Where is Spring?

We've had several days of snow now and frankly, I'm fed up with it. I mean, its March now and how am I supposed to get into holiday knitting mode when its SNOWING!!! OK, rant over now, but I mean, really, what is going on???



Luckily my latest pair of socks are a very snug and warm 6 ply yarn. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed knitting them. Thick solid bands of bright colour interspersed with an intarsia pattern. Fab. I've also done the Eye Of Partridge heel on them and boy has it made a difference to the fit. These are really really snug around the ankle and fit me so much better than my normal stocking stitch heel. Yay! It is also a really simple heel too. I worked the heel slightly differently though, swapping the K and P stitches so that the plain row was knitted instead of purled. I came across that tip on a blog, but of course can't remember where I saw it now. Whoever you were, thank you very much ;)

Which leads on quite nicely to a not so good discovery. Remember the lovely Lorna's Laces socks that I showed last post? Well, after washing I was not too impressed to find they did not fit as snug as the previous pair. I had thought whilst knitting them that the gauge seemed slightly off, but remember they changed a fair bit after washing. But these are definitely not so snug, and trainer socks need to be SNUG! It gave me a headache I can tell you. The only difference was the make of DPN - the sizes were the same, both 2.5mm. Hmmm. So maybe the Brittany's will go back in the DPN bag and out will come the Clover's as they are much smoother. I was quite surprised it made such a difference, but as the previous LLs were knitted on smooth Inox bamboo DPNs that can be the only reason. And the Inox really are much much smoother than the Brittany DPNs! Hey ho. You live and learn.

To make matters even more interesting, the Regia Stretch pair I made a little while back had a perfect gauge, and were on the Brittany DPNs. Which just makes the whole business more confusing. But I guess being a stretch yarn, there will be more give anyway. Best not to use the Brittany's then, I'd hate to make another pair and have the same thing happen. I have a pair of 2.25 Brittany's but of course won't know if that will make enough difference. All very strange though.....who'd have thought changing manufacturer would make such a difference. And yep, I checked the DPNs in my needle gauge. Both sets were 2.5mm.....



Anyway despite this awful weather I have made progress with Elspeth and she is all sewn up as you can see. She looks great in plain stocking stitch and of course I've tried her on. The next step is the crochet border which I'm planning to do by only working 3 out of 4 stitches. A number of people had difficulty getting it to fit correctly and also sit right, and missing out stitches seems to be the best way of getting it right. We shall see!



I managed to get this gorgeous pink Lana Grosso sock yarn on Ebay. I've had it on back order for a while from a german company when I spotted it on Ebay so had to have it. I've changed the colourway on my previous order which hopefully should arrive soon. We love sock yarn ;)



It's been a long while coming, but finally here is a recent shot of the sweet but destructive chinchillas brothers, Roxy and Roo. Roo is on the left and has a real boxers nose. Roxy has a real cute angelic face.



Roxy is my favourite, he is the sweetest natured of all 3 chinchillas and his naughty brother Roo bullies him all the time. Poor thing. But he has a pipe he goes to sleep in that his brother doesn't like, so he manages to get some piece and quiet.



Can you see what I mean about the boxers nose? He is a real bruiser of a chinchilla. And the noisiest of the bunch!