You win some, you lose some...

Indeed, the orphanage (a big old-fashioned red-ridinghood-esque wicker basket) was one sock up, but soon after was one sock down again.  We had to say goodbye to our Traffic Island Sock in the Red Fraggle colourway this morning, as its sibling arrived to whisk it away.  Our little brightly-coloured stripey bebeh will be sorely missed.  Not having to wear sunglasses indoors all the time will be a blessing, however...

traffic island socks by yours truly
yarning yenta sock yarn in red fraggle colourway

Well, the pattern seems to work.  If I can successfully make two pairs of socks from it without wanting to curl into a whimpering ball of ineptitude, anyone can!

interesting shot showing off differences in stripey gauge...
meh - perfection is boring

I can still gaze for long periods of time at the eye of partridge heel stitch.  It's just so, well, mesmerising, I guess...

look into my eyes, not around my eyes, look into my eyes...

Anyway, before we could get all teary-eyed at our loss, along came a Frondes Naissantes Sock (budding leaves in French! - pretentious?  Moi?!) to keep us occupied...

'zokni socks' by mintyfresh
noro kureyon sock in colourway S188

This is a darling pattern.  I say this also because in fact the sock is knit from the pattern I worked out from a stitch dictionary and was thinking of publishing when I discovered the zokni sock was (give or take a couple of stitches) as near as dammit.  So, there may be some differences to note, but it was too close to make a totally new pattern...  Them's the breaks!  It is lovely, though, and this particular colourway of the Noro sock yarn is incredibly beautiful!

Talking of patterns - there might be something to announce in the next post...

It's TWINS!

Announcement of Birth

traffic island socks by yours truly
a&e bfl sock in berries

RedScot would like to announce the arrival of two little bundles of joy.  Twins Traffic and Island came into the world on April the 19th, 2009, much to the delight and relief of their mother.  Babies and proud parent are doing very well indeed and would like to thank everyone for all their good wishes.

And their downloads!  Heh!

I'm pleased with these little mites.  Well, hardly little, considering they fit my clodhoppers, but as an example of my first foray into producing a pattern, I have to say I am pleased!

who's mummy's little angels, then?

I know, I know... my own pattern, and I haven't finished an actual matching pair until now...  But I was adamant I wanted to test the pattern with different yarns and needle sizes before I let it loose in the world, therefore I had more Traffic Island orphans than I could shake a dpn at.  (Many thanks, also, to my kind test-knitters - you know who you are, and I LOVES you, I do!) Still, one pair down, another to go. The sibling for the TI sock in the Red Fraggle colourway will probably be started (and finished) on the train journeys up to the Netherlands next week.  Well, they are a quick knit after all, and perfect for travelling!  (Notice the subtle use of own horn tooting there...)

i love angels&elephant's yarn

The Netherlands again?  Well, yep - HUZZAH!  I'm going up to sing in a couple of concerts conducted by my BFF and the music includes the very first solos I ever sang.  Way, WAY back when I was 22 and was studying piano in England... Singing was my second study - it was a choice of that, or violin, and I thought singing would be easier!  Then I changed to first-study singing and discovered The Truth...

(Ugh.  I don't like the way, WAY back thing then the 22...)

Anyway, Vivaldi's 'Gloria' - alto solos!  OH YES!  Little Miss Zwischenfach (in-between voice types) I am!  Then Handel's 'Dixit Dominus' alto solo, too!  Oh, and 2nd soprano solos, because they don't have that much money for soloists, and they know I can do it!

(Or, at least they hope I can do it!  Heh!)  Tune in next time to find out...

F is for...

Formulation

traffic island socks by yours truly
in yarning yenta sock yarn in red fraggle
and a&e bfl sock yarn in berries

Okay, so I may be reaching the outer limits of my thesaurus, but I wanted to add  my first foray into pattern writing somewhere here and this looked as good a time as any.  Especially considering I think my 'F' post is a tad late and I'm hoping to earn some brownie points to perhaps minimize the period of procrastination to perhaps only a day or two...!

i really must find some sock blockers

Well, these babies came into being after I spent an afternoon with my nose in several volumes of stitch dictionaries.  I pore over them occasionally, usually for inspiration for afghan squares...  I'd been looking for a simple pattern that would morph well into being knit in the round, challenging enough to keep my fingers busy, but my head angst-free; something to keep my brain exploding with too-long hours spent on complicated and concentration-draining (albeit very satisfying) travelling-cably, gazillion-row-repeatly, tear-your-hair-out-in-bunches, tricksy sock patterns that I was currently working on...  Knitting sorbet, if you will...

The chevron pattern I found had tonnes of potential, and after knitting an initial few rounds I knew that it would be pretty to knit up, fast to finish and potentially brain-'splody free!  After some tweaking, frogging and a little more tweaking, I arrived with some Traffic Island Socks.  I also realised that the resulting yarn configuration looked a bit like the famous 'Jaywalker' pattern, but with the more lacy pattern and wider bars it meant that the fitting and sizing wouldn't be so tricky to manoeuvre around.  I also tweaked things further to include 3 sizes, plus ideas for different yarn weights.

ziggy-zaggy, holey goodness

Why the Traffic Island appellation?  Well, with the wider 'fixed bars' running up and down the socks, and with the added lace holes (and also after the street reference) I was reminded of a computer game that came out many moons ago, called 'Frogger'. A game where you had to guide a frog over highways and waterways to freedom, using the traffic islands in between as breathing spaces, avoiding cars, lorries, snakes, alligators and submerging turtles!

chevrons and lace

The name seemed apt!

If you'd like a copy of the pattern, you can now get it as a free Ravelry download.