Socks, Socks and More Socks *RSC spoilers*

no, RSC sadly does not stand for Royal Shakespeare company, but for Rockin Sock Club. I did indeed buy myself an early birthday present and the first installment HAS ARRIVED! huzzah, but more on that in a moment…

Firstly to my January Sock-a-month Sock – Esther in Blue Moonstone, affectionately named Moonflowers.

I cast off on the 31st (well it was still the 31st in some parts of the country) and blocked them today. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! I decided to do the larger of the two sizes but could probably have done the smaller size as it turns out, but still nice to have a sock i don’t have to struggle to get over my heel. I was REALLY worried about running out of yarn as i finished the first sock but according to weight i have enough and i have about 8 grams left *phew*

Any one in Melbourne today will realise that there was no natural light available pretty much all day, so the colour isn’t quite true, but close

I freaking love this yarn too. It’s the second time i’ve knitted with the lightweight and have also worked with the heavyweight, but socks that rock, really do… ROCK!

Unfortunately the same can’t be said of Zauberball. I started a pair of socks with the teal and black just before christmas, so i would have a pair to wear to the footy this year (my team is teal, black and white) I did Sam by Cookie A which has a zig zagging travelling cable on it. Now, I don’t cable with a cable needle, especially when it’s lots of little two stitch cables. but this yarn was HORRID for cabling with. mostly because it was a single on 2.25mm, but bah, time again and i would not match this yarn with a cable pattern. In fact, i was so disappointed with the yarn i’m swapping one of my other sock-a-months which was going to be zauberball for something else. Look, the yarn isn’t terrible and i think i might want to do a shawl with the other colourway i have of it, but just have to think a bit more carefully about what i do in it, and not as nice as i thought it might be with all the hype. It has come up softer after a wash though!

One more FO to show off before we get to the juicy stuff.

the Richmond Knitters have monthly (optional) KALs and January was Swallowtail, a shawl i’d been wanting to do in this handspun for AGES…

Angorino plied with CamelBunny Silk from Ixchel

So i did. I’m afraid it’s really hard to photograph on ones own, though if it’s cold tomorrow i will wear it to my Melbourne birthday drinks and get someone to take a picture. but this is more or less what it looks like and i love it. I did a full repeat of the lily of the valley section for size. had to fudge the edge lace work a bit, but it looks good in the end!

 

but on to the real item… the first installment of the Rockin Sock Club. Now i assume that if you have read this far down the page you are happy to view the photos so i am not putting them behind cuts… You’ve been warned!

 

seriously.

 

 

I won’t take flack about showing off photos when it clearly says spoilers in the heading!

 

ok…

Here are the TWO, that’s right, TWO colours that make up the first installment. Aubergenius paired with Pinkie Swear designed to go together for beautiful colourwork!

Aubergenius is very hard to photograph. At first i thought it was brown, but it’s actually a very earthy purple. Just beautiful. Pinkie Swear is lovely given it has pretty much every colour i don’t like in it! I love the blue though, so maybe that makes it all better? Together they are beautifully autumnal and the two patterns make great use of them! I’m actually going to do one of the patterns in these, because i’ve never seen such beautifully twinned yarn! BUT who am i going to give these autumnal socks to? we’ll have to see (no seriously, I have no idea.)

The two patterns are both stranded knitting, one with a cute image of birdies and ‘BFF’ around the cuff, the other incorporating cabled circles into lovely squishy boot socks. The designers are Mary Scott Huff (Distelfink) and Lucy Neatby (Social Network) and they’ve both done an amazing job. I really like distelfink, but i think i want to do it at some point in two semisolids, as i feel the pattern gets a bit lost in the variegated yarn, so i plan to do Social Network in these two yarns at some point.

I very much enjoyed my first installment even if it was very un-jen! It’s really fun to feel a part of something!

And the inside of my ball band? Wallace and Gromit 😀

Sock Clubs…

Happy New Year Everyone!

Can’t believe it’s taken me til this late in the day to remember that i can open up my first self imposed sock club parcel for January. taking a leaf from the Yarn Harlot’s book, I have put together 12 yarns with 12 patterns to make 12 socks, one per month. I have wrapped them all in tissue paper so i don’t know which is which and i picked one out before i came to adelaide for christmas so i could open it today…

and the first combination is…

Esther* in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight (longest yarn name ever?) in Blue Moonstone

YAY!

Speaking of sock clubs and BMFA – I am almost certainly going to get myself an early birthday present in a few days time and sign myself up for the Rockin Sock Club 2011. I really love their colours yarns and, most importantly, the exclusive club designs i’ve seen. (well in the past anyway!) plus sock clubs are just plain fun!!

The last few months I’ve been taking part in the sKnitches Cinema Sock Yarn Club There’s one installment left which should arrive just after i get back to melbourne! It’s been really fun, and so far only one yarn has been really  not me, and as meatloaf says, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad! I don’t have a photo of the third installment yet – Ikea Boy, based on Fight Club, complete with FIGHT CLUB SOAP!!!!! ikea tapemeasure and pencil :), but here are photos of the first two

Wanda – A Fish Called Wanda\

At first i didn’t like this, because of the orange, but it’s grown on me a lot and it’s soooo beautiful to touch, with a seacell component. It’s made it into my sock a month selection 🙂

7 Days – The Ring

I couldn’t believe how perfect this was when i pulled it out and unwrapped it! It’s self striping and i will totes make socks to wear to the footy out of this (I go for Port Adelaide and their colours are pretty much what you see here…) I might even make vanilla socks since i love the yarn sooooo much i wouldn’t even get bored!

As I mentioned the third installment was Ikea Boy and it is, indeed the colours of Ikea -which is actually quite impressive. This might go up for destash at some point unless i think of a project/present it would be right for.

Anyway, hope you’ve all recovered from NYE and i wish you all a happy, yarn filled 2011!

*ravelry link