Mittens and socks: a triumph!

A real crochet post this: FIRST the scarf Miss Y made herself, entirely by herself except for the pom poms which I helped with. It's Marble Chunky and a 6 mm hook and ALL dc ( USA sc's).



She made it in the evenings/afternoons while watching Blue Peter etc and it's over 1.5m long and 16cm wide ( about 20 sts). I am oh SOOO PROUD of her , I'm fit to burst! And the added icing on the cake is she loves it too!!!



So to complete the ensemble and part of the ''getting ready to go back to school'' ritual I made her some mittens to match.

These are in the same Marble Chunky and the pattern is from a book that has come out recently: it's called: CROCHETED GIFTS and is by KIM WERKER, published by Interweave Press but available from Borders or Amazon in the UK.

Beware it does use USA crochet terms. It also features patterns by many famous USA crochet designers so you may find a favourite included, it reflects very different styles due to this wonderful mix of contributing talent!!!

These mittens were a BREEZE to make: very quick and easy and so comfortable too. The book gives patterns for children's and adult sizes.

She's even worn them already when we cycled to school very early and there was quite a chill in the air last week. Now way back in the summer of 2005 in Delft I had a go at making crocheted socks, I'd got the yarn at my dream store in Delft-De Wolgaarde in the centre of town- and I had brought with me a book on crocheted socks, a USA book.

I taught myself the'' ESC'' : extended single crochet stitch which is a dc with an extra bit added in and crocheted in the evenings while the kids slept when we visited Delft at Half Term.

The result was interesting but HUGE!

They did not fir me but JJ!!!So I did start sock #2 but was no longer very motivated because JJ does not care for his socks, always losing some etc. He didn't fancy them as a present and I could not quite figure out how to adjust them! I have very small feet: a size 3 or European 36 and fit into kid's shoes and socks easily.

I moved onto other things as you do, especially as working with a 3mm or smaller hook is not my fave thing to do and the fine yarn makes it a lengthy project( another ''NO NO'')

Then along came the Cecily Moebius and I did it in stash yarns but then I bought some sock yarns to do it ''properly'' and found that my lovely soft Silk and Wool Regia yarn had a variegated effect that was too widely spaced. I mean that when you work the stars it looked awful! 2 white and 2 blue'' petals '' just didn't look right so it was frogged.

BUT BUT BUT this is lovely SOFT yarn so I decided to give socks another chance: a 3mm hook was found and I tried the socks in the book abovea pattern by ROBYN CHACHULA this time.

They are called RAVISSANT SOCKS. And as you start from the toe up I could adjust the pattern to fit!!!
You can see I'm very chuffed with this! This is as per pattern , but as I had yarn leftover but not sufficient for sock # 2, I extended the leg to cover half way up my calf. ( NOT pictured)
They are warm and very soft and ooooh soooo comfy and look and feel GREAT inside my crocs or my boots!!!
Here's my foot and heel doing a little JOYFUL dance: tralaaa trala tralaaaa!

Then it was off to order a second ball of yarn from Ilkley: and you know what? It arrived the NEXT day!!! TERRIFIC or what?! Now I must just sit down and crochet sock # 2.........

Oh and yes there's the heel: you crochet it last and thus when it wears out you can easily rip it out and replace the worn out bit just like that! It's so clever and practical and the shell stitch is fun to do- better than endless ongoing ''esc'' anyway....( as per the JJ sized ones...)

ESC means ESCAPE in my book and when it goes on for too long that's exactly what I want to do!