Spring is the perfect time for lighter hand-knitted socks and Alexandra (Korora Knits) has just the right pattern for the season. She joins me at #KnittingHour on Twitter on Thursdays and gifted me this Snowdrops ankle socks pattern. As it happens, I had just the right yarn for it, too. Or so I thought. As it happens, I am wearing these socks right now! They feel good on my skin, but as you can imagine, silk isn't ideal for socks because it does make them rather slippery. The material is not as warm as pure wool or a wool and acrylic blend, which is great for the warmer days of spring. In fut ..read more

As you may remember from my last post a few days ago, my Yarnlings socks weren't the only ones using Eden Cottage Yarns' wonderful hand-dyed wool. This collection of tiny woolly balls called Yarnlings are perfect for small colourwork projects. The reason I bought them in the first place was so I could knit a pair of Advent calendar socks. This seemed far more fun than just buying an Advent calendar even though there are so many different kinds to choose from nowadays. But I was bored with them and wanted to do something. I remembered how much I enjoyed making Advent calendar scarf in 2012 an ..read more

If you haven't heard of Eden Cottage Yarnlings yet, don't walk - run! Yarnlings are pretty little 5 g balls of hand-dyed yarn that are perfect for small colourwork projects like cowls, scarves, and socks. Now, if you know one thing about me, it's that I love knitting socks. So it comes as no surprise that that's exactly what I did with my full colour palette of Yarnlings. This pair is actually the second one I have knitted with this yarn (details to come), but it is the first I finished. I originally used the yarn for colourwork Advent socks and used the leftovers, plus a second set of Yarnli ..read more

My friend Cora welcomed her long-awaited baby just over a year ago now. Even though I have known from a young age that I didn't want children, I was strangely excited about Cora's daughter. I knew she had waited a long time for her, so it felt special to me, too, and I shared her excitement and happiness. As all knitters know, a pregnancy announcement marks the beginning of a baby knitting frenzy! I have knitted for babies a few times now: Bamboo Baby Blanket Scottie Dog Cardigan Teddy Bear Baby Blanket Blue Steps Baby Booties (pattern link inside this post leads to Ravelry) Sleepy ..read more

  There are few things more beautiful than a perfect rainbow. The same goes for self-striping rainbow yarn. I had been longing for just the right rainbow yarn for quite some time and my search came to an end as soon as I came across the Signature 4-ply self-striping yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners. The Rum Paradise colourway immediately caught my attention at my local craft store and two balls just so happened to fall into my basket... To bring out the beauty of this yarn, I decided to simply knit a pair of plain socks. No fancy stitch patterns, just my go-to vanilla sock (you can find ..read more

Now, I am not the type of person to knit a pattern more than once. I get bored easily, so I am not very likely to cast on the same thing again. That being said, if I knit something beautiful and only get the chance to use it a few times before it gets snagged or eaten by moths, I will give it another go. And that is why I cast on another iteration of my beloved The Daughter Heir (Ravelry link) socks. My first pair was stunning, knitted in a carefully chosen peach shade, and I loved them. Imagine my horror when I visited my in-laws shortly after finishing these socks, wearing them proudly ..read more

  There's just something incredibly tempting about mini-skeins, I don't know what it is. So when I went to Sip.Stitch.Knit. in Bath in the spring of 2019, I just couldn't resist this Pingle micro-minis bundle from Meadow Yarn. The colours are very me, ranging from a light grey to turquoise to a dark grey.  Each 10g skein of superwash merino and nylon is plied with silver stellina that gives any finished knit a brilliant sparkle. It doesn't come across well on the photos, but the yarn has a LOT of sparkle, but it is somehow subtle at the same time. I love it! It's probably the best s ..read more

  I don't even remember how many years I the Owlie sock pattern (Ravelry link) has been on my to-do list. I came across it fairly early in my knitting journey, so it's been a while. And yet I never got round to actually casting on until 2021.  Of course it had to have beads. I love working with beads in my knitting even though it does slow down the process. However, it's always worth it, especially when knitting lace. These socks are cabled instead and beads are only used as the owl's eyes, but they are very effective. Owlie socks look best in a single, light colour, I think ..read more

  There are few yarns as soft as Puyu from Amano Yarns. The name alone tells you exactly what you get: "Puyu in quechua means cloud, and our Puyu yarn is exactly that. Made of Baby Alpaca, Puyu has been spun in a light and airy structure and mixed with Mulberry Silk. This results in Puyu being as light as a feather and as soft as a cloud." The Alpaca fibres are introduced into a silk tube, resulting in the softest yarn I have ever held in my hands. It was a pleasure to knit with and I would love to use it again. I used the caramel shade to knit an improvis ..read more

  WARNING: This blog contains links to Ravelry, most of which it isn't feasible for me to remove at this point. However, from now on I will add a disclaimer to any future links to Ravelry in case you would prefer to avoid them. I am in the process of replacing/adding links to my knitting patterns so you can purchase them on other platforms instead, if you prefer. For the moment, please be careful when clicking links. As you may have heard, Ravelry rolled out a new website design last month and there have been reports of it having accessibility issue and causing physical problems, incl ..read more