A ball of harlequin yarn

I’ve started a new knitting project, which also means I’ve finished one. My odd socks are complete and ready to wear. Want to see them?

As predicted, they are odd. Never shall the pair match. The size and stitch pattern are as near to identical as they could be, but the colours go their separate ways.

I expected nothing else, using the casually dyed yarn that I had. Oh darn you, stash busting. The dye abruptly changed into green for half the foot of the second sock. It didn’t even have the decency to line up and do it at the same point as the first sock had shifted colour.

Ah, well. Not every craft project works out to be a masterpiece. I did consider not sharing this one, but that would be misleading. I’m not about giving the impression that every bit of fabric and yarn I touch, magically turns out perfectly. It doesn’t. I take my learning points and beat a hasty retreat to the next project.

I have to admit, there were points, when I was finishing off the second sock, where I would have quite happily frogged the lot. In reality, the time for unravelling had long since passed. Too many hours invested, by that stage.

Thanks to all your kind comments last week, I kept my focus and went for it. As these are destined to be walking socks, the colour mismatch is irrelevant, with a capital “I”. There was no need to waste all those hours of knitting in the pursuit of perfection. Draw a line and move on.

Preferably with comfy socks on my feet, and this pair certainly meets that criteria. No complaints about the fit of these socks and their comfort.

And look. If I cross my ankles, you’d never know the point, where the colours switch, doesn’t line up. I’ll just need to remember this, when I take muddy boots off and toast my toes in front of a country pub’s open fire. All’s well, that ends well, in terms of mismatching socks.

Moving on to my next probably ill-advised stash busting knitting project. I picked up the Sirdar Harlequin yarn at a charity shop, a while back. Only in a charity shop, am I drawn to novelty yarn. Anyway. I’ve started a shawl (ravelry notes). I’m undecided about whether to stick to this pattern, as I keep needing to undo rows. I’ll give it another repeat and see.

As it’s Wednesday (already?), I’m sharing my current book. I’m still reading The Winter’s Ghost, which I’m enjoying. It’s half term, so the children are home. This should mean more time to read, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. In contrast, they’ve been reading lots and enjoying it.

I like to think that this is spurred on by the fabulous fabric bookmarks they made at the weekend, but it’s probably more to do with their current obsession with making reading nests in their rooms. So long as they are reading.

Everyone is sticking to one book at a time, except the 14 year old. As usual, she has three books on the go at the same time. The top three in the photo. She seems to juggle reading multiple books simultaneously, with the greatest of ease and is equally captured by all of them. At the same time.

I’m loving discussing Pride and Prejudice with her. She’s reading my school copy, from when I took A’Level English, too many moons ago to count. It has my pencil notes in the margins. She says they help her. Like I’m sitting there discussing it with her as she reads. Bringing out points that she hadn’t thought about.

I suspect she is also thinking that my quick written notes are less of an intrusion than my long discussions on each point, if I was really sitting there.

So. What are you reading? Any suggestions on an easier shawl pattern, for my harlequin yarn? Not too late to frog this one.

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