprise she became a children's librarian. And books continue to feature heavily in our family. We all read a lot. I read a LOT. And my kids are book lovers too. We have more books than is probably necessary, and we visit the public library 1-2 times every week, and yet I am still always on the lookout for lovely books to buy for my children.

Which is why, when I saw this book, I had to bring it home with me! 

All the pretty purple knitting is soft and raised, so cute!

And the mouse goes on an adventure, knitting all the way.

 Too much knitting? Is this a problem?

No, its perfect!!!

Its a really sweet book, and I love it so much. To be honest, its more for me than it is for the kids, but they enjoy it too!