I’ve been bitten by the sock-a-long bug. Crochet is my thing; I used to knit years ago but now with M.E. it’s crochet for me. I think it must be the weight of the work hanging off the needles with knitting is too much for the weakly muscles in my arms.
So there I was browsing blogland and Lucy from Attic24 had just finished her first pair of knitted socks. The pattern was from Winwick Mum and it’s a great photo tutorial. So I bought the tiny circulars and I had some sock yarn in my stash I had been given years ago, and I was off. The beauty of sock knitting is that these tiny circular needles fit into your bag so whenever you have itchy fingers you can do a few rows. I love that pattern too: you get rows and rows of knitting without thinking in the round, then just when you were about to get bored of that you have a heel flap and a turn to keep it interesting, then more easy rows and meditative stitching, followed by the decreasing for toes. A perfect pattern to meet all moods.
I must talk to you about Kitchener Stitch; grafting the end of your toes so it just looks like a row of knitting – so cool. I had never done this before, the instructions were good, but you had to concentrate: front or back, purl or knit, leave it on, slip it off. My brain just couldn’t hold all that, and if you were interrupted…disaster! But then on the winwick mum sock-a-long page of Facebook someone recommended brilliant tutorial which explained the sequence in such an easy way. Now I love the Kitchener stitch; it’s so straightforward when you know!
So now I’m on my 6th pair of socks, having made a lovely pair in Alpaca yarn for myself. I find wool too itchy to wear so again, someone on the forum came to the rescue with the suggestion of Alpaca, and I’m so thrilled with them.
But each pair of socks mean you have a small ball of sock yarn leftover afterwards. I tried knitting wristwarmers on 4 dpns but a girl needs more socks then wristwarmers. Then I discovered Hexipuffs from Tiny Owl Knits. Here was a brilliant way to use up the leftover sock yarn: cute little hexagons made on 2 dpns, stuffed and finished off with my new friend the Kitchener stitch. They are very pleasing. Joined together they make the Beekeepers Quilt.
Isn’t it beautiful. You can find the Hexipuffs and the Beekeepers Quilt as a paid pattern on Ravelry
I always feel a little sad when giving away things I have made; it’s like saying goodbye to a friend. Usually photos and my blog remind me of past makes but now, with the beekeepers quilt, I will have little hexipuffs to remind me of the lovely people I gave the socks to, and the pleasure I had in making them.
Dressed in Crochet 