Lots of knits

On the one hand I feel like I dropped off the face of the Earth these past few weeks. On the other hand I have quite a bit of knitting to prove my presence!

I first learnt to knit at an afterschool club at my school when I was about 7 years old. That just served to irritate me, so it wasn’t til I was living/volunteering in Peru after I left school that I was inspired again to try. Often shop keepers would be furtively knitting away with their hands beneath the table. It wasn’t uncommon to drive past girls walking along the road in the middle of nowhere, spinning wool. Most interesting was on Taquile Island, where the knitters were the boys and men. I figured if they could do it, so could I, so I spent quite a bit of time watching and examining the insides of sweaters. The friendly wool shop señora thought it was hilarious selling to a Gringa, though I’m sure I wasn’t the first!

Taquile Knitters and Spinners

These are the things I’ve made from the past three months (ones against blue are past three weeks)…I’m impressed by how long it’s kept my interest this time round!

Booties

For strange reasons I hate having my bedroom door shut, this cover stops the latch clicking, and the door from banging. The pattern was meant to be of snowflakes!

The first time since the first time I tried knitting cables.

( The result here was rather tidier than my early attempt [which incidently was almost 6 years ago to the day. Gah it doesn’t feel that long ago!], though having proper needles helped a lot!)

The last time I knitted, a few years ago, the phase ended when I attempted knitting in the round. This time though I managed it, and made these sock!

I finally bought some more wool!

My little chill pill

Using up the scrappy bits of pink and green wool left over from my first projects. I thought it would also make a decent holder for tampons to keep in my bag. Unfortunately that's the only thing I can think of that would fit in it, so it's a bit of a give away!

Neck thingie

More socks. These are all in ribbing and the wool is a mix of real wool and acrylic, so a bit warmer, and fit better, than the first pair I made.

I tried following directions for spiral ribbing on socks. Unfortunately though the straight ribbed cuff was tight, the rest of the sock was getting really baggie. Before I faffed with the heel I decided it would make a very good cover for my spare camera lens. Possibly the degree of protection it give is giving me a false sense of security!

Trying a spiral again, this time in normal stocking stitch and just using colour to give the effect of a spiral. This is going to be a birthday present for my aunt (promise I'm just trying it on for size here!). She asked for store-bought navy blue socks. I can't think of a more dull present to give or receive, but I feel a bit better about it if I'm giving hand knitted socks with a dash of pink!