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Friday, January 04, 2008

Socks Away

Yay! My fear of socks is conquered! With the help of a brilliant DIY guide from Annchen, plus this gorgeous yarn and a set of DPN's I have finally knitted my first pair of socks. The pattern is the International Sock of Doom and it's a surprisingly easy pattern and looks fab! I love rainbows, they feel so happy, just the thing for this grotty gray weather we're having at the moment. I think I need to find another way of casting off the toes though. I cast both rows off at the same time and it's made quite a chunky line there at the top. I'm not going to bother to redo these because they're my first and I love them, but for the next pair maybe I'll find a better way.








I'm really trying to finish the UFO's lying around the house. A UFO usually means it's a project that takes a slightly longer time than my usual ones and therefore gets subjected to my crafting ADD. The first of my current 'must finish' projects is my beaded goddess. Some of you may remember I made quite good headway with her during the summer, but she was put to one side once term started again and I became distracted by other things.
The other main thing is a cross stitch that my sister gave me years ago. This is what it will hopefully look like when it's finished.




It's a beautiful design, but I'm not a natural cross stitcher. I like fast results *lol* Another problem is that a small part of the material has attracted brick dust somewhere along the line, probably when my house was being reconstructed after flooding. I'm not really sure how to deal with this. Do I wash it now or should I wait till I'm finished to wash the whole thing in case washing it affects the thread colours. I don't know, maybe one of you cross-stitchers out there could advise me (Laural?)


I also have a dress I'm itching to make, McCall's 5317. I have the pattern, I've had it for over a year; I have the fabric, I now have a dress form, I just haven't had the time. I have two fabrics set aside for this pattern. One is a lovely black corduroy, which will make a nice wintery short dress kind of like this version, to wear with jeans, and the other is a gorgeous black Chinese silk brocade with a tiny coloured dragon motif running through it. You know I love me some dragons *lol* That will be for a longer 'dressy' dress. I've never really sewn with brocade, so I've been procrastinating with that one.

Next week I start my new job at the College, I'm also back at school, and yoga and belly dancing classes start up again, so if I don't have a bash at this pattern this weekend, it will probably be forgotten about again. I keep meaning to make some Thai wrap trousers, so maybe once I have my 'Lil Brother' out, I may be inclined to do those too.

8 comments:

Dulcinea said...

congrats on your first socks, too! i think annchen is going to get us ALL making socks before long!

Samsara said...

Thanks, she makes up such a great DIY pack! I love the sock yarn she sent to you :-)

javede said...

Congrats for your first socks! It's addictive kind of isn't it?
For the cast of, I always graft my toes which makes an invisible seam. There's an online tutorial which also shows this part with lots of pics, it's how I learned to knit socks:
http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/SockClass_Toes2.htm

Oh cross stitching...well I began one big cross stitch over a year ago and it's still about 10% completed. Let's not talk about the really fancy one(fairy+beads etc) that I got for last christmas that I haven't even opened the pack of.

What a coeincident, because I have that dress pattern too and the fabric I want to use...of course it has been around now for several months without sewing it. Maybe we can motivate each other to sew it? ;-)

Samsara said...

Yes, what a good idea *lol* I need some inspiration and a little courage :-)

Celeste said...

Congratulations on the socks. I still haven't conquered my fear. I've got as far as turning the heel and chickened out. One day I may have enoough uninterrupted time to sit down and do it, but in may not be for a few years. :-/

I do a lot of cross-stitches, I have 3 on the go at the moment, they're all huge so I switch between them. I've had one on the go for about 6 years, it's very complicated and infuriates me so it's been packed away even though it's about 85% done... again, one day...

As you can imagine after 6 years it's got a bit grubby, but I never wash them until they're done. Don't worry about the brick dust, you'll have to wash it when its done anyway so save it till then.

Samsara said...

Thanks Celeste, I had kind of figured that that might be the best course of action, but it's nice to have it confirmed :-)

Unknown said...

I LOVE your socks : )
The colours are so YOU and they look great on.

I have the Simplicity version of that dress pattern and I never got around to finishing it! I ended up adding a waistband to the skirt part and just having a skirt ; )
I do intend to make the dress "one day" ; )

dragonflyducky said...

Woo! Congrats on the socks-they look great! Wishing Keilo a quick recovery.

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