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.

No wrap short rows

Can you say hurrah! I love the look of the short row but I don't like the wrap and turn business. So we have these brilliant instructions as part of the Charisa Martin Cairn's Lifestyle toe up socks.

Arohaina Socks

Here's the second sock I've made, started in late October last year. I've only got a few inches beyond the heel so I've probably got about 3 or 4 to go. I'm using a Seaweed Sock pattern but I'm finding it really tedious. The beautiful Arohaina sock yarn by NanacindyNZ is quite thin, about 9 sts per inch so with all the changing between K and P means it takes ages.

These socks are toe up, it took me a whole night to find a cast on I could do but ended up with the Double Knitting Cast On from Let's Knit2gether, Thanx Cat! I agree it's cool and easy.

I've taken the sock off my needles to start a completely different simple pair using a different yarn. I think at this stage being new to knitting socks mean I just enjoy stockinette in the round from the top down. I hope to get back to knitting these later but I'm not into it right now.

Finished socks - Balrog Socks

I've been meaning to post this for yonks but for some reason I haven't, here are my first pair of knitted socks - First Socks.

The yarn for these was supplied by unionmaid a lady I meet through Ravelry who taught me how to knit socks by giving me yarn, needles, a pattern and lessons!

These socks taught me a lot about knitting with four dpns, turning a heel and Kitchener. I really enjoyed them because they were quick to knit, 18 days and the alpaca in the wool is so cuddly. I followed the pattern exactly so I've got a golf ball of yarn left over and I wish they were a bit longer. I've thought about cutting the cast on and knitting up to make them longer but I enjoy wearing them too much.

Knitting baby socks/booties

Lil Leila Provenzano

Baby measurements are a bit of a mystery to me, I know they are small and grow fast but when and how?

Sock sizes and measurements

Shoe size chart by age

Basic sock calculator

Estimate sock yardage

These all fit very well into Sock-u-lators

SockItToMe Please please!

EY Handpaints Original Yarn SockItToMe

I've been listening to Lime & Violet and they mentioned this lovely yarn store which has great international shipping rate and a beautiful 'House yarn' EY Handpaints Original Yarn 

I've featured the sock yarn as that it what I'm into at the moment, its NZ $31 for the first skien including shipping and $27 per extra skein.