WOWW

So - this isn't exactly ON my worktable - I've actually just finished it - but it IS my latest finished item.



It's a zigzag blanket, following Lucy's pattern on Attic24.

I used oddments from a previous striped blanket I'd made, plus a few new balls.

I love this ripple pattern and it's so easy to do.



I showed it to some friends yesterday, and they all wanted one!  I don't have enough time or yarn ( I know - unbelievable) but I did offer to teach a workshop on crochet and THE BLANKET!

I do have a project on my needles (yes, knitting this time) which is a new pair of socks.  I recently made three pairs of socks using this yarn - Regia Design Line Hand-Dye Effect by Kaffe Fassett.  I made a turquoise pair of Owlie socks...



...which my DIL now has; a pink pair in just a simple rib...



... and a dark blue pair from this pattern, called Penelope, which does not seem to be available any more...

I must admit, it was a very difficult pattern to follow - at least, I found it was. I made LOADS of mistakes, but persevered until I had finished the first sock.

I started the second one, but bottled out and pulled it and the first sock back.

Even without the complicated pattern, the yarn was hard to work with.  It seemed finer than the pink and the turquoise and the dark colour made it hard to see in any but the brightest light.  Also (and this goes for all three colours) this yarn is quite fluffy and loosely spun and I kept splitting it with the sharp-pointed KnitPro needles that I was using. Put the problems of the yarn AND the complexity of the pattern together and this was a pattern too far for me!

So now I am knitting just a plain pair of socks using the dark blue as the main colour and what is left of the pink and the turquoise as stripes.  I am nearly down to the heel, and that and the rest of the sock will be using just the main colour...



So far, so good, though I still keep spiltting the yarn and carrying two yarns up the stripes is a bit of a pain!  Still - the yarn was not cheap, and the pink socks ARE lovely and warm to wear, which is encouraging.

What the finished pair will look like with just stripey tops I don't know, but at least they will be warm and I can always just wear them in my wellies!