Flusi Monster Socks

Socks seem to take me a while to finish these days.  Maybe it's because I've made so many pairs and have got a bit socked out.  Maybe it's because I'm trying to divide my time between too many WIPs.  It could also have something to do with my eyesight getting more bi-focal, so knitting on small needles at a tight tension means I either have to wear reading glasses with my distance vision contact lenses, take off my regular glasses so I can see what I'm doing, or hold my knitting further and further away from me so it's not all blurry (oh the joys of getting older!).

Anyway, I've finished some socks.  The second one took much much less time than the first which is something that's happened with the last few socks I've knitted.  I think once I've cast on the second sock I just want to get the pair finished so I can wear them.

It probably won't come as a surprise to you to read that these are for me (although now that DD1 takes the same size shoe as me - at 12 years of age!! - she does sometimes borrow a pair of my hand-knit socks).

The yarn is from Kemps (£1.39 per 50g ball rings a bell).  It's Regia Flusi Das Socken Monster, a self-striping yarn designed with shortish colour repeats aimed at knitting socks for children (so the stripes aren't too wide, presumably).  They're ok socks.  Nothing special and I have to admit that if the orange was red I'd like them better.  But, the yarn was on offer and I'm a sucker for a bargain.

So, have I started anything new in the last week?

The answer to that is yes - two things, actually.  Whilst sitting in bed last night waiting for DD2 to go to sleep (which didn't happen until after midnight) I cast on and knit the toe for a new pair of socks.  Charade which are a very simple two-row pattern (Herringbone Rib) which looks effective.  I'm doing these toe-up using my usual gusset/heel-flap method (I'll try to remember to take some photos as to how I do my heel as it's a little bit different to other toe-up methods that I've come across) and am using some orange yarn - the ball band's fallen off but I'm pretty sure it's Schoppel-Wolle Admiral Ombre shade 1880.

The other thing I've started is this:

It's another crocheted blanket.  That's quite a lot of my acrylic yarn stash and the bag it's in is one of the bigger-sized shoppers from Morrisons (both sizes make good project bags!).  I'm using 34 colours (I think).  I did have to buy two new balls of yarn for this from Modern Knitting (always good service from them) and a skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn happened to wing its way to me as well.  Oops.  I'm not sure I'm still in yarn credit after this little splurge, so I'd better get hooking.  Once I've done one full colour repeat of the blanket I'll post a better photo with more details.

My Rock Island shawl has been put aside until after the Easter holidays.  With all the noise that DD2 makes, let alone the demands from her and her sister, trying to read and knit from a lace chart doesn't really work.  I did try, but quickly realised it wasn't going to work out in my favour.