Home again … and gone again!

Not so small daughter came home from Zanzibar ten days ago now – goodness, the time has flown!

I drove down to Heathrow in the early hours of the morning to collect her as her flight arrived at 7am and I’ve got to tell you, 2.30am is the time to be on the M6 motorway!  It was great, hardly any traffic, no hold ups … it was very different at 5.30am after I’d stopped for a snooze at a service station before heading to the airport in time for her flight.  Coming home was even busier and I wouldn’t do the two journeys in one day again given the choice, but we had plenty of breaks and it was so good to get home with our traveller!

She looks like she travelled fairly light but I can tell you that our bathroom looked like something had exploded on the moon at one point as there were clothes everywhere and little bits of gravel and dust that had obviously lodged in all kinds of places …  apparently “unpacking” means taking everything out of the rucksack and lining it up on dry bags (they’re the orange waterproof bags on the sofa) for your Mum to put away but I don’t have to do it all the time so I let this one go 🙂

And then, just a week later, we were on our way back to uni and she was gone.  It had been a busy week of hair cuts, clothes and food shopping, long lie ins (for the student, not me), chatting, spending an afternoon watching back to back Disney Pixar films and now the house seems very quiet … although my phone hasn’t stopped pinging with messages about the shower in their student house (it’s not working properly), how the bus drove straight past her at the bus stop on her way to work (she was furious), whether she left certain items here or she just can’t find them … we’re back into our student routine!

I’ve been filling my time with knitting – goodness, we had rain of Biblical proportions yesterday and I would not have been in the least bit surprised to see an ark filled with animals floating past at one point!  It absolutely bounced from morning till night and what else can you do but sit and knit on a day like that? 🙂

I finished off my second Ryegrass sock …

and when I came to take the photos this morning, the sun was shining and the sky was brilliant blue as if we’d not had any unusual weather yesterday, and Hattie wanted to touch toes in the sunshine.  The two yarns I used for these socks are Yarnsmiths Merino Sock in shade Violet and Regia 4ply in shade 05025 (I think this shade is long discontinued, I’ve had it in my stash for years); I had a 100g ball of the Yarnsmiths and a 50g ball of the Regia and I used 40g of Yarnsmiths and 30g of Regia for a pair of 60sts UK size 5 socks, so you can see they’re good for using up leftovers!

I was glad to finish them as I needed my sock needle back because when I came to knit the toes of the second pair of Christmas socks I hadn’t finished from last year, I realised that I had knitted two socks in different sizes.  Aaargh!  This not what you want when you’re already late with a pair of colourwork socks!  I’ve had to unravel the second sock back to the cuff (veering from angry muttering to the verge of despair as I ripped out the yarn) and I need to knit it all over again.  I’m hoping I’ve got enough yarn left as I was using leftovers and cut the yarn as I went along … oh well, I’m going to find out soon enough!  Here’s a photo of a pair that I did actually finish …

the unfinished pair are knitted with Winter Icicle yarn so the film section is in shades of blue.  They’re lovely – I just didn’t want to have to knit three socks for one pair!  That’ll teach me to make proper notes …

And on the subject of notes, I mentioned last week that I’ve been writing a gift knitting guide and that’s now out gone out for a trial run as it’s always good to get a second opinion 🙂  My guide is designed for those knitting for Christmas, and I’ve created a second version for holidays (as not everyone celebrates Christmas), and now I’m wondering whether I need a third version for general gift knitting … what do you think?  The Christmas/holiday guides have got information on organising your knitting plans and gift lists, Basic 4ply Sock and children’s socks patterns, a new IOU letter and sock labels, and charts for keeping track of your knitting list and details – I think it’s a pretty comprehensive guide for keeping all your information together!  I’d need to change it a bit for general gift giving but it’s do-able … I’d be interested in your thoughts!

Last week, I also mentioned the pattern for the Well-Travelled Socks which I designed for not so small daughter’s Kilimanjaro climb and that’s almost ready for release as well.  I’m going to be releasing a second pattern called Sloping Hills at the same time, which you may have seen before if you’ve got a copy of the Sock Knitting Bible by my friend Lynne Rowe as they were designed as a project contribution.  The pattern rights have been returned to me and I’ve re-written it in my own style (as opposed to the book style) and I thought that it would be a nice opportunity to have two new DK sock patterns available at the same time.

Finally for today – talk about the time flying, it’s nearly the end of the weekend! – I have finished all the knitting for the polo t-shirt I decided to knit myself in the summer and it’s just in time for the colder autumn weather when you don’t want to be wearing short sleeves 🤣

I could always wear it with a cardigan over the top and I may well do that so I don’t have to wait until next year to wear it!  Astrid said she would help with the sewing up …

but I don’t think she’s really got the idea of what the word “help” means!

It took me quite a while to get the sleeves to fit properly as they weren’t smoothly decreased but I think I’ve done it now.  The whole thing is back in my work basket pinned up and ready to go so I really must find time this week to get it finished off.  It’s been a long time since I knitted myself anything other than socks to wear and I haven’t finished the jumper I started last year (I’m not sure about the fit and I’m thinking about pulling it out, but I’ll talk to you about that another day) so it’s exciting to have this nearly finished!

And that’s this post finished too.  I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I’ll catch up with you again soon! xx

PS   Yes, Astrid has gained something of a spare tyre in case you’ve noticed.  She’s on a hypoallergenic diet at the moment which has stopped the itching but put on the pounds and as we can’t get to the bottom of the allergy, I’m a bit stuck for now.  I am trying to work out a plan, though!