March Socks

I’ve discovered the best sock pattern so far! This one is also from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. It is the Child’s French Sock in Citron Pattern and Diaper Knitting. Of course, as with all the patterns in this book, the child size has been scaled up to adult size by using larger needles and thicker yarn. Here is the finished article:

I have loved making these socks. The pattern is ideal. It is a simple enough design to accompany TV watching, with no need to refer to the pattern frequently. It has enough variation in each row to maintain interest. The pattern repeat is six rows, which I found just right to encourage me to knit to the end of a pattern repeat, making me get on with it faster, and the pattern also meant that there was no tedious counting of rows to make sure I had each sock at the right length.

I also really like the fact that the toes were Kitchenered,

the heel is a French heel, so has a lovely curve instead of the straight heels I’ve had on the last couple of pairs I’ve made,

and I just love the overall look.

Perfect. I am just so, so pleased with this pair of socks. I was a bit disappointed with the ones I made last month, so I’m thrilled to have now found the best pattern so far.

Hanging Decoration Thingy

This is the other item I made in our little sewing bee:

It is made from an almost semi circle of fabric, stitched into a cone. The top edge needs to be made neat somehow, and the example one I looked at had bit of binding stitched ever so neatly round, giving a perfect finish. My finish was rather raggedy. It was a bit randomly gathered and not quite straight. This led to the decision that what was absolutely necessary was a bit of ric-rac to cover it up. Which was also sewn on not quite straight. sigh.

Heart Shaped Lavender Bag

Here we are, curves!

From this side it looks OK, doesn’t it? I simply cut out two hearts, then stitched round, leaving a reasonable allowance. Once I got a couple of inches from the bottom, I paused and stuffed it with lavender. This was a bit tricky, as I did it whilst it was still on the machine – I didn’t want to stop and re-join. I apologize to our host for all the lavender scattered over her kitchen floor! Then I carried on to complete the heart shape.

From the other side, you can see it all a bit clearer.

You can see which bits I found the hardest. This isn’t quite the smooth curve I was after. I also have to admit that I had a go with the pinking shears to make it look less uneven than it originally was. It has yet to be prettified. It will have a button attached, and a ribbon to hang it up with. I should, of course, have stitched in the ribbon already. This has become a recurring theme. Think before starting!

Lavender Bag

I was chatting with some friends a while ago, and we were discussing our sewing machines. We were all a little bit scared of them. A little bit too intimidated to try to do anything much with them. What do you do to make yourself less scared of something? Face it en-masse, of course! We dusted off our sewing machines, brought them together and sat round a kitchen table with the express intention of Just Making Something.

The first thing I made was a lavender bag. Having knitted the one in the Debbie Bliss book, I knew it was just a rectangle, sewn into a tube, then with the ends sewn up. So off I went! This is what I made:

As you can see, it even got a ribbon so it can be hung up.

I had no trouble going along the straight lines. My belief that I absolutely cannot sew is obviously not completely correct. I can sew straight. For at least three inches.

This is the bit I hand sewed. I’m quite pleased with this. There are a couple of bits where you can see stitching, but not too badly. After leaving a gap to funnel lavender through, I stitched up the final bit, including the hanging ribbon. Had I been sensible, I’d have put the ribbon in the other end, then it would have been machine stitched in, which would make it a lot more secure. See! Mission accomplished, I learned something. Think about ribbon at the start, not as an afterthought!

The next thing I made involved stitching in a curve. More on that tomorrow!

February Socks

Here are my Blue February socks. Normally my feet are blue in February anyway, but they’ve been toasty this year! These socks are a simple rib pattern, quite quick to make. Do you see what I did with the pattern? I made it match. Almost. See this:

There’s a part where the yarn missed its grey stripe. Disaster! I didn’t notice it until I had almost finished the second sock, and realised I had reached the beginning of the toe shaping at a different colour of the yarn. This is going to irritate me every time I wear these socks. I even thought about knitting another one to get the pattern perfectly matched. Unfortunately I don’t like them enough to be bothered, and they are also just slightly too small, so not worth the effort of knitting a third sock. I’ll just have to put up with it, and try to ignore the little fault.