Knitting for pleasure

  Today I finished my toe-up socks, and I just love the result. The patterns in the two skeins of DROPS Garnstudio Fabel Print yarn synchronized quite nicely along the entire foot part of the socks, but then they started to drift slightly. Still, I think the effect of similar but not identical patterns make the socks look playful and fun.  I had decided to continue knitting until all the yarn was used up, and I did. The end result was quite a bit longer than I had expected, but I don't mind at all. The immediate use for these socks will be to keep my feet warm when I attend my yearly Zhineng Qigong retreat, starting next week. We spend most of our days in a gym hall, that can be quite cool if the weather isn't hot. I'm wearing the socks as I write this, and I just love the warm, cozy feeling around my calves.  I knitted these socks with no pattern. The inspiration for this project came when I ran into a couple  of  videos on YouTube on knitting two sock...

I put in an order for some lovely yellow 100 % alpaca yarn for a sweater for myself during the spring sale. Today, as I went to pick up my order, I found a package in my mailbox. I ordered some stitch markers a a little over a week ago. Too many of my old clippy markers have disappeared under the coach, or wherever it is that stitch markers go when they grow tired of life. So I spent some time shopping around on Etsy and found  Rebecca's Room .  I put in an order for two sets of Right-O stitch markers, a set of Simply Solid larger square markers, and a set of coil-less safety pins. They looked really beautiful in the pictures, and the whole order, including shipping, was less than €20. So I thought it wouldn't be too much of a loss if they weren't as good as they looked.    But I was far from disappointed. They all seem to be of excellent quality and the Right-O ring markers are gorgeous. They look like little earrings. In the picture below you can see two of them on...

My grandmother used to knit socks for all her children and grandchildren. Every Christmas we would get a package containing one pair of wool socks for each of us and a box of chocolate. I still have all the socks she gave me and I love them. I wear grandma's socks every night when I sleep, and whenever my feet get cold during the day. When grandma died in 2010, they found a lot of finished pairs of socks when they emptied her house. These were carefully divided among us. We still have a plastic bag full of socks stashed away at mom's place. But the truth is painfully clear: this stash of socks is finite and grandma will not make more socks for us. So one of my goals since I started knitting again has been to learn to knit socks. I regret not getting the opportunity to learn from grandma. But I still feel it would be nice to carry on her legacy. When Garnstudio had their spring wool sale this year, and sold sock yarns 35% off, I decided to have a go, and bought three differe...