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Fair Isle Beachcombing Socks

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I’ve always loved beach combing for sea glass. For years I searched on every beach that I visited and seldom found a piece of the elusive blue sea glass. Then after Bene came to live with us, we started visiting the tidal beach at Hazelbank. Bene loves the seaside. He loves to paddle and swim in the sea. He loves chasing his ball on the sand. He loves it on sunny days, overcast days, wet days, in hailstones, in snow. He just adores the beach. So walking on the beach has become a daily event every morning for us.

Fair Isle Beachcombing Socks

It was while we were walking on this beach that I spotted the first tiny piece of blue sea glass in amongst the pieces of mussel shell. It glinted in the light like a tiny sapphire gleaming in the sand.[Read More]

Beachcombing Striped Socks

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I love wandering along the beach picking up pieces of driftwood or bits of sea glass. It is so relaxing to walk on the beach in any weather. I feel a sense of calm when I sit and look out at the waves lapping on the shore and feeling the warmth of the sun on my face. On the day we were photographing these socks there wasn’t much sunshine. We didn’t have any shelter during the heavy showers and then we’d have a quick dry spell to try and take a few photos.

Beachcombing Striped Socks

We brought a bag of sea glass with us to Crawfordsburn beach. I’ve seldom found blue or aqua coloured sea glass at this beach as there is mainly clear, green or brown scattered on the sand. Our sea glass comes from a tidal beach near to the old city landfill. There is nothing quite like the beauty of sea glass gleaming like jewels on the beach. It is gleaming all the more in these photos because of the showers.[Read More]

Nepeta Sock Pattern

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I loved the colours in the skein of Hand Dyed Opal Sock Yarn – Nepeta colour way and couldn’t resist winding it into a ball as soon as it was dry. Glorious summer colours in a skein of sock yarn. I adore this colour combination and the beautiful catmint and hardy geraniums became the colour inspiration for these socks. I’ve always loved analogous colour schemes particularly on the cool side of the colour spectrum. This sock yarn goes from violet purples through purple to sky blue, silvery green and teal greens.

Nepeta Socks

I knew there would be a lovely swirling movement in the colours as I knit the socks and decided to use garter stitch stripes to add some texture to the legs. As I wanted the swirl to continue evenly down the leg I decided to knit the heel flap and turn the heel using the other end of the ball.[Read More]

Arne & Carlos Socks

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I began knitting these cute socks back in February. Because when I’d finished knitting the Arne & Carlos Teddy Bear I still had most of a ball of this lovely Regia Design Line Arne & Carlos 3653 Star Night left. I decided to buy an additional ball of the sock yarn to give me enough yarn to knit a pair of socks. I had noticed when I was knitting the bear that the pattern repeat for this sock yarn was very long. So I decided not to worry about having identical matching socks.

Arne & Carlos Socks

I loved the colour of the blue 4ply yarn that I’d used for knitting the bear’s scarf. I’d used up a small amount of Diploma Gold 4ply for the scarf. I wanted the same contrast for the sock heels and toes. The perfect choice was the WYS Signature 4ply Spice Rack – Juniper 157. [Read More]

Nepeta Colour Inspiration

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I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the photographs for my Nepeta Colour Inspiration. I’ve been having a lot of fun dyeing a new range of sock yarn. I recently bought some gorgeous undyed skeins of Opal sock yarn which became the new Hand Dyed Opal Sock Yarn range available in the Knitting Squirrel Yarn Shop. I was inspired by the purple Nepeta Six Hills Giant and beautiful blue, pink and purple hardy geraniums in full bloom and found myself mixing these beautiful colours in dye. I find the beautiful summer colours around me so inspiring.

Nepeta Colour Inspiration

I love the colours in the Nepeta skein – pinks, sky blue, silvery green and teal – and couldn’t resist winding it into a ball as soon as it was dry. This soon became the lovely Nepeta Socks… [Read More]

Antarktis Shawl

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Antarktis Shawl designed by Janina Kallio is beautiful. The pattern calls for one skein of your favourite hand dyed fingering weight yarn (100g) although I made a larger shawl and used 200g of sock yarn.

Don’t worry if your shawl looks as small as a napkin at this point. This is one of those projects where blocking really does wonders.

So soak thoroughly & block like you mean it!

The designer used a 3.5mm circular needle but mentions that she is a loose knitter. I did a couple of tension swatches and although, I knew that my tension was going to be too tight using the 3.5mm needle, I just preferred how the knitted fabric looked using this needle size.

Antarktis Shawl

Now I knew that no amount of extreme blocking was going to turn this shawl into one that I could wear.
I’m a bit plumper than I really want to be![Read More]

Needled to Death

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A review of Needled to Death, Knitting Mystery Book 2, written by Maggie Sefton. It is July and Kelly Flynn is settling in well with fellow knitting group members in the House of Lambspun, Fort Connor, Colorado but she and her friends are shocked when one of their group, Vickie Claymore, is murdered at her nearby ranch.

Needled to Death

Kelly discovers Vickie’s lifeless body whilst she is escorting a group of impatient tourists up to the alpaca ranch in Bellvue Canyon.[Read More]

Noro and Kidsilk Stripe Scarf

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I really enjoyed knitting the Noro and Kidsilk Stripe Scarf. It is an elegant summer weight scarf in simple stripes.  This is striped scarf knit using Noro Silk Garden Sock and Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

Noro and Kidsilk Striped Scarf

Noro Silk Garden Sock is one of the gorgeous Noro yarns in amazing colours of lilac, mauve, purple, pink, olive green, navy and ice blue. The yarn is a lovely blend of 40% lambswool, 25% silk, 25% nylon and 10% kid mohair. [Read More]

Shetland Hap Shawl

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When I read about The Shetland Hap Shawl with Gudrun Johnston, the new Craftsy Class, I just knew that I had found the Shetland Hap Shawl that I wanted to knit. Her pattern for Hansel the half version of the Hap Shawl really appealed to me…

Shetland Hap Shawl

Knitting the Shetland Hap Shawl had been on my wish list for a long time and I’d looked at a few different options.[Read More]

Shilasdair Luxury 4ply & Isle of Skye

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Shilasdair dyer, Eva Lambert (has since retired from dyeing since this article was written), is inspired by the intense but subtle colours of the Isle of Skye landscape where she lives and works and the legacy of Scottish natural dyeing. There is a subtle and vibrant beauty in the colours created by the natural dyes that she uses to dye her gorgeous luxury yarns.

Shilasdair Luxury 4ply

Shilasdair Luxury 4ply is hand dyed on the beautiful Isle of Skye in 24 magical colours. I used 5 of these to knit the Shetland Hap Shawl. I loved the depth of the colour in the Blaeberry and used it as the main colour in the shawl. The yarn is lightly spun and wonderfully soft and warm.[Read More]