2017 A Review in Pictures

Hello! How is everyone? Have you recovered from the double whammy of Christmas and New Years? I'm not sure I can even look at a mince pie I ate so much over the holidays! I used December as a complete break from having to do anything whatsoever that wasn't essential. My term finished on the 17th December by which point I was so tired I found myself sleeping through the five alarms I set for every morning. Yes five. Yes I slept through all of them. Yes I need a better system! Or more sleep. I had a great Christmas holidays which you will see at the end of this post. By the 1st January I felt recovered from 2017 and ready to approach 2018. I didn't want to rush my goals and reviews for 17/18 and now a week in I'm ready to review 2017. This post is a look back at what happened in 2017 through pictures!

January

January signaled the beginning of my first full year of knitting and crochet! I had my first yarn kit, my first sock and my first crochet swatch. How many times can you say first in one sentence?!

Sweet Shop Candy Cane Yarn

Have you seen the latest yarn offering from West Yorkshire Spinners? Its a candy cane striped yarn in time for Christmas this year and I love it!

Photo from: www.theloveliestyarncompany.co.uk

Christine from Winwick Mum has designed a sock pattern that I believe comes free with every ball sold (her sock post here). I'm tempted to knit these especially with the contrasting cuffs, heels and toes. I agree with Christine that they remind me of Will Ferrell in Elf!

Photo from: West Yorkshire Spinners. Socks by Winwick Mum

However I'm also tempted to use it to make a Sockhead Cowl by Kelly McClure (Ravelry link) so I can pretend I'm wearing candy canes around my neck. Delicious! Although I hope it won't make me too hungry for sweets every time I look at it. 

I'm going to be ordering mine from www.theloveliestyarncompany.co.uk not because I'm affiliated or anything but because I love their Instagram and the sweet messages they add to every order. It's these extra touches that mean I will always check their website first before searching elsewhere.

In case you're interested the matching green yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners Chocolate Lime and the red is Cayenne Pepper. Yum!

Will keep you posted on what I decide to make. Although I still need to rustle up some pumpkins first! (And the rest of my Christmas gift knitting but shhh). 

Charlotte and Harvey x

April Summary

April was a mixed month for knitting. After the general upheaval of a very last minute change of my entire dissertation plus an exam, my needles were ignored for a lot of the month. However, despite that I finished one sock and am nearly done with another one! As you might notice yet again, they aren't exactly matching!

The original arrival of the wonderful West Yorkshire Spinners 4 ply in Tequila Sunrise and Rum Surprise.

The finished Easy Cable Sock by Winwick Mum. I reviewed this pattern before (here) and have really enjoyed the whole knit. Its leads you step by step and is a nice pattern for the newbie sock knitter who wants to try something just a little bit more challenging than a vanilla sock.

After the cabling success, I decided to go back to a quick vanilla sock which was easy to knit on my daily commute. However, ever since I started knitting socks a whole 3 and a half months ago (basically expert level now right?) the right side of each heel looks perfect and the left always looks rubbish! I picked up a stitch in each corner and decreased each side. The only difference is the type of decrease. K2TOG is fine but the SSK seems to be making a run for it. Going to have to figure out how to fix this before I knit any more socks, especially if I want to try patterned socks! 

Any suggestions? Help!