Blogtober 2022 : Day 1

Sankey Valley Park

Hello, hello, here we are again – it’s October which can only mean one thing … Blogtober!  I had such a lovely time taking part in Blogtober last year that I thought I would join in again this year.

In case you’ve never heard of Blogtober before, it’s a daily blogging challenge throughout October which means that there will be a post for you to read every single day this month, you lucky things (you can define “lucky” for yourself! 🙂 ).  I’m not going to follow any blogging prompts as some people do because I found that last year, talking about what was going on through the month as the days unfolded felt much more natural and made it easier for me to keep up with the daily posting, so that’s what I’m going to do again this year.

Don’t worry that you’ll get bombarded with emails if you’re on my mailing list, I’ll still only be sending one email out every week but all of the week’s links will be on there so you can catch up if you want to.

Like last year, I’ve chosen a project to work on during Blogtober – well, actually, I’ve got a few as I’m still trying to finish things off.  It’s quite shocking amazing how many projects I have found hidden away in various project bags, although the good news is that I am finding the all that needles that I thought I had lost.  Anyway, whilst I am still working on the pattern for not so small daughter’s Japanese socks (the first sock is finished but I have to wait for a week or so before I can start the second so that I can follow my own pattern – if I knit it too early, I can remember what I’ve done and that’s not helpful when I need to check what I’ve written 🙂 ), I thought that I would finish off the pair of Carousel Socks that I started knitting in September 2021 and then ended up unravelling as I’d gone wrong with the pattern.  I hadn’t realised it had been sitting in a bag for so long!

The yarn is a hand-dyed skein that I bought from The Fibre Fox in the shade Clematis – it’s very pretty, isn’t it?  I don’t know if you can still get this particular shade but there are lots of lovely yarns on the website (I had to go and have a look for research purposes 🙂 ).   The sock blocker is made by Victoria of D19EcoFriendlyLife.

Also on my Blogtober finishing-off list is the cover for a pouffe that’s been sitting unclothed in our living room for far too long.  I can’t remember if I ever mentioned it to you when I started making this, but we brought the pouffe from my late mother-in-law’s house and when the last of several re-coverings started to fall apart, I decided that I would make a new woolly cover for it.  Crochet seemed to be ideal way to make a large circle to cover the top and then continue down the sides and after a conversation with my Crochet Guru, she recommended this bag tutorial post from her blog to help me.  I think the yarn might be a Hayfield wool blend, I’ll let you know when I can find it again as it wasn’t in the project bag.

Here’s where I’m up to with my upside-down bag cover …

What do you mean, you can’t see what it’s supposed to look like?!  Neither can I until I try it over the pouffe for size and each round is taking me an age to complete so I can see exactly why I put it away and forgot about it, but I was very pleased to see how well it fit when I got it out again.  I was surprised to find that I’m actually half way down the side of the pouffe so there’s really not that much more to do and even if I don’t finish it during Blogtober, another few rounds mean a few less to do later so I’m going to add it to the list.

Finally, I’m going to make myself another pair of Split Mittens.  Oh, I absolutely LOVE my Split Mittens!  I’ve worn my original pair from this pattern almost to destruction and they are starting to look distinctly tatty now so I thought I would make myself  a new pair which will be more acceptable to be seen out in public.

This yarn definitely is still available (it’s Rico Essentials Mega Wool Tweed Chunky) as is the original yarn that I used for the pattern, Hayfield Chunky with Wool, and there’s nothing like a pair of chunky mittens to keep your hands warm!  What’s special about the Split Mittens pattern is that there’s a split across the palm as you can see in the picture, and that lets you take your whole hand out of the mitt without needing to take it off – it’s brilliant for dog walking, dealing with children, getting keys out of bags – any time when you want to keep your hands warm but still need to use them.

The Split Mittens pattern is free on the blog (you can find it here) and apart from my my Basic 4ply Socks pattern, this is the only one of my patterns that I’ve made several times – this will be my fourth pair!  This may be another project that I might not quite get finished (I’ve just realised that I may be over-estimating my capabilities for this month!) but I’ll keep it on the list anyway.

Thanks for being here today as I get stuck into the Blogtober challenge and I hope you’re having a lovely Saturday – I’ll see you tomorrow!