princessdeia

So I finally finished all 6 socks in the Sock(topus) Club from last year. I was hoping to finish them all within the 365 day period but according to my project pages on Ravelry it was 336 days

For me this sock club wasn’t just 6 lovely yarns and patterns by 5 talented designers, it was a jounrey into different constructions of socks. I considered myself an beginner to intermediate sock knitter, I have knitted numerous pairs of sock -  but I tended to pick patterns that were similar. Cuff down, with a heel flap, decreased gusset and toes. Each of the six socks in the club were constructed differently.

Om Shanti

Toe-up.
Short row toes and heel.
Kihnu Vits and corrugated rib.

Over the Garden

Toe-up (with a square toe cast on),
Heel cup
Reverse heel flap
With added vine and pod details.

Heart & Sole

Toe-up
Bias shaping for the arch
Reverse heel flap
With a lacy cuff.

Scadenza

Toe-up (with the pattern included in the increases)
Gusset increases on the sole of the foot (again in pattern)
Reverse heel flap
Cable needle-less cables
Hundreds of twisted stitches.

Socktopods

Cuff down
Dancing socktopods around the leg
Decorated heel flap.

Mince Pie Mayhem

Cuff down
Heel expansion in pattern
Heel cup
Toe decreases in wedges (more like the crown of a hat).


My favourite pattern varies almost daily, when the new shiny silver package arrive, it contained my new favourite pattern, as a knitted the sock my love for that pattern grew, then I would rediscover a previous pair of socks in my draw and fall in love with that pattern again, another day I might see the yarn and be reminded of my love and again my favourite would change!

I have already cast on, the first sock from the Knit Love Club – and again I am loving the pattern – I am having issues with the yarn but only becuase it’s colour is out of my comfort zone (I will post more about that later).

Tags: Finished Project, heart and sole, mince pie mayhem, om shanti, over the garden wall, Scadenza, Socks, socktopods

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Whilst I sit here still hoping the postman is going to deliver my Knit Love Sock club parcel, I thought it was the perfect time to post the details about the final package from last years Sock club.

The parcel actually arrived before Christmas (hence the pattern name), but I didn’t get a chance to cast them on until this year. The yarn is my favourite to date – a special cashmere blend from Nimu in the most amazing purple/blue colour! The pattern – Mince Pie Mayhem was designed by Alice, and the “extras” were some Soak and amazing labels to attch to your handmade goodies.

I was hoping to have these socks finished by today, but have only made it to the toe on the first sock. It seems a little silly knitting Mince Pie socks well after Christmas, so I have renamed they the blueberry pie socks as the yarn reminds me more of this!

Tags: mince pie mayhem, nimu, Socks, socktopusclub2009, WIP

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Instead of setting mini lists and deadlines this year, I thought I would focus on a larger list of things I want to this year. Jason and I have created a list of things we want to do in London (but for some reason we have never found the time).

1. Tea at the Ritz.
2. See Mousetrap.
3. See Avenue Q.
4. Lose another stone in weight.
5. Use my pedometer for 30 days.
6. Do the couch to 5k.
7. Do a charity run.
8. Start a new blog.
9. Design a layout for the new blog.
10. Create a new gallery for deeandjason.co.uk
11. Finish all the Sock(topus) Club 2009 socks by the deadline (28th Feb.).
12. Finish all the Knit Love sock within the year.
13. Compete and finish in the Ravelympic.
14. Knit another lace shawl.
15. Take mum to Paris.

I was hoping to have 40 items on this list (to insure I did the 101 things in 1001 days), so it is still a work in progress.

Tags: 101things

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I seemed to have a bit of a slump over Christmas where knitting was concerned, now I am on a quest to get my knitting mojo back! First off I am determined to finish all the club sock from 2009 and before the Knit Love Club starts (which I think is the beginning of February). I am not doing too badly, I am on the second Socktopods sock, which I should complete tonight, all that leaves is the Mince Pie Mayhem socks to knit in three weeks. I was hoping to start some of the socks with the yarn I recieved over Christmas, but I think this is a pipe dream!

Then just to make matters worse, last weekend I fell in love with a pattern on ravelry and now all I can think about is the lovely Candy Stripe Jacket, I had a quick look on there website and discovered the yarn and pattern was available at Mrs Moon, which I found very exciting. Before Christmas, two of my local yarn stores closed down, which is extremely sad but also very fustrating, now I have an excuse to check out the new store. (I was pretending to be on a yarn diet for a few months again – but figured this was the reason to break the diet).

As well as planning all this lovely knitting projects, I also have another little project in the sidelines. For a few months now, I have been toying with the idea of setting up another blog. Somewhere to talk about my other crafts, and journey into domestic goddessness. When I set up this blog, it opened my eyes to the wonderful knitting community within the UK from fellow bloggers, to locally produced yarn and designers. Previously, I had been forced to read about all the lovely yarn American bloggers had brought at Knit Picks, or fabulous sock clubs, that I was too late to sign up for. I am hoping this new blog will do a similar thing. I have been reading numerous blogs with amazing recipes or party ideas. Where the supplies have all been brought in Walmart or the Dollar Store and I keep thinking there much be a British alternative, and I wanted to set up a blog to address this issue. So on January the first I jumped in at the deep end and started my new blog. I plan to keep this blog going for my knitting projects (although I think the knitting might feature on both blogs) and a more general blog.

Note: The layout of the new blog is a mess at the moment, I was hoping to create a new theme this week, but my laptop has died on me.

Tags: socktopods

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I have been having a few problems with my web server over the holiday period and as a result have been unable to blog about some of the amazing things that have been happening in chez princessdeia.

• Secret Santa present from Shobianx.
• Secret Santa socks from Thumblina.
• Mini Socks Swap from Seamstress.
• My Endpaper Mitts.
• New Socktopus Parcel.
• Progress on my Socktopods socks.
• Updates on my 101 list (Although I will be dealing with this soon).

Tags: admin, Swaps

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For me one of the best things about doing Secret Pal type swaps, is hunting out new or different gift ideas… recently I have been doing all this searching on etsy. The thing is I found all these wonderful tools I had to buy extra to treat myself. That is the best part of buying knitting gifts isn’t it?

Remember the wonderful sock knitting bag I got as part of the Sock Club parcel? It was made my Zigzag Stitches, I have been over using the bag and thought I could so with a larger version – but I also discovered they made matching mini DPN holders, so I contacted the seller and she made me a matching sheep set, she only had the blue fabric left – but who I am to complain it is almost Tiffany’s blue

The mini DPN holder is perfect, I have been working on the endpaper mitts this week, and I have had all the needles right there on hand for when I need them.

But why stop there… I found the amazing practical Stitch Saver from 5elementknitr and some pattern tamers (to keep track of your line in a pattern), made by Slipped stitch studios. She has some amazing tamers – I had to buy some Twilight themed version for one of my swapees.

Tags: etsy, gifts, Swaps

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I have been thinking a lot about my future lately, long term where I see myself, what I would like to do. I believe all creative people think about ways they can make money from their hobbies. However, I don’t really see how this could work for me. I could charge for my knitting, but is there enough call for bespoke knitting for me to live off? As much as I enjoy cooking, I don’t think I could charge people for my food. I have made (and charged) people for greeting cards/invites but there isn’t enough money in this for my to live off.

I am lucky, that I do get to be somewhat creative in “day job” but for the past year I have only really been doing this part-time and I would like to increase this next year, but I need to increase my portfolio.

Designing the Knit Nation website for Alice, made me realise there are a lot of creative people out there who all need websites/blogs creating or updating. So I have a proposal… A bartering service.

Here is the deal…
I am willing to offer my services in creating or re-designing someone’s website or blog. Whether it is a creating a new header, adding up a shop, or totalling creating a site.

In return, I am willing to trade services, it could be products that you sell, a lesson in a new technique (I would love to learn how to speak Spanish), or something you know longer need (I would love a sewing machine).

Interested? comment below.

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I am a little late posting this but I have been busy working on a few secret things. (More about one of those later). Last month was my birthday, who knew 35 would be such a memorable one.

As my birthday is on Halloween, the festivities always start the night before as we decorate the house, this year we were up until 1am blowing up balloons. Surprisingly I was up early the next morning. When Jason and I headed to Westfield for him to buy me a present (which is becoming a bit of a tradition), what I didn’t know was my mum and sister had also given him some money to buy me a present. So when I was picking which bag I wanted he encouraged me to buy the matching wallet, and then produced a card explaining everything. I nearly cried in the shop.

Too calm myself down we headed to the champagne bar.

Then we took a pause from the celebrating to watch the football in the pub, at one stage we looked into getting tickets to the game (as Liverpool were playing just down the road), but they were too expensive (over £150 each) so we settled for watching the game in the pub. I am glad we didn’t go as Liverpool had an awful game and lost.

Then we popped home for some more champagne and cake with my mum and sister. No baking this time (the cake was from Marks & Spencer), but this cake reminded my of the birthday cakes I had as a child.

There are numerous restaurants in London I dream of going to but without a doubt I have always wanted to go to Nobu, and my birthday seemed to be the ideal opportunity.

I tried to take photos of every course unfortunately I forgot about this starter so you will have to imagine what the oysters looked like, but you can view the rest of our meal here.

Now remember that secret project I was talking about – well you might have seen the advert in knitting magazines or seen the news on Ravelry but Alice and Cookie A are organising a major knitting event here in London next summer, and I was lucky enough to be asked to design their blog.

Tags: Birthday, Food, Knit Nation 2010

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After all the grief with the drunken wave on the first sock, it took only a few days to knit it’s partner. Finally, I was able to join the masses and have a pair of wollmeise socks.

I have also been knitting away on a pair of socks that are a secret present – as part of the SoSeSaSwa. I realised I haven’t done any swaps this year so to make up for it I have signed up for three Christmas swaps, a sock kit, knitting a sock and a mini tree decoration.

Tags: Finished Project, Scadenza, Socks, socktopusclub2009, Wollmeise

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Recently Alice announced that Socktopus was moving into Stash in Putney, I thought this would have little difference to my purchases it is after just a few more stops on the tube, in fact it is even a shorter walk from the station so the journey time has not really been affected, in fact my sister works across the road so I could combine yarn buying trips with having lunch with her.

Then on the opening night last week, Alice mentioned the sock club parcels would be available to pick up instore. I had already made plans to cook dinner for my sister on that night so couldn’t stop by… but one quick phonecall to my sister and she was able to intrude on knitting night and pick up my parcel and bring it with her!

I thought the last parcel was the pinnacle of this sock club – I mean it is pretty hard to top woolmeise, but then this lovely green yarn arrived! Closer look at the pattern (note the little biscuit instead of a second O), and I realised it was designed by Cookie A.

I jumped around the house a little then had to post on Ravelry, but what could I say without spoiling what the content of the parcel was – I turned to the youth of the Internet to help my express my joy and just posted… OMG – Best sock club eva!

Tags: Cookie A, socktopods, socktopusclub2009, Stash Enhancement

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