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…is a pattern repeat shorter than the other. But at least it doesn’t have a different-coloured toe.
Pattern: Conwy by Nancy Bush. Yarn: The Knittery Chubby Merino
That small bundle of yarn in the middle is all that’s left of the skein. The yarn is denser than most, so the yardage is less – and the cable pattern is quite dense, too, therefore using more yarn. I wasn’t sure, as I worked my way down the foot, whether there’d be enough. However, despite sock 2 being a centimetre shorter than sock 1, it does fit, so I’m not going to unpick the toe to see if I can get the extra pattern repeat in – I’m not prepared to take the risk. (Or I’m lazy. Or both.) And I seriously doubt that anyone’s going to be examining my toes closely to police the sock length.
All that aside – love the yarn, love the pattern, love these socks. I might wear them tomorrow 
And on a totally different topic, I’m giving away three prize packs including my romantic suspense book, As Darkness Falls, over on my writing blog. The knitting connection? Socks were knitted in the writing of the book (Although I’m afraid there’s no knitting in the book – the characters were a bit busy solving crime.)
So, back in June, I thought I’d make some progress on the warp that had been draped over the loom for six months at that stage. That first day, I blogged that I’d gotten this far:
Threading fine black wool warp on loom
The next day, I trheaded 3 more inches – 5 of the total 8. And then, it sat. And sat. (Yes, and gathered some dust…)
On Thursday, I finished threading, sleying, tying it up, and got weaving…
However, I’m still not quite sure what I want to do! I’ve only done a few inches, sampling at this stage. The warp is 5 metres, and its threaded in a twill/advancing twill pattern. The original plan was to weave about half in plain weave, to have a contrasting fabric for collars/bands on a jacket made of fabric I wove years ago, and to weave the other half with a contrasting yarn in the pattern as a scarf.
This is the cloth I wove some years ago, with the jacket pattern I’m using for inspiration – however, I plan to a) make the bands and collar a bit narrower, and b) make the jacket a bit longer, and without the bottom band. The checked fabric will be the body of the jacket; what I’m weaving now will be the bands. I think.
Handwoven cloth
Advancing twill on fine black wool warp
The jacket fabric – on the right – has the fine black wool, intersected with a slightly thicker mauve yarn, which creates a gorgeous texture. The current weaving – on the left – has a sample of the twill pattern using the same mauve yarn, plain weave with the black yarn, and the advancing twill pattern, black on black (hardly visible). I think the twill pattern in the mauve will be too much – because the mauve is thicker yarn than the black, it overpowers it. I could try weaving it as overshot – with a black tabby thread between each mauve pick, which would ‘black’ it up a bit more, but I think it would still be too much. (The sample is only one pattern repeat; it would be repeated up the band).
So, I’m leaning towards the plain black as the contrast. Any thoughts?
Knitting progress is still slow, but some has been made. I finished the first Conwy sock for me a couple of days ago – and I love it! The yarn, The Knittery’s Chubby Merino sock yarn is gorgeous, nice and smooshy, and the sock feels great on. I’ve knitted Conwy twice before, and love the pattern, but both pairs were given away, so these socks will be mine, mine, mine!
Pattern: Conwy by Nancy Bush Yarn: The Knittery Merino Chubby
I’m also slowly making progress on a shawl-collar jacket I’ve been knitting for a few months. The back is done, and I’ve almost finished the fronts. Then it will just be the sleeves, and sewing it up…. of course, I’ve still got a jumper in pieces that I haven’t sewn up, by there hasn’t been much impetus to do it during summer. Now we’re in autumn, and the weather is starting to cool, I’ll take it out of hibernation and finish it sometime soon!
My major finished object lately is nothing to do with yarn – but I finished the revisions on my second novel, and sent them into my publisher this week. It won’t be published until September, but we have the cover design almost finalised – and it’s beautiful! Since I haven’t had much knitting/weaving to show off lately because I’ve been working so hard on writing, here’s a sneak look at the book:
Book cover - Dark Country
And my reward to myself for finishing the book – some yarn The Knittery, suppliers of yarns that I love, is sadly shutting up shop, so I’ve ordered some undyed yarns from the stock clearance- some more of the Merino Chubby sock yarn, and some skeins of the Merino/Cashmere sock yarn. Hopefully they’ll arrive at my PO box by Friday, when I’m next in town.
And now that the book is done, I’m going to spend tomorrow at my long-neglected loom!
