Frivolity Ice Drop

This is Diane's latest Ice Drop. The pattern is on her blog here , scroll down a bit. It's also on the Facebook Ice Drop Addicts page. I'm pleased with it, thanks Diane.

A Pair

I've finished knitting the second sock. I like knitting the second sock because all the decisions, such as how wide to make the cuff, have been made, so just do it. And  I want to see how the pair looks. I think I'll be able to make a couple more pairs like this to use up my sock wool stash.

It's Complicated!

This is one of the most complicated things I've ever sewn, on a par with the lined velvet jackets I once made for my daughter and myself.   I had to read parts of the pattern several times before I grasped them. That's not a criticism of Maria Wallin's Biabag tutorial, you understand, just a reflection of my own inexperience at this type of construction. Don't panic, don't panic, I kept muttering the catch phrase from Dad's Army. Anyway, I have completed it and I have learnt how to insert zippered pockets into a bag, which was the object of the exercise.

Zips

The tulip beaded bag must have a zippered pocket in it, so I thought it would be a good idea to practice making zippered pockets in a bag. I did some sleuthing and found Maria Wallin's The Bia Bag as a free download from Craftsy. The bag is a little smaller than I was visualising, but it has three zips and a very detailed tutorial, so I decided it would do the trick. I had to buy zips, but found the three lots of fabric needed in my stash:

The pattern has a lot of pieces - I think it could only have been designed by a quilter!

I'm following the detailed tutorial step by step, very slowly and painstakingly.  At the moment I have a mish mash of half-completed elements, hopefully it will all come together eventually.

Glasses Case

A friend of mine has bought the recommended thread for the competition embroidery for me, but I thought I'd make a glasses case as I originally planned, for practice. I'm sure there's always a home for a pretty glasses case!

One thing I like about keeping a blog is that I can look back to find links I need. I looked up the link to the tutorial I used for the peg bag. 

This one was a bit trickier than the peg bag because the top is so small. I think next time I'll do the top stitching at the top by hand rather than machine. It was hard to keep it neat.

One By One

I have a number of odd balls of sock wool left over from projects. I peer at them every now and then, but they're not colours that 'go' well together, I couldn't think how to combine them to make them usable. Then I saw this pattern, Broken seed stitch or moss stitch socks from FitzBirch. I saw it on Pinterest and followed the links. This is the kind of pattern that is really up my street - it looks complicated but is very simple. No slipping or stranding or complicated repeats. The original has a light coloured solid yarn with a variegated, but I realised that black would also work. It has an interesting texture

Two In One

I don't really suffer from second sock syndrome, where you knit one sock and then don't get around to knitting the other, but I am always up for learning a new knitting technique, so when I came across this post on knitty.com, I had to try it.

It's a sort of double knitting, where you knit one sock inside the other, a stitch for the outside sock and then a stitch for the inside sock. I see the principle, but it seems an unnecessary complication to me. I'd rather just knit sock one and then sock two. Now I know!