Planning my makes

 

Above are 4 new velvets. All are stretch and I have plans!

Well I am still not able to sew. But as I mentioned in my last post I have been making plans. I can sort fabrics and patterns and get ready so that is what I have been doing. I have been advised not to spend time bending over a table eg. to cut out fabric for  my next sewing project. Orders from my Physio!

I may have to ask my other half to cut some new dog coats for me because they would be an easy sew and the dogs need them. It would be a nice easy first sewing project for me to get back into the swing of sewing again. Its been weeks now and its really getting to me. I feel like an invalid when I do manage to go out because I need crutches to ensure I stay stable and do not fall.  I feel like an old lady with them. I find it embarrassing. We went out for breakfast yesterday and it was so hard just walking to the restaurant which is upstairs over a shop.  Hopefully not too long to go now and I can be "young" again ( relatively speaking anyway!). 

Anyway, I have been buying fabric for patterns I have been intending to make for in some cases years. Not good for my stash busting which has been going very well for around 2 years now and has seen a serious dent. I found some lovely fabrics when I could do nothing but sit still, so thought I would write about these because there is no sewing going on to speak of. 

Well I had all this time sitting with nothing to occupy me other than knitting which I am slow at due to problems with my hands and Audible. What else could I do but let myself free to plan and that led to buying because in all honesty I cannot currently even get to my stash let alone rummage through to decide what to use and I bet I don't remember half of what is in there!

I have got a skirt I will need to hand-tack to get it to fit. Its an old make but the hand woven wool its made from is lovely as well as warm so I need to get round to fixing it. I made the skirt several sizes too big. I then bodged it but have decided it needs to fit properly and last winter I took it apart to do these adjustments and then never did anything else. Now seems the right time to get this sorted out. Also the cold bit has yet to come here in the UK, and I should be back out and about by then so its good timing to do this because the fabric is 100% hand woven wool. Woven by a small scale crafts-person in Scotland.

So anyway, I have probably enough fabric for the rest of my life if used just for what clothing I actually need, rather than what I want. But my stash is mostly "officey" and I do like some fun bits too. It seems it is mainly the fun bits I use since I make the smart casual work stuff when its needed and not the rest of the time. It just stays stashed until something looks a bit tatty then I replace the tatty item so this "officey" fabric hardly gets used. Not really that surprising I suppose. Though maybe its time to find uses for the officey types of fabrics ( suiting etc) for other items worn outside of work rather than leave it stashed and possibly to be eaten by moths! Or even mice because its in storage. Anything could decide its a nice comfy place to live in lets face it. Its not happened so far fingers crossed, but could. Its the nature of storage spaces. I need to have a look at whats on the high street and see if I can become inspired to use some of the boring grey and black "officey" fabrics I seem to have in huge quantities. 

So this is what I have bought- and there is a lot!

My new fabrics - same photo I am afraid but here in detail:

Well there are the stretch velvets in 4 types. From the top left: sparkly black which is lovely and £2.50 per m. Its available in 4 colours. I have since bought a second piece which is not yet here and is blue. The sparkles don't fall off unlike most of these kind of fabrics I have had before. Good fabric for the price!

Blue/ black at bottom left is a weird irridecent with a black when its dark in one direction and bright electric royal blue in the other so it kind of glitters depending on how the light is. Cost £5.95 per m. Impossible to take photos of well as it turns out. Then top right is a feather print magenta piece which is very fae. Same fabric at bottom right but in red and green. The red green is not a good photo I am afraid. Both are lighter weight, very stretchy velvets which would make good dancewear. 

The glittery blue/black and the black with sparkles are both thicker and heavier with good drape. Better for dresses and leggings, but all 4 pieces are lovely. I think these two will work with patterns for scuba. There is another piece yet to arrive of the sparkly black, but in royal blue instead. That's because I but this sky blue (below) which was wrongly described. Its not at all stretch, but should be according to the website. They will allow a return and apologised about the mis-description, and will even pay the postage for it but I decided to keep it anyway because I just will not buy 5m of anon- stretch velvet. I am sure it will be useful for something! 

I have Burdas back to the late 50s and until the 80s nothing was stretch. So I do not have a clue what I will do with this but even circle skirts like some 50s dresses have is possible. So into the stash! I might even make an ankle length circle skirt or an Edwardian style skirt. And a top. Not yet sure, whereas I do know what I am doing with all the stretch fabrics.

Having said that I saw this jacket in Next. Its a velvet puffa jacket!

Well Velvet! 

Never considered doing that. But there is a similar coat and jacket pattern on the Knipmode website so I may have to buy the Knipmode pattern and make a puffa jacket. It seems for some reason I could not get the photo of this without the caption so you will have to just try and see this regardless I am afraid. 

I actually have enough for a full length circle skirt and a puffa coat or jacket so this is tempting. I am just not convinced my sewing machine will manage to quilt and it will need to do so to make this coat from the blue non-stretch velvet.  It may be something I need to try though because although it would not be waterproof it would be a lovely "going out" winter jacket. I think it could look nice in pale blue velvet as well. I cannot see me wearing the long skirt and jacket together but sets are not usually my thing really and separates would be fine in the same colour anyway. This is definitely a tempting option.

Just for info I also found a free puffa coat pattern on Mood Sewciety but have not yet had a good look at that but it could be a good pattern. When the fabric is this cheap its worth using it to make a wearable muslin because I can still make another one later regardless which pattern I go with. Maybe out of some "officey" fabric from my huge stash.

More fabrics

This on left, is sold as wine sweatshirting and is £2.50/m. Very cheap. I have looked at it for several months and not until now gone for it, but decided to take a risk and buy 2m which is the minimum they sell. Its not shiny as expected and reminds me of the expensive tops in mountain climbing clothing ranges. I have bought another 3m because its so good. I have a couple of Knipmode patterns in mind that originally used scuba but I am not a fan of scuba. Having said that I did find some lovely non-shiny scuba camo a few years ago and love the items I made from it but most scuba seems very shiny and reminds me of old fashioned 70s and 80s leotard fabrics. This sweatshirt fabric should work just as well I think. Also I intend to use it to make this dress that's been on my to-make list for quite a few months. I bought the pattern second hand from the local Oxfam shop for £1 but its uncut. I actually bought a few patterns and they had hundreds but when I went back they had all sold.  It would be a lovely winter dress for Christmas holiday season if I can get myself sorted out to actually sew. If not then next spring will be just fine.

The ribbed cuffing (the rest of the fabrics in that photo) is a bargain lucky dip for £12.99. Since its full price is £6.99 per m this is well worth buying. 

I never bought any of the Pound Fabrics lucky dip boxes before but I will do again. Especially for things like cuffing. Its all remnants of under 1m but its easily worth more than double the cost and with cuffing you tend not to need much at a time so its a brilliant way to get lots of colours fast for only small cost. Glad I risked this one too. And luckilly I only got decent colours which will be easy to use. Thats what has always put me off this kind of bargain box. The possibility you end up with lots of hated colours you find hard to use. 

Right then plans:

All of these fabrics are from Pound Fabrics in case you wanted any and no I do not get anything for letting you know that. Beware of Pound-a-Metre though. I got ripped off by them more than once. All companies mess up occasionally so I gave them a second chance and a third. They ripped me off 3 times so it was not just bad luck. The two companies tend to come up together in google searches. 

Black/red wool mix. This is lovely. Slight stretch - good diagonal stretch and £6.50/m. Very nice and I should have bought 3m not 2m. This has been available before so if they restock and I have money I will buy more. I will probably make something that will show both sides so maybe a high low top or skirt? Not yet sure. I bought this one because they had only 4m left and I never got any last time they stocked it. I worked then. This would be fine for officey clothing  but I will use for every day "play clothes" for me. The picture is not very good. Its a black red marl on the darker side and bright red with black flecks on the red side. Nice!

I bought 2m of the stretch lycra printed velvet in pink ( not my usual colour choice because I usually actually avoid pink!) and a single metre of the red and green. 

Its supposed to be feathers. I will use it the opposite way to the grain because I prefer that print. Also against nap makes the colours darker. I though it was very Fae. I have recently been very inspired by this book:

I had this book for my birthday, and its inspired me to think again about "Fae Fashions". I used fae as a theme a few years ago and ended up with some lovely stuff so I reckon this book could be a good place to start again with a theme. I am thinking around 1m of this velvet will be a puffball skirt similar to my previous version years ago. If you would like a really easy tutorial on how to make one have a look. Mine has an elastic waist but if you wanted a solid waistband its simply a case of cutting a band to fit you pls a could of inches ( 5cm) for an over lap. Attach both skirt piece and lining and insert a zip. Any skirt pattern will explain this bit so I will not waist time here doing that but the pattern I used can easily be a puffball without the elastic waist.

Since I like comfort and Christmas tends to mean an expanding waist I might stick with elastic for the proposed new skirt. Anyway, it was so easy to make this and they are back in fashion. They were not in fashion when I made the black one but I always think its a nice thing to have available for when I am in the mood for a puffball. That's actually not very often, but at the time I just fancied seeing if I could make one. I have worn it far more than expected since. I do fancy a velvet one and a couple of puffed sleeved velvet tops I think. That's not set in stone but its how I am thinking for this winter. 

For a small person I bought 1m of this. Its french terry and this small person always likes a top I made previously, so I will make him something to match. I only bought 1m but that's enough for maybe a sweatshirt and shorts for a child. Its £9.50/m so not cheap unlike everything else here.

I also bought this red stretch lace. I rarely buy florals and this is very floral but it was £1/m though you have to buy 3m but even then what a bargain. I wish I had had it last summer but I am sure I will find a use for this.

I got 2m of this stretch camo. Its not the best quality, but will be good for a top or to line a jacket when they need a stretch lining - or maybe as a puffball? That's a thought indeed!

Maybe puffball skirts are the order of the day for me this winter. They are warm after all, with double layers and all that gathered fabric. 

Ah, and I bought a few metres of each of these cotton wovens. 

They do not surprisingly come up under camo but you must instead look for super strike! 

They are admittedly not exactly camo but so very similar. They are £1.50/m and are a real bargain in my opinion despite I have tonnes of camo fabrics already. I was already intending to spend this winter using my other cotton camo ( woven) fabric so these can join the pile. Other than using the new stretch velvets above, I intend to be making clothing for next summer over this winter, so hopefully I will dent the rather large pile of camo type fabrics I have collected over the last few years. 

It would be nice to get the velvets sewn for Christmas though, but as I said I currently don't know when I am going to be up to this. It all takes far longer than you expect when you have an op to recover from it seems.

I also bought this cotton fabric called The Haunting. Its probably meant for Halloween but I intend to just make a summer dress or something from it. I have yet to decide but I reckon it kind of goes with my camo pile of fabric so this is now waiting to be washed and will then go one the camo cottons pile I think and become summer clothing for next year.

My biggest investment partly because of the space storing them will take is this heavy weight boucle. 

In three colours so I have the blue, green ( which looks grey in the picture but is khaki green in daylight so very wearable) and white and have enough for the Burda coat I have been wanting to make for years - since it was released in 12/2015.

 I am not so sure this will actually happen this year though, because as explained I already have a very long "to make" list and I also suspect this should be started after New Year with the knowledge I do not want to rush it and make a mess and I want to make a good job of this so its best left a bit I think. I already decided I intend to add the scarf collar from the Burda Easy jacket. 

I do not like the basic round neck but a scarf will be good so I bought extra to accommodate this. I have 4m of the white. That's another fabric in fact I would not normally buy. I rarely wear white and never in faux fur. But I love the cover photo of this coat and I have stopped working at least for the moment so best I make the most of that. For a little while I can dress however I wish and be truly authentic me. What luxury!

I can't really see me not ever going back to work but for now I am free. Or I would be if I could get myself back in working ( and walking) order. It will come. What I really need to find and buy is some quilted cheap fabric to line this with to make it super warm.

Other items I intend to make from the blue and green boucles are the skirts ( possibly) like these below and the  gillet top like this one. These are all from the same Burda Easy magazine A/W 5/2015

Other than these which are all my new fabrics, I intend to finish my long overdue denim jeans, make a RTW copy of a denim dress I nearly bought last spring but tried on 2 sizes. One was too big and the other too tight but I took down lots of detail so I should be able to recreate the dress to actually fit me.

And yes that big pile of camo fabric will be considerably diminished it I do as I intend so next summer will be a camo summer for me. That's the plan anyway.

I also have only my two dry robes left to show you and a pair of leggings. I have otherwise run out of not yet blogged about makes! Or the ones worth mentioning anyway. And that's unusual because I make far more than I blog about. I really want to show you these though because they worked very well, cost very little and pretty much anyone can make these even with minimal sewing experience so I will get round to getting photos of them in the next week or so if at all possible. And the cost of buying a dry robe is extortionate! 

I think other than that my current makes so far in the last month has been all knitting. I  still have a sock ongoing as well as a jumper and will probably start a child's jumper soon too. I like several items with different needle sizes going on at once. I relieves the pain of my stupid arthritic fingers to change needle sizes which is why I do this. Also it stops the boredom when you for example finish the first sock. If I take a day or so off I then want to carry on and do the second sock it seems. Just me.

Have a great week and thanks for popping by,

Take care

Bracken

French Terry rainbow leggings

When I made my Geodesic patchwork top I also made two pairs of cotton french terry leggings. This fabric has lycra in it. When I first used it to make several sweatshirts and dresses I did not trust this though so I never made leggings. However as time went by I also made some baby clothes and clothes for small kids as well as joggers and I realised they none of them seem to get "knees" in them so the lycra must work.

So, I have decided this winter to see how making leggings from this fabric really works. They are obviously much warmer than normal cotton lycra or performance fabric but these fabrics are all pretty "cold" to wear in winter at least here in the UK where its usually wet and often also freezing. Or at least you feel chilly when you wear these and I am sick to death of tracksuits after being in recovery for the last couple of months so I need a change. I can't wait to be able to comfortably wear something else but that's not just yet. A friend of mine who is Polish told me she hates the rain here. In Poland apparently its cold and damp in winter but rains much less. It did rain when I visited Poland, but since I never lived there and was only there a couple of weeks in the middle of winter, I cannot honestly comment if this is true but it would not surprise me, because we do get loads of rain and I know where my brother lives in Provence he gets much more snow in winter but much less rain and he has very hot summers which we only get occasionally. Actually I would like more snow and less rain!

Anyway these leggings are an experiment. I made two pairs. One in this red colour ( well its red next to the blue fabric!). And one in the same blue I used for the top I made. 

his then gives me a nice new look for winter. The leggings so far are warm. I assume if it snows I will still feel cold but they are warmer than I usually wear. They will be a good base layer under snow trousers too. I tend to store my leggings over winter or wear just under skirts instead of tights so this is a new winter look for me. If these work well next spring I intend to make lots of french terry leggings for the following winter. 

I am not sure if I mentioned I have tried to take a new stance when I sew. I am hoping to make next summer's clothing this winter and then the winter clothes next summer. It really does not work well making things for "now" because by the time I finish them the weather often changes. I am sure it will not stop the odd seasonal make but this is my new way to sew. I will see how it works once I can actually sew again. 

Mind you today for the first time I managed to get a pair of leggings on so that's good news and means I am getting back to normal. I still cannot reach to wash my foot at the end of the operated hip/leg! Its so frustrating! I tried in the shower and in the bath. Just cannot do it!

A friend said recently "its just downhill from here on in". I do hope she is wrong! Mind you some people only see the bad things in life. I am hoping to fully recover. I managed it last time so this should be similar.

Back to this outfit. I have yet to try on my new blue leggings. I made both just before the operation, so never got photos, but hopefully over the next few days I will get some. 

These are just my usual TNT patterns McCall's 6173. 

I have several other leggings patterns but decided to stick with basic for these because I need to know this fabric works before its worth fiddling matching up pieces of more colour-block types of patterns. If they do work then I have a bin liner full of bits to play with later for some real multi-coloured versions. Basic first though. Also this is an outfit and I really like that because I am not going straight back to work like usual, but taking a short break and that means just for a little while I am truly the authentic me. That's nice and not something I am honestly able to say when I am working. 

And these items will work great for Autumn layering:

You will have to ignore the slippers. I am having some problems getting shoes on right now so do not unless strictly necessary.

What I have been up to in place of my sewing is buying lots of fabric online. 

Well what else do you do when you have to sit still for days and days? 

I will try to catalogue it for you soon and show what I have bought and what I intend to do with it. A bit like at New Year I usually have some kind of aims and plans. Well right now my head is buzzing with ideas. 

Though I probably have more fabric than I should have bought but its very nice and I actually bought fabric with a definite intentions this time. Usually I random buy, stash, then try to work out what to make later. This time I sat down with my Burdas and some Knipmodes and I planned. 

I even recorded in a notebook where to find what I want and how much fabric I need! 

Organised or what!

I then made a list and bought specific fabric for what I want to make. Some of this has been on my to-make list for years and I now have the correct fabric types to get this done. 

I will have to do this as a separate post because its going to take me a while, but I do want to share this. There are some lovely fabrics around right now at good prices too. I have waited since 2015 to find some at decent prices so I will get on with this over the next few days.

In the meantime have a great week and thanks for visiting,

Bracken

Geodesic sweatshirt with pointed pixie hood

 

I bought this pattern many years ago when The Monthly Stitch was still running. It was part of a pattern bundle I bought during the Indie Pattern Month. I always intended to make it but until now never had the correct fabric. 

The Geodesic pattern does not have a hood but I wanted one so decided to use an existing top to copy. The problem though is the RTW hood is far too small. Its for aesthetics rather than use ( hippy stuff from a festival!). So I needed to make it quite a lot bigger so its actually a real hood to keep me warm not just something pretty to hang down my back.

So I traced round the RTW hippy hood then transposed the hood from a Burda sweatshirt that I know fits me on top and drew round the new design.

After cutting it out this is what I got:

The hood pattern is a very strange shape. I nearly sewed it on upside down but luckily I realised when pinning what I had done. 

This fabric is actually two french terrys ( cotton and lycra) from Pound Fabrics and both were my birthday gift to myself back in July. I did not have a clue what I would do with them just I liked them and so I bought 2m of each. So not the cheapest top since both fabrics were £9.50 /m. 

But the blue in particular is beautiful with gold flecks and I don't mean dark yellow I do mean metallic gold. The "red" is a multi coloured space scape type of print.  Though I also got a pair of leggings from each colour and have enough for a top made from the "red" colour too. I have not yet cut that and it will be a more basic top than this one.

It hit me to make the Geodesic when I was getting ready to have the operation. This then, was one of the last things I sewed. I have been planning to make one for years just never getting round to actually doing it. That never shortening to-sew list! 

I also made two pairs of leggings in these fabrics, which will be a nice change from my usual boring black french terry ones ( H&M) that I wear for most winters. Since I am not right now working they should brighten up my winter as well as keep me warm. Anyway right now I still have a swollen ankle and foot so cannot wear the leggings but decided to wear the top today. It was my first outing in fact  ( other than physio anyway) after the op to see my Mum. I was so happy to actually go somewhere and not be stuck inside. I have missed all but the first few days of September and half of October. 

So we stopped en-route and took these photos.

The pattern itself is an easy make.

 Its tedius cutting all those triangles and the pockets are tricky though not difficult. 

My calculations here were incorrect. I needed two more triangles to make this but it worked in the end. 

If you enjoy patchwork you would enjoy making this top. I made the longer version. 

I lengthened the sleeves with the intention not to have sleeve bands but just hems but I found they were still short so added the bands anyway. So if you do make this pattern check your sleeve length. I didn't I just assumed I would want them longer. I was lucky!

Surprisingly my pixie hood worked a treat. I am pleased with that and will be using that pattern again on a different top or dress. Not so sure as yet what I will make but I do like the hood very much. 

Now when I bought this, I had thought it would be a great pattern for remnants. In the end I properly designed this down to deciding not to have the triangles on the back etc. I just have a plain back piece ( a pattern option)  because I reckon this top looks better with that. I went for an all over blue look too rather than contrasting hood. I do have lots of French terry offcuts though so might have to have a go at another of these in a more multi-coloured remnanty mix in the future because it will be a good way to not waste those bits of fabric you get left with that are just too good to throw. And really how many offcuts do I need for possible pocket linings?

Ah in case you wanted to know the trousers are camo sweatshirting made here.

I have to say though I do love my tracksuits and luckily have loads of different choices of tracksuits, but having lived in them for the last 6 weeks I really do not intend to wear them again (once I can get into normal clothes) for at least a month. I can't wait to wear something else!

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting,

Bracken

WATG socks finished and a new pair started!

 

Updated photos, since the original ones are not very good. These show both my socks and the pattern. As you can see they are quite tight, The result of using a smaller needle to get the pattern to work! Possibly I should have made a larger size. Though they have turned out comfortable to wear and snug. I am just hoping my toe nails do not poke through because right now I still cannot bend and my nails have grown very long over the last few weeks. I think it should be ok though since I am still stuck at home and not wearing shoes.

Not the best photo I am afraid and apparently I never even put my socks on straight,  but the best when I am still recovering. Not long to go now. I have a meeting with my consultant on 23rd and hopefully after that I have no precautions ( keeping my hip at an angle less than 90 degrees, bending forward etc etc) and with luck I should also be allowed to drive again. 

These WATG socks:

I think despite all the issues I mentioned in my previous post they have come out OK.

I like the leopard-skin pattern very much though I still think the kit is overpriced and not in the least flexible.

Further to my previous issues - there is only enough patterned yarn for this size of sock which is a skimpy sized 39 or UK size 6. I am actually a UK 5.5 in shoes!

I would have had to have very large blue toes to get a larger size so yes very lucky there I think to be the correct size for this kit!

Doing the WATG recommended after thought heel would not, I think, alter this very much if at all.

There is tons of blue for the toes though so I assume that's what you have to do for the larger sizes. As previously mentioned I find the top of the sock so the ankle bit far too short. Shorter by 3-4cm than the usual Winwick Mum patterns and by around 12cm shorter than I like to make for myself. I like longer socks. See below for my choice of sock length!

 

There is also this waste bright yellow yarn you get at the start, middle ( where the second sock starts ) and end of the ball and there is just too much of that. Lang do a similar thing and have a bit of pure white yarn to differentiate between the two socks in the single ball but they waste far less yarn. Their separation part is a metre or less in length and works fine. You would have to be pretty stupid not to understand the white bit marks the second sock. I honestly think the WATG kits are wasting far too much yarn and I suspect most people who make these just throw it away. 

Considering WATG market themselves as a sustainable company with lots of very nice recycled yarns I think this is terrible. I really was drawn to this company because of their recycled yarns I have to admit though other than this kit, which was a birthday present, I have never bought any due to they are so very expensive. But I do like the idea. 

Instead I tend to buy "old" as in sold on Ebay or in Charity shops ( "Thrift" shops in some countries)  from peoples lofts and maybe 1970s, 1980s and even 1950s yarns. That gives a viable sustainable alternative, for now anyway, for people like me who have limited money. And most of what I have bought this way has been good quality and quite beautiful!

So these sock kits: well I have lots of this yellow yarn and also the rest of the blue toe yarn and I do not like wasting yarn so I decided to start another pair. After all I have some sock yarn available sitting next to me though only this one ball at the moment.  I cannot go in my loft which is where my stash is so cannot access the rest so this will have to do the job. Its a nice colour and will cheer up my winter. 

This is WYS Signature 4ply yarn in Summer Sunset:

The yellow cast on and top stripes are the waste yarn from one WATG sock and I have even more I did not use. Since I have 3 pairs of these WATG sock kits ( so 2 pairs left to knit) I am going to have lots of this bright yellow. 

The blue heel is the blue from the toes of my leopard skin socks. I considered a striped heel with yellow stripes but will save the rest for a different pair since its the same yellow they use for all 3 pairs so I will have lots of bright yellow edges or stripes in the coming months I think. I might do yellow toes? Not sure. Maybe they would be best in blue. I have yet to decide. You can see I still have lots of the blue left and this is just the one sock so I have double this.

Ah one other thing, to get the leopard print to work ( well almost!) I ended up using a 2.25mm needle. Really I suspect it might work better on a 2mm needle but I have bad arthritis in my hands and a swan neck  ( deformed)  finger so I really could not use a 2mm needle due to the pain so I made do with the almost ok leopard skin spots with the 2.25mm. 

I actually started knitting when I read on an arthritis forum that knitting works better than Physio if you have the issues I have with my hands. I never would have believed when I was younger I could knit something like socks on such tiny needles. Its actually easier than using larger needles and knitting a jumper though due to the weight of bigger items. Anyway it still hurts, especially when you first pick the knitting up, but an hour or so a day is better than most physio workouts - and my Rheumatology consultant agrees!

But a 2.25mm needles seems far different to using a 2.5mm needle. It does not sound so different but pain-wise its massive. There has been a very unexpected upside to this though. When I went back to knitting on a normal 2.5mm needle to do this pair of WYS socks ( using the Winwick Mum basic sockalong pattern) I have unexpectedly found I am knitting this so fast. I do not think I had sped up at all but the ease of using the 2.5mm needle has meant I have in 2 days knitted what normally takes me 2-6 months! Wow!

Its not like I am speeding a long but its just so easy and I have got so used to the pain of the 2.25mm that these bigger needles are a dream and I can knit for longer than usual so the sock is growing so fast. I also an stuck recovering of course! Its keeping me busy.

Well, assuming these get finished before next summer I will show you how they go ina  few weeks if I continue to knit at my current rate. 

As for my other 2 pairs of WATG socks. I think maybe I will join the two pairs together and do stripes of different coloured leopard-skin and see if that makes for an interesting sock. It will at the least make them longer. I have not decided really how to deal with them as yet. At least I now know what sized needle will give reasonable results.

Have a lovely week, see you again soon

Bracken