Judy's Magic Cast On

The only toe-up cast on I can do is Judy's Magic Cast On. The best description with pictures I have found is on Persistent Illusion however Cat Bordhi's Knitty article and videos are also useful.

Family + Knitting = Happiness and a sock

Often muggles (non-knitters) think that knitting is something that old ladies do while waiting for their grandkids to come round. [For a great explanation of the phenomena see Episode 96 of Sticks & String 'I'm busy'] My in-laws joke about this, claiming that Ravelry is one of the few places where people would pretend to be older than they are. They do however happily let me knit while I talk to them. To keep a flow of conversation going I'm still needing to just do stockinette socks, and more than appropriate seeing I am doing a gorgeous pair of man socks for their son in marine yarn. You can easily have a lovely time with your family while knitting and then you end up with an item as well as a lovely time.

Equally I spent a great afternoon with my father knitting my first pair of socks in a friendly cafe which let us spend hours over our coffee post lunch so much that we ordered another pair of coffees. It's wonderful to wear knitted items you remember making with while talking to your loved one. I'd love to get a headset and use Skype to talk to my mum so I can knit while talking to her.

Sock club love!

I'm part of the Vintage Purls Summer Sock Club 2009 and I'm loving it! I received the second package yesterday and the first last month. The first come with a wonderful bag, pattern and yarn, the second with a gift you knit for yourself, pattern and yarn. They both came with some yummy lollies which is such fun. The cost was $95 so with each skein of yarn being usually $23 for Limited Edition and patterns usually being about $5 and the with gifts I think its very good value. Its also the fun of our own ravelry group and the joy of having unique yarn and patterns. I also love communicating with the purveyor Morag who taught me to Magic Loop. She is also the only online yarn shop in New Zealand to stock Knit Pro so I love being able to order more neeldes that Morag pops in my sock club packages for free shipping.

Here's Vintage Purl's picture of the first yarn and pattern called Bluesky Baby which I haven't started - I'm scared of lace but I hope to do it one day, or failing that I'll make lots of blue booties.

Knitting marine man socks

Wow, stockinette socks are still really really fun but going so much faster. I'm speeding along with a lovely hand dyed 100% wool sock yarn that was a gift from maude & me's miss tracee.

This photo was taken two days ago and I'm already 4" into the leg. Still got heaps of yarn to go, these will be quite long. I'm glad I put in the negative ease as its created an almost ribbed look around the instep which looks really cool without all the tedious work of rib knitting. I really love the slight scratchiness of the yarn, feels really appropriate for man socks. I might have to do some calf shaping to fit as they could be quite long from what yarn I have left. I really love the no wrap short row heel, still a few holes as it joins the instep but none along the heel.