Socktopus club socks

Over Christmas, I have been dealing with some rather rubbish stuff, which is why I haven't been making Christmassy blog posts. However, I have also been doing some knitting, and I have finished the Socktopus

club socks. So here they all are!

Wrapping

Just realised that it's over a week since I posted. Oops! Today has been quite productive, although I didn't exactly get up early.

I went to the garden centre and bought a tree, a holly wreath and some mistletoe. I had to repot the tree (tricky since it was frozen) as it was very wonky. How is it that you can buy a tree with roots attached and it will be far from upright. Surely when the tree is in the ground, it's upright? I have also wrapped all the presents I currently have - this does not mean, however, that I have finished the wrapping! And I have blocked Ulmus and my Socktopod socks (piccies to follow).

The Socktopod socks were fun, although I did end up knitting three socks to make the pair. When I was knitting the first one, I noticed that the M1R wasn't working very well and was loopy. When I knitted the second one, I realised I'd put the M1R (and the M1L) in the wrong place - magically, if you put them in the right place, the loopy bits improve! So I finished the second sock and then knit a third. I think the first one is going to turn into a crocodile puppet.

Guess what though - the ironing still needs doing!

Walking in ...

...Winter Wonderland. This is where I was yesterday evening - Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. I went there to meet with some of the other Socktopods to do some knitting and then we wandered round, and some members of the party tried out the Helter Skelter. There were also Curros - Spanish donut things, which I hadn't tried before.

I then got home to find a husband. In fact not any husband but my husband returned from Algeria. It was lovely to see him - although I may have planned my evening differently if I had known that he would be there.

On the knitting front, having finished the Socktopus club package number 4, on Saturday I started number 5 'Socktopod'. They are a lovely shade of green and a fab pattern by Cookie A. - it's just a shame that my M1R as soooo loopy. Nonetheless, sock number 1 is complete and I've done most of the ribbing on sock number 2 - all good, since package 6 is due out in the next week or so. Then I just need to get on with the never ending Ulmus.

Afternoon tea

Yesterday I had a lovely afternoon meeting up with the Socktopus gang. The 'purpose' of the meet up was to exchange Secret Santa presents - but actually, there was little exchanging and much knitting, eating and drinking. We went to this place where we had a delicious afternoon tea:

There was much disagreement (with the staff - not between us) as to how many cakes we should have versus the number we had. It ended with us being brought more cakes that then didn't get eaten. Various husbands and sons were set to benefit.

We did a fair amount of knitting and I finally finished the Scadenza socks from the Socktopus club. These have been OTN for ages - although actually knitting on them seems to make them go faster. The first one, I struggled with the bind off. I tried it twice and it was still on the tight side. On the second sock, I tried a much loser bind-off. It worked really well, so I had a third attempt at the first sock - I undid the bind-off and the last round, rejoined some fresh yarn and tried again. Much better.

Having finished Sockotpus package number 4, I have already started on package number 5. I think they're going to be quite....long. But they should still fit inside the new boots I ordered yesterday in Duo. This place does calf-size boots which should fit better. You can't take them away from the shop, but hopefully they'll arrive soon.

A little early

Just a quick post as it's been a long day, I'm tired and my elbow aches. But here is our Christmas Cactus. It's a little early, but it's looking lovely. This is the sort of plant I like - the sort that produces beautiful flowers with minimal maintenance!