Socks On My Needles: Curling Mist Socks

For the last few years I've been looking at handknit socks as a luxury item: I dabbed into it a little with a pair or two of plain knitted socks (with my first ever pair miserably shrinking in the wash), but I lacked the patience for the beautiful patterns that fill some Instagram and Ravelry pages.

Last September, right before lockdown no. 2, I went on a short break to Northern Ireland and found some funky sock knitting yarn. I could have found the same locally, but as I was on holiday mode I found it obligatory to visit a wool shop and easier to spend money than if I had stayed home (sorry, local yarn stores, I'll make it up to you!).

The yarn in question is Funny Feetz by James C. Brett, it's not a luxury yarn as I had hoped I'd find, but I still find it decent enough, with a good mix of wool, polyamide and bamboo, very easy to knit with.

Then I happened to find a post on Facebook about The Handmade Sock Society a few weeks ago; I think this was the last day that I could join at a discounted price (and who can say no to a discount, right?).

So I purchased their bundle of 6 sock patterns, where there is 1 pattern release each month during 6 months: it's a little like a mystery knit along, but with 6 different sock knitting patterns, where you only discover one of the knitting patterns per month. I don't know about you, but I find this very exciting (I probably also need to get a life, but at least I have the excuse of our country being on lockdown and knitting is one of those little life's pleasures that are still allowed, as long as you have your stash/shops that sell online 😅).

Here's my progress on the Curling Mist Socks:

It's a simple enough sock pattern, not too intimidating unless you hate cables. I happen to like knitting cables, it's just a matter of knowing where to place the cable needle, these are easy cables as they all go in the one direction. Of course I've decided to make things a little harder by using the double pointed needles instead of a circular needle, but that's just because the smallest size circular Knit Pro needles I have are 3.5mm and I am using 3mm to match the pattern. It takes a little time to get used to, but with nice needles like those (I'm using my Knit Pro Zing metal double pointed knitting needles, yarn distributed between 3 needles and using a 4th needle to knit the stitches and a 5th as my cable needle), everything is easier.

Can't wait to finish these and start on the second pattern, which was released on March 4th, but I'm not known for keeping deadlines, at least not when knitting is concerned 😅.

I Heart Cables Cowl Knitting Pattern

My second knitting pattern of the year is this beautiful cowl, with heart shaped cables:

This nearly broke my own heart because of how many times I've had to restart, since I wasn't happy with the width at first, then the finishing... Did I mention my stubbornness here before? Actually the politically correct way to call it is perfectionism 😉.

This is called I Heart Cables Cowl and is available as a digital knitting pattern through Etsy and Ravelry.

It features 8 different cables, so it is not the easiest pattern to knit, but once you think logically about how a cable must look, it will come naturally, maybe one for the cable knitting nerds out there, but I'd encourage advanced beginners looking to improve their cable knitting skills to try it. 

I know, only 2 patterns so far in 2021 and we're already nearing the end of February but who said there was a race? When you have a full-time job and a family (granted my children are at the age when they can look after themselves), plus when you keep creating others ways to keep busy (my sewing machine is looking a bit guilty, even though very pretty in its brand new cover right now!), it's difficult to keep up with plans of taking over the world of knitting patterns 😂.

Head over to Sophie's Knit Stuff on Etsy if you'd like to grab the pattern. It would make a lovely gift for Mother's Day 😉.

I Love Cables Headband

After 2020 being a year of limbo, and I'm sure I'm not the only one saying this, I wanted 2021 to be different, so I decided that I should get back to creating and selling a bunch of knitting patterns.

It's been a few years since I've created new items for sale: these past few years I have kept knitting, but the items I've knitted were all gifts (to myself as well as to others). The I Love Cables Headband is my first finished product of 2021 and I published the knitting pattern on the usual suspects: Etsy and Ravelry. 

I am particularly proud of my I Love Cables Headband as I designed the cables myself (not without the usual bit of swearing, frogging and re-knitting), those cables are as close as I could manage to make them look like hearts, because you can never have too many heart shaped things coming up to Valentine's Day,  which was the time when I was working on it.

I re-used a little of the same pattern when designing my new cowl, (which I was hoping to have ready before Valentine's Day too but I think I may have overestimated my speed and the amount of time I had available to me 😅), this is still a work in progress but I can already say it's even better than the I Love Cables Headband, up up and away!

5 Years Later:

 I should be ashamed of myself, a whole 5 years without a single blog post 😳.

A lot has happened in that time, a few life changes, all good, but these have kept me busy, so now I've adapted to those changes I'm back, hoping I can keep up with Sophie's Knit Stuff blog. 

During the last 5 years,  I've studied hard and passed my Accounting Technician course, got a part-time job, found love 😍, moved on from the part-time job to a full-time job, which is my excuse for neglecting this blog, as I have less time for knitting and other crafts, let alone for blogging!

Well except for today: I am home since I have to wait for my daughter's (hopefully negative) Covid test result😷. And since I'm stuck at home, I'm catching up on:

1. My long neglected blog 🙋  Sophie's Knit Stuff;

2. Finishing my sewing machine cover; 

My Brand New Sewing Machine Cover

I've used a pattern from Sew Can She, it's normally for a kitchen mixer, but the size fits an average size sewing machine, plus it's got pockets, very handy for sewing notions!

During last year I've done quite a bit of sewing as I wanted to make reusable fabric face masks, I also made some cute oven mitts and even though my sewing skills are not the best (don't look too closely at my binding strips 😅), I think I've finally got rid of the fear of the sewing machine 😂.

3. Finishing up my latest knitting pattern: 

Already all knitted up but now I need to work on the less fun parts of designing knitting patterns, i.e. add pictures, proofread and translate the pattern in French, find the correct keywords in order to get the views (and hopefully the sales 💰). I promise I will post an update here when it's all done.

That's all for now folks! I need to keep a little to talk about next time so watch this space for more updates, you can all still follow me on my Facebook Page, Instagram, Twitter, and of course Etsy.

That Time Already? Catch Up Show And Tell...

It's been over 2 months since I last updated my blog: I will blame my accountancy course but if I'm honest it's probably all the time I spend on Facebook that's the guilty party.

Here are a few things I've been doing since August:

2 knitted dogs: one for each of my daughters. Not my favourite things to make but if my kids are happy with them, I'm happy:)

I've decided to learn a few new knitting stitches: here's entrelac, which would probably be good for a cushion cover or a blanket, but since I'd rather crochet large home accessories than knit them, I don't think that's really for me (my curiosity about knitting entrelac has been satisfied, I can move on;)

Cheering for the Galway hurling and gaelic football teams with a maroon/white headband: I'm not into sports but if I'm going to support a team, might as well be a local one (I won't mention the French rugby team that miserably failed at beating the Irish team last Sunday, I should really forget I ever tried to take an interest:(

More knitting experiments, and I've discovered twisted stitches: now I can twist to the right, and I can also twist to the left! I'm not sure how I've lived (knitted) for so long without knowing about these, but I immediately started to see a few possibilities:

 A crochet blanket (or afghan if you want me to be posh about it;) in progress: 77 of these circles made so far, the blanket is supposed to have 132 but I'm not sure whether I'll make it full size; these little circles are going to be made into squares and joined using grey, this is my week-ends project (but I can be seen working on it from Friday to Thursday if I'm between other projects;)

My lovely shiny wool that I've decided to start using at last:

I had planned to make a lace wrap that can double up as an oversize scarf (I do like accessories that have more than one use) but since it's looking like I'll need at least 4 balls of each colour and possibly also 4 weeks each to complete - especially if I'm going to continue studying AND caring for my children at the same time. I only have 2 balls of each colour, I can't see it working with different colour stripes (did you call me stubborn?) and even if I could afford buying more wool I wouldn't be guaranteed to find the exact same shades, so I've decided to made some smaller accessories...to be continued in a few weeks (or follow me on Facebook) if you want to see what I've decided to make with it.

Oh and I nearly forgot to include the mini project I made at the week end: these are 2 microwavable heat packs made with fabric scraps (I'm trying to use cotton but I don't have labels of all my scraps so I'm closing my eyes hoping they won't melt or explode in my microwave oven while I heat them up). I filled these with rice and set the oven for 30 seconds on full power (I think mine goes up to 850W), but I think they need to be heated for longer - hopefully nothing bad will happen!

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July Crafting, Exams, A Birthday And Holidays.

I successfully sat both my accountancy tests last week and I'm due to go to France in 3 days so I'm taking a break from studying until I come back (or until the girls are back in school at the very end of August if I can get away with it:)

My latest make is this reversible tote bag that I made for my youngest daughter - she wanted to make it herself but it took me so long to get the supplies ready and I must admit I was being a bit of a control freak and was afraid of mistakes. I think maybe a smaller project like a small lavender bag may be easier for her to start with (and for me to let go a little of my control-freakedness)

I've also been working a little on my yarn stash and used the best of a giant 400g ball of aran yarn with this knitted infinity scarf for my eldest daughter (I made her a grey slouch hat last year so now she'll have the scarf to match), as well as 2 crochet hats that will be listed in my shop probably from September as I'm a bit poor on time at the moment - one slouchy and the other in a more classic shape.

I also finished my daughter's green cropped box top (or turquoise - we tend to fight about colours a lot as I don't seem to see colours the same way my daughters do - They see blue when I see green!)

My daughter's birthday is tomorrow and since both my girls are spending a few days with their Dad I had an early little birthday party with a not so little birthday cake:

I wanted to cross-stitch a birthday card and since she loves "My Little Pony" I decided to do Rainbow Dash: I just hadn't planned on it taking so goddamn long! It's a surprise so I started making it in my room during the day when she's in her room or outside playing - I did manage a few hours per day but now that she's at her Dad's until tomorrow I've been spending most of last night and today on it (while binge watching "The Killing" on Netflix). I do have to go to town tomorrow so really putting in the time today and I hope to have it finished by tomorrow evening when she comes home (but I can't promise anything).

The day after I get my girls back I have to pack for our annual holiday in France so I really, really need to finish thay Rainbow Dash quickly (especially since I'll be driving 4 hours to get to the Ferry and I'll need to rest my eyes from all the cross-stitching before going on a long drive). I'm overdoing it on my eye drops (because I suffer from dry eyes and I need eye drops even when I'm not cross-stitching) so hopefully I'll be able to see the road and not billions of tiny rainbow coloured crosses!


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Sewing, Knitting, Crochet, Studying, Holidays...

I didn't know what to call this post, so it's a little bit of everything I've been doing in the past few weeks.

I finished this little bird shaped lavender bag for Emilie's teacher which she gave her on the last day of school:

I got the lavender in TK-Maxx (yes, I know, it's not the first place I would have thought of either, but I grabbed it all the same when I saw it) and I have some left so I'll make some more for the car and the house when I get a minute... Or a few days;)

I also made my teenage daughter this laptop bag which I'm very proud of. I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a padded bag with handles and velcro fastening and I wouldn't settle for a pattern that didn't do everything I wanted it to, so I mixed the instructions for a tablet cover from a sewing book I have at home and watched a Craftsy video tutorial to learn how to attach strong handles. I also added a little inside pocket that's really handy for storing earphones (also learnt through the Craftsy tutorial).

I haven't listed anything new on my Etsy shop, but summer is usually quiet enough for knitted and crochet accessories, so I'm happy enough renewing items as they expire for now.

I spent the last 2 weeks doing quite a bit of studying - as much as I could anyway, not easy with my daughters now on holidays and at home most of the time - so not doing a lot of knitting during the day but I managed to finish my summer top while watching "Who's That Girl" on Netflix in the evenings.

I even managed to finish crocheting my youngest daughter's top that was left unfinished since last month (oops!)

I've just applied for my mock exams so that I can sit the first set of exams before going on holidays next month - I'm not the stressed-out-about-exams kind of person, but I'd rather have them out of the way when I'm visiting my family for 2 weeks in August - then I'll be ready for more studying as my next modules should be available by the time I'm back from holidays (if I do pass my exams, that is;).

In the meantime, I have to finish my eldest daughter's knitted crop top and I have a few little sewing projects in mind to use up some of my fabric scraps. I hope to make a few more Fimo buttons for using on new crochet or knit mug and phone cosies (the last buttons I bought on Ebay are very cheap looking so I don't want to use these on my accessories, maybe my daughters can find some craft projects to use them for).

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