Presents in the post

Today, a few of my sock purchases arrived in the post. From the top. One ball of Opal's Harry Potter sock yarn - Tonks. Well, it's pink and stripey so that is perfect for me. The second ball is Zitron's XXL trekking in shade 401. Lovely green variations but not obvious stripes or fairisle like the Opal. Both are 4 ply. Next up, the free patterns that came with the yarn - sock pattern and stripey gloves pattern. I know I bought these yarns for socks but aren't those gloves nice?! Next are the two different types of 2.5mm sock dpn's. ( I had no sock needles!) I got two pairs of 15cm metal ones as I know I'll probably have more than one project on the go, and the other needles are lovely wooden ones from Knitpiks - now knitpro - and they give you 6 just in case you accidentally break one so you can carry on knitting - aww. Aren't they nice people! I like how they think - knitting first and foremost:-)

In a previous post I was concerned I had bought the wrong base sock yarn for dyeing as it seemed thinner than others. So I decided to buy a few different brands to see and feel them for myself. The fact that I get some yummy yarn to knit is a major bonus:-)

What I found - so far - is that my yarn is exactly the same thickness as the Zitron and very close to the Opal. So now I know where I am. I was also very particular in my choice of yarns too. I wanted to get an example of fairisle with stripes (Tonks), subtle colour changes in small sections (green trekking) and a stripey one - the Zitron trekking still to come. If I can work out the repeats in each, I can get a basic recipe to start dyeing more yarns to knit. I'll be curious to see if they really use all of those 12 metres in the skein for their pattern! If not, then maybe I can be more flexible/creative in the lengths of skein I use to pattern dye.

Another totally-obvious-but-hadn't-quite-dawned-on-me thing I need is a niddy noddy.

I used to use this at college for spinning but never got around to getting one myself. If I want to return these huge dyed skeins back to normal size, I'll need this to do the job. Why I hadn't thought of this is just beyond me but, hey, at least I got there in the end! The first one is the Ashford model but I decided not to get this one as knowing me I'll keep letting it slide off the ends. So I went for the traditional one I know works for me.

If you look at the bottom right corner, that end doesn't have a stopper so you can slide the skein off there when you're finished but all the others anchor the yarn so nothing slips off. Cool. (I got this one at forestfibres on ebay if you are interested)

So, now back to the sock knitting. Black Opal is progressing slowly hampered by my foggy brain. Two steps back and only one forward but we're getting there. I knitted too much foot length and the heel before I noticed it was rather a long shape for a sock and had to rip it right back to before the short row heel. Ah well. At least I'm getting a lot of practice at turning a heel. Maybe if I manage to get going today I'll have something to show you tomorrow!