Socks Yarns & Travel

It was good to meet people behind the names of some favourite yarn companies at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. I also acquired a few skeins of their 4ply/fingering weight yarn to sustain my current enthusiasm for sock knitting. They are as follows:

John Dunn-Ballam - Easyknits - Gobstoppers - Hanzo Tokyo - Hand Dyed - 75% superwash Merino, 25% Nylon

Lyndsey Roberts - The Border Tart - Blue Moon - Hand Dyed Natural Indigo - 75% Superwash BFL, 35% Nylon

Yvonne McSwinney - Dublin Dye - Swing Sock - Water Sprite 75% Merino 25% Nylon

Recently I completed a pair of the Basic Ribbed Socks by Kate Atherley. I enjoyed the simple straightforward design so much I cast on another pair of socks using this pattern in the Easyknits Hanzo Tokyo. The yarn is producing some bold broad stripes in contrasting colours of charcoal, grey, burgundy and gold. A great travel knitting project, not too much thinking and small enough to carry around.

 

Bertie's Shetland Wool Jumper

Image courtesy of Bouncing Bertie

This is the very handsome, Bertie. He lives with my lovely neighbour Gail. She's been trying out some of the undyed wool yarn from my Shetland sheep and knitted Bertie this gorgeous jumper. The starting point for the design was The Perfect Fit Top-Down Dog Sweater by Jessika Lane on Ravelry. 

Image Travelling Tree Designs

Bertie seems to think his owners knitting experience is somewhat limited, however, I would disagree. Gail not only calculated the size and perfect fit but she also incorporated a fair isle motif into the plain sweater design. You can read how she designed the sweater here Too much woolly thinking?

Image courtesy of Bouncing Bertie

Bertie is a very intelligent wire-hair fox terrier and has his own blog, you can read more about his adventures and 'unique take on life' with Gail on Bouncing Bertie's Blog. His thoughts about his new jumper can be found in this post, "Finished at last, but is it Sunday best?"

As you can see Bertie also likes to pose for the camera!

Image courtesy of Bouncing Bertie

Image courtesy of Bouncing Bertie

Image courtesy of Bouncing Bertie

Cast off and finished...

Enjoyed knitting these simple socks from the pattern by Kate Atherley. The rib all the way down from the cuff really helps keep the socks from falling down. I think I'll be using the pattern again. Cast on details can be found in my earlier post here.