Woes and toes and toos

I nearly finished the first pink sock and it was far too big.  I was convinced it would be too small but somehow my measured gauge of 32 sts per 10 cm was only really 28 sts.  So that's why it was very wide and the length was too much too.  too too toottity too.

I've been working away at Percy#3 in the meantime and am now on my second run through of chart B.  I'm still enjoying it but finding each row takes a long time so I can only fit two in at lunchtime. I don't want to take it to knitting on Thursday though (dark yarn and a dark pub and patterning every row will equal a very bad knitting hangover on Friday) so I'll start some simple socks in yarn bought from Berlin.  Berlin was brilliant and deserves a post all of its own!

Pink socks

I'm really pleased with how my new pink manolo is progressing.  The pattern is a combination of simple and interesting which is what I need in a sock to make sure I finish.  I'm going to Germany for a few days so might come back with a finished pair.  and lots more sock yarn :)

All Craft Media in Administration

All Craft Media (ACM) have just gone into administration owing money, yarn, garments and magazines to many people.
ACM were a phoenix company from Knit Along Media (KAL) who closed down owing money, yarn, garments and magazines to many people.

A new company has been started called Handmade Living.

All of this is connected to Kerrie Allman who closed Magknits, an online magazine, I believe owing money, yarn, and garments to many people. She also ran Hipknits (which is now run by her father) which certainly in the past and possibly now, owed money and yarn to many people. There were also knockon effects to other UK based web companies as overseas customers were reluctant to buy from them as they had b een told that Royal Mail are incredibly unreliable, by Kerrie Allman when Hipknits yarn was not delivered.

There is plenty of information about this on
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/friends-of-the-group-once-known-as/2116987/1-25

All through this, people have been accused of lying, trolling, witch hunting, bullying etc.  Please feel free to read the information and draw your own conclusions.

New projects

I was browsing through the knitting pdfs on my computer to put Percy on my Kindle when I noticed I owned Manolo already. I knew I wanted to buy it and had lined up the yarn in readiness, but I do not remember the purchase. Happily, I was able to wind the yarn and try a new cast on method in between percy shawls.

It's a slightly fiddly but really cool way to cast on for toe up socks and can be found here.  I don't think I can remember how to do it again so will have to use the instructions but you almost do a long tail cast on but over two needles.

On Sunday, I bought yarn and needles and beads to knit a Percy for my Aunty and it all arrived on Tuesday.  Excellent service from Violet Green, Pavi Yarns and Beads Direct.

So I now have plenty of knitting and both patterns are on my Kindle.  I was excited to find that although the pdfs look a bit small on the screen (as the screen size is roughly A5 instead of A4) I can zoom in, scroll around AND make notes! So, no more losing bits of paper with measurements and gauge on, or running out of room in the margin.  Hooray! :)

FO Red Percy for me

I showed my new percy to my aunty at the weekend.  She was very taken by it.  I had showed her the grey version when it was still in production and she'd seemed...doubtful.  This one really impressed her, partly because she preferred the colour and partly because it didn't look like a dishcloth.  I suppose I forgot that stretching part of the knitting out over my knee doesn't perform the same transformation as full on blocking does.

She liked it so much I've agreed to make Percy#3 for her. Yarn, bead and needle shopping followed.

Red percy - I hit a snag

The Percy shawl needs LOTS of yarn for binding off. Look how close I was to the end.

I think I managed about 90% of the stitches with the yarn held double. The recipe specifies that you should bind off loosely, and you'll see why when it comes to blocking. A tight bind off, or even an average bind off, will restrict how dramatically you can shape the edging points.

Here's what not quite enough yarn looks like:

More than you'd think? Here it is all neatly wrapped back up, ready to try again.

(here it is posing with my early birthday present)

I decided that rather than try the bind off with one strand of  yarn, I'd double up with another colour. My options were red Dye for Yarn or wine Fyberspates.

I opted for the sparkle sock and one bind off later, the percy was ready to be blocked.  Look at those lovely points!

Taking a small financial risk

All of the patterns I have written lately have been for the magazine and the yarn has been provided.  I submitted an idea recently that was too late to fit into an appropriate issue.  Or possibly it just wasn't quite right for the magazine.  Well, I'm still keen to make it and thought I'd buy the yarn myself and then publish the pattern on ravelry, putting my money where my knitting is, so to speak. I saw some wool in my local department store on Saturday when I was dashing in with my nephew to buy a ball for Sunday morning football and noticed it had the desired colour range.  I gave up at looking online as the yarns I was investigating had plenty of colours but on the websites the colours were not in rainbow order, or any order really, so I couldn't easily tell if they had what I needed. I went back today, with some trepidation as I realised I would be investing about £65 in this endeavour.  I wasn't too convinced that I'd make this money back. Maybe I will, eventually, but still.  So, I was very pleased when I looked at the next shelf in the shop and found far cheaper yarn, in even better colours! It all cost me £17, and even if I didn't make that money back, I'd still feel I had a bargain of a blanket.