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).

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!

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.

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!

Then I hit a snag with the Scadenza, one of the joys of this pattern is the continuity of the pattern, the waves are carried from the toe to cuff, then new waves are started on the base of the foot carried over the heel and onto the leg. When I joined the back and front instead of pretty waves, I ended up with some lovely waves and one rough. Jason actually named it the drunk wave!

So I frogged the pattern, started again, then I notice I have dropped a stitch whilst frogging, so had to rip it back again. Third attempt, the drunk line once again appeared!

So this time I sat down with a pen and paper and drew the pattern as I saw it should be, realising I had no idea what I was doing, I scanned the chart and got to work in Photoshop linking the charts from the front and back. After about a week of this I discovered the pattern was meant to look like this, with the drunk wave.

Of course I was not content with this idea, when back to photoshop and eventually re-drew the chart on graph paper to insure I had all sober waves. So my sixth attempt at the pattern with the help of photoshop, pen and paper and had one completely lovely sock.

Your eye’s do not deceive you that is some lovely skein of Wollmeise, on an exclusive colourway. Now I have to be honest I hadn’t yet cottoned on to the whole wollmeise craze, I seem to always miss the shop updates, I have not yet had a chance to fondle this yarn or seen it knitted up… so this was a real treat for me. After a bit of knitting I have to say I get it, smell and all!

Also included was an amazing Zigzag Stitches knitting bag, this is a tiny version perfect for carrying around sock knitting. I adore her stuff, I have added a few bags and a sock and go needle case to my birthday wish list. Finally, there are the lovely mini Russian doll stitch markers by Atomic Knitting.

Whilst I was there Kat was knitting an amazing cardigan in lace-weight so when I was fondeling the yarn I saw this cashmere yarn, I knew it was screaming to be turned into a lovely cardigan.

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It took me a while to understand how this pattern was going to work as it omitted the short row for the heel, rather than ponder too much about the construction, I got out my needles and knit and knit and knit! With in no time I’d completed the sole and the heel magically appeared.

In no time I was wearing my socks! .
More photos here.

My only concern with the pattern was the lacy parts in toe – I was worried this area might stretch or become weak after washing and wearing, so I extended the vine down over the lacy part for extra support. I am thinking of doing the same thing on the heel as this can be a stress point on some socks I have knitted in the past.

More photos here.

Of course the other side of this gamble is that you end up with a parcel that is to your exact taste! That everything included is very you. That is what happened to me with the second instalment of the Sock(topus) Club.

First off this amazing yarn – which is in “my colours,” the yarn is amazingly soft and a dream to knit with (in fact I am hoping to score some more of this yarn to make a larger garment).

Next the pattern, at the moment I seem to be into extremely lacy socks, I think it is getting ready for the summer or something. I have enjoyed reading Loumms’ blog for a while and love the ideas of the Year of Socks however, I hadn’t had the chance to knit one of their designs yet.

Finally, the bells and whistles. As I mentioned I love reading Loumms blog, and I was intrigued by their idea of “Grow Your Own Soup.” I only started gardening last year but loved my chilli plants from last summer, I wanted to try growing something else on my little windowsill.

I finished the first installment of the Socktopus Sock Club, my Om Shanti (or Bagpuss) Socks, I am so unbelievable happy I managed to get the yarn to swirl, it actually looks like a candy cane.

One of the reason I was keen to join the Sock club (apart from all the yummy yarn) was to learn new techniques and even challenge my knitting self. On the surface this sock looked pretty simple not challenging at all, and it was until I got to the rib… The pattern called for a corrugated rib (worked with two yarn) and I seemed to get in a complete mess – in fact I ripped the rib three times on the first sock and only once on the second!

I made one alteration to this sock, adding several repeats to the leg to make the sock longer. I followed Alice’s instructions for a wider leg on the extra repeats to insure the sock fitted on the calf.