Frogging socks - the only polite way to say it!

I had such a hassle with my socks this week. I had put them down ages ago and I have not touched them, as I knew that I had to frog back and redo a short row heel that came out with holes in. I must have knit it about 4-5 times over on Sunday, when I finally had a brainwave and decided to look up an online tutorial. This one is great. It has a link to this which is also a great tutorial.Between the two I managed to finish the heel successfully and now I just have to finish both socks. I am knitting them together because I am not sure if I have enough yardage.One of them is on a circular needle, using the magic loop technique. I love it. The other is on double pins, not as fast.
This is the second sock that I frogged back to correct my short row heel. I think it looks better and it doesn't have a sieve-like appearance!
This is the first sock that I finished with a heel that is great, no holes etc, but it doesn't look as neat as it should. I can't remember how I did the increases on this one, but I am not frogging it in the name of neatness.
This one is the second sock, off my foot and looking fairly neat, although it is hard to tell as my camera is not taking good pictures - I tend to blame the tools!

All play and no work!

My last day at work was yesterday. The children were very nice and made cards and wanted to know if I would come in for any of the post SATs programme. I am going come in for their end of year presentation. Now I have to make a list of all the things I have to do before we leave in the summer.

It feels so daunting, but I know everything will get done eventually, with large amounts of stress to carry it along.

I need to get the house into a decent state in order to rent it out. I hope that there are families out there in Hendon that would like to rent a four bedroom house. The outside painting seems to be coming along and I hope that the house will look better once the orange paint has gone.




I must do an after picture too.

On the knitting front I am continuing with my cardigan in the sock yarn. I have nearly finished the back. I has been quite theraputic knitting plain stocking stitch, but I am ready for the challlenge of cables on the front.

Bank Holiday catch up

Oli and Gadi have finally left to go camping. It is their first trip, after talking about doing it for quite a while. Thankfully they decided that going up to the Lakes for one night was a bit ambitious. Instead they have taken Simon's advice and gone with him on the train to camp somewhere on the South Downs. They have taken a tent, a tonne of food and little else with them.

Benjamin, Lily and myself are off to meet my sister, Claire, for a civilized lunch and play in the park. We are going to take our Bank Holiday easy!

I decided that before I gave Claire her Ene's Scarf, I would try one last attempt at capturing its gorgeousness, again. Here are my attempts. You can see the lace pattern, but the colour looks a tad anaemic in the picture, in real life it is a stronger aqua colour.




I have also managed to finish the baby jacket I was knitting, which I plan to give to my cousin's new baby, Isabella. She was born on Wednesday lunchtime and I hope to see her tomorrow. I used the pattern I found in an old copy of Interweave Knits Summer 2005, the Baby Kimono. It is very easy to knit, in one piece, with a bit of sewing up under the arms. I did it in the yarn they use, Rowan Cotton Wool. I need to make a couple more for the twins that my sister-in-law is expecting.



Finally, I have started to knit this for myself:



It is a cardigan, again from an old magazine pattern. It is the Loop Stitch Cardigan from Vogue Knitting, Winter 2005/6. I decided to try it in Knitpicks Gloss in cocoa, a wool and silk mix. I am really pleased with the way it knits up, but it will take a while as I am using 3.25mm needles. I managed to have it sent to a friend in Washington as Knitpicks don't ship internationally. Their yarn is very reasonable compared to brand names and they have great range. I can't wait until we move to New Jersey as I will be able to order whenever I want.

One more week to go!

I finish work next week and I can't wait. I told the children in my class today and they were disappointed, which is very sweet. They wanted to know why and were really excited when I told them that I was moving to New Jersey.

I have so much to do to sort the house out so that it is fit to rent out. It will look so good when we have finished that I won't want to leave. It's a shame that we won't get to enjoy it, but we will enjoy the rent we collect!