Socks, Swatches

I had intended getting some of the Forest Canopy done last night but it was football on telly and concentration was out of the window when the men of the house were shouting at the box.

Instead I took account of my works in progress.

The April Sockamania socks started off OK but the fairisle knitting has been getting tighter and tighter. I doubt my skinny daughter would be able to get her feet in them never mind me with my big fat ones. This is a project I am unfortunately going to write off to experience and give up. The pattern however I am not giving up on. I saw a suggestion that instead of doing fairisle and using 2 colours it would be good to use 1 colour and purl the coloured stitches rather than doing them in a different colour.

Same goes for the Penathlon socks. The yarn I chose is, I think, felting yarn rather than sock yarn and is quite itchy. It is knitting up OK but I am not enjoying it at all and I would rather quit now when I am only half way through the first sock than carry on with something I just don't want to be doing. The pattern itself is lovely and with the right yarn will be a joy to do. Maybe another time. I will still be looking at the next pattern and even though I have quit before the first hurdle I will probably have a go for fun. I am looking on it as a learning curve because I have learnt a lot - knitting on 2 circulars for a start plus the short row heel.

That left me with one pair which are from Simply Knitting magazine. Last time I looked at them they were like this.

After last night they now look like this. A few more rows done. Got about 5cm to go before the heel.

It is a simple, lacy pattern and being knit from the toe up rather than cuff down I can make them as long as I like or as long as the ball of wool allows. This one has a different style of heel to the pentathlon socks so I will be learning a new way of doing it. I've only done the short row one and the heel flap cuff down before. This looks like a combination of the two. Gonna find out in the next few days anyway.

I did the swatch for the Mystery Lace . The dimensions seem to be correct so I will go with the big cone of yarn I got. The pattern calls for neutrals and pastely shades but I think I can get away with this. It is cream with a black fleck.