Simple Skyp Socks – Pair # 33

It had been ages since I’d made a pair of socks so during my July holidays I started these gorgeous socks from a free pattern I found on Ravelry. They’re called Simple Skyp Socks and they sure are simple.

I love the easy to memorise two row repeat which certainly helped me to get into the rhythm of the pattern.

And for once I selected a solid colour that would really show off the very smart stitch definition.

The yarn I selected is Dyed By Hand Yarns’ Tough Stocking in the colourway called Turmeric. It’s a 75% merino / 15%  nylon yarn and was beautiful to knit with.

In total I used 66g of yarn and also used 2.5mm dpns.

Over 3,400 pairs of this particular sock pattern have been used and recorded on Ravelry!!

This is definitely a ‘come back to’ pattern. It’s a step up from a plain vanilla pattern and yet easy enough to knit when you’re chatting with friends as the pattern is not overly intricate but certainly looks effective.

Now for a little bit of exciting news. I responded to a request on a recent Ravelry forum to test some sock yarn for an Aussie online yarn dyer and I opted to knit a pair of socks so I am using the same pattern to trial the sock yarn. I’ll be posting updates on my Ravelry page as I go so you can drop in at any time to have a look!

The sock yarn arrived today in the mail and I’ve already taken some photos. Here it is…

Aside from my favourite autumn colours, I do love all the different shades of blue. This particular colourway is called ‘Ink’ and I must say I love it!

One last look at my Simple Skyp Socks and then I’m off to wind this skein into a ball so I can get started!

And I’m off to Knit and Knatter tomorrow. We’ll be at the Redland Performing Arts Centre in conjunction with a Suitcase Rummage that is being held there at 11am. Should be an exciting day! Every weekend is now filled with lots of fibre happenings 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie

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A Multitude of Minnies

When I find a knitting pattern that is easy, looks good and doesn’t take long, I seem to use it a few times! Which is what happened when I saw one of my Knit and Knatter friends making this Minnie scarf. I made one and so did some other women in the group. Minnie is definitely a hit – the perfect portable project!

My Cream Minnie is made with Sussex Wools 100% cotton. I bought six balls of this cotton at a charity stall. It’s made in South Africa and I can’t find any reference to it on the internet at all so I’m thinking these balls were stashed away in someone’s cupboard for quite a while before being donated to this charity stall. I’m so glad I bought them.

The cotton feels lovely against my neck and I love the fact it’s a completely natural fibre.

I love the edging. It looks just like popcorn doesn’t it?

# 2 is my Blue Minski Minnie and is made from Mirasol Yarns Minski which is a 10ply / worsted 100% baby llama yarn. It is simply stunning!

A beautiful blue colour just like the ocean…

So, so incredibly soft and warm…

# 3 is my Black Signorina Minnie and is made from Moda Vera Signorina which is a an 8ply / DK 57% acrylic / 40% wool / 3% other yarn.

There’s a limit to how many photos you can take of an item that is just black!

# 4 is my Grey Dalmatian Minnie made with Moda Vera Dalmatian which is a 12 ply / bulky 82% acrylic / 12% nylon yarn.

Synthetic fibres certainly have come a long way over the years. This yarn is incredibly soft and lends itself well to be a scarf.

I love the subtle pale blue in the yarn…

# 5 is my Green Splice Minnie made with Yatsal Craft Crochet Knitting Cotton which is a 4ply / fingering 100% plied cotton. I picked up two balls of this cotton at a second hand shop as I fell in love with the variegated effect of the colouring.

I love the stripe effect towards the ends and the pooling in the middle of the scarf.

A perfect little scarf for spring and autumn.

Have I convinced you that Minnie is a great scarf to knit??

I’m off to the inaugural meeting of the Queensland Bayside Yarn Club this afternoon for four hours!! It’ll be fun to meet some more crafty women and hopefully complete a project or two.

Until next time…

Melanie

My First Sensational Spinning Camp

Phew what a great weekend I’ve had! I attended my very first spinning camp with the Redlands Spinners and Weavers. The venue was the House of Happiness (even the name is appropriate!) at Woorim on the beautiful Bribie Island which is north of Brisbane, on the way to the Sunshine Coast.

I was very fortunate to get a lift with Shirley who picked me up at 2.30pm on Friday. We hit a couple of congested areas along the way but still made good time. There was a hive of activity at the venue as we arrived as everyone was unpacking and setting up their wheels and seating.

We were also very fortunate to have two ‘shops’ at camp. Lindy (who is our Ashford agent) brought along lots of her goodies.

And I finally got to meet Angela from Shorn Fibers as she brought along a wonderful selection of her fibre and yarn. If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I buy a lot of my yarn from Angela!!

Two workshops were held on the weekend. On Saturday we were taught how to make these cute little sheep.

I think I need to perfect my technique somewhat…

My little sheep is in the middle…

And here is the flock of sheep!

Thank you Linda for teaching us to make these cute sheep!

In our second workshop Shirley showed us how to make these beautiful boxes…

The lid and base of each box was made with eight pieces of paper folded like this…

Very intriguing and very clever I must say. That’s me holding my box.

My little sheep has found a home!

One thing I did buy which was quite an investment was an Ashford Blending Board.

You can blend fabulous fibres in your favourite colours and create beautiful rolags for spinning on the Ashford Blending board. The pack includes a large 30cm x 30cm (12’ x 12”) blending area, a blending brush and two dowels for easy drafting, rolling and removing the rolags, a removable, rotating adjustable keel, 108 point cloth, and a convenient carry handle. It has a lacquered finish too. Some of the girls on the camp went crazy using blending boards. Lindy brought along four to sell and they all went quite quickly!

Here are just some of the rolags created on the weekend.

I’ll experiment with my blending board over the next few weeks once I’ve packed away everything I bought at camp! I need to do some serious rearranging at my place to fit all my spinning gear in! I did, however, buy some fibre packs from Lindy so I can make a good start creating some colourful rolags on my blending board.

We had a wonderful dinner on Saturday night and the tables were beautifully set by our wonderful camp convenor, Jan.

Jan and her husband made the Jazzy Jumbuck cut-outs plus the little gifts we were all presented with.

Our personalised name tag, notebook gift plus our Jazzy Jumbuck theme for the weekend.

I also bought a couple of notebooks and bookmarks from Jan as well. Love them so much!

This is what the hall looked like at dinner time!

Empty! We were all very well fed I must say. As you can see, the most popular spinning wheel was the Ashford Joy obviously for its portability.

 I was lucky enough to win three of the raffle prizes so I donated two of them to my friends and kept this lovely sheep for myself. He does have feet but they’re a bit hard to see.

I had the most wonderful weekend spent with wonderful crafty women who were so willing to share their company and knowledge. We had a lot of laughs and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Thanks must go to our camp convenor Jan who puts so much effort into making our camps so successful. I will DEFINITELY be back next year!

That’s me in the middle.

I didn’t get as much spinning and knitting done as I anticipated as I was much too busy talking, shopping, eating and having fun!

I’ll show you the yarn I bought in the not too distant future.

Until next time…

Melanie

Two More Scarves….Just Enough Ruffles and Sandpiper

A couple more completed projects from my Noosaville holiday….Sandpiper Scarf and Just Enough Ruffles Scarf. The Sandpiper Scarf is from the pattern Bias Scarf with Ribbed Cables which is a free knitting pattern on Ravelry.

This is a very cleverly constructed scarf with cables on either side and garter stitch in the middle and even though you’re knitting straight rows without any increasing you automatically get a bias effect.

The yarn I used is Shorn Fibers Merino Superwash Worsted and the colourway is Sandpiper (hence the name of the scarf!) This is a beautiful yarn to work with as are all of Shorn Fibers‘ yarns which I adore.

My second scarf Just Enough Ruffles is another easy beginner scarf which has a wow impact with that ruffle.

I did block this scarf but only very lightly.

The ruffle is obtained by knitting three stitches into one thereby tripling the number of stitches in the row.

I had to search through my stash to find the yarn I wished to use for this scarf. I knew it would suit the pattern and I was right. It’s Skein’s Alpaca Merino Worsted which is a 60% alpaca / 40% merino yarn.

Two more successful projects off the needles!

I’m very excited as next Friday afternoon I am off to my first official spinning camp with the Redlands Spinners & Weavers. It’s going to be two days full of spinning, knitting, yarn, fibre and mixing with like-minded crafty women. And I’m finally going to get to meet Angela from Shorn Fibers as she will be having a small stall at the camp. You’ll hear all about it as I’m going to take lots of photos and no doubt buy a skein or two of yarn 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie