Winter Footstep Socks

Winter Footstep Socks

This isn’t quite how I planned my triumphant return to blogging after something of a hiatus.

I had a lovely post all planned out celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Winter Footstep Socks, my oldest design and the first one that I ever listed for sale.

It was a fabulous piece, all about 10th birthdays and how far we’ve come.

Then I checked my notes and realised that the design is actually 11 years old - not 10. Ooops!

At the tail end of this year I decided that I would reknit these socks in a contemporary yarn - the original socks have long since vanished (I have no recollection of where to) and I fancied a new pair of socks for me.

I had some gorgeous sock yarn from Dystopic Fibre in his fabulous Teal Woodcap colourway which I knew would make for a perfect winter sock, and I’d forgotten how addictive and how quick this lace pattern is to knit up.

A lot has happened in 10 (11) years and my life looked very different in January 2013 when these socks were released. On the one hand it feels as though it has passed in the blink of an eye, but on the other hand so much has happened that when I sat down to write it, it honestly felt a little overwhelming.

So I’m going to save you the emotional part and just wish my Winter Footstep socks a happy 11th birthday. There’s a link below in case you’d like to knit a pair of your very own.

How to knit a mitered square blanket - updated for 2023

If your list of autumn/winter knitting plans includes a Mitered Square blanket then you might be interested to hear about my e-book: How to Knit a Mitered Square.

Re-written and expanded for 2023, this 10-page e-book takes you through how to start and build a Mitered Square blanket of your very own.

It includes written directions and photos to help you on your way as well as the approximate yarn amounts needed for squares of various sizes - and in different weights (sock weight, DK, and sock yarn held double).

Not all mitered square blankets need to be knit with sock yarn of course, but it isn't always easy to judge the size of squares and the amount of yarn needed to knit them.

This e-book aims to remove some the guesswork and provide you with a solid set of suggestions on how to create a truly unique mitered square blanket.

The FML Shawl

The Find My Light Shawl (FML)

I’ve been noodling around with this idea for a shawl for some time now. I really love super long, wrappable shawls that are more of a scarf. The ones that you can wrap twice around your neck, or even fold in half and pull a loop through as you can do with thinner chiffon scarves.

However achieving such a long shawl can be tricky when you only have one skein of sockweight yarn to play with.

So I decided to try creating a long, wedge-shaped shawl with a picot edge which is knit as you go, and I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. I was less than thrilled when I came to photograph it though as it’s length makes it almost impossible to capture in a single image.

And the name? If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I love a shawl with a cheeky acronym. There's the FFFS (Fuss Free Festival Shawl) and the WTF (Worth the Fuss Shawl). So it was only a matter of time before I added the FML to my library.

The Find My Light Shawl was knit during a period of real reflection and change for me. I've made no secret of the fact that the menopause transition has been difficult for me and part of that has been accepting that my body is different to how it was before. Not worse, just different. While I was knitting on this I was reflecting on the fact after a period of difficulty I feel as though I am enjoying my daily activities more and finding joy in small things again - finding my light as it were.

And so it seemed a good name for the shawl - and the slightly cheeky acronym was of course an added bonus. Although given my difficulties in photographing it, I did consider naming it the TTP (terrible to photograph).

My favourite shawl design

The PPS - Pattern Please Shawl

Being a designer, releasing patterns out into the world is a little bit like being a parent.

At some point, after a lot of time and effort you have to release your little darlings out into the world, ready to take on whatever life throws at them and knowing that to some extent, they’ll have to fend for themselves.

And, much like children I don’t think I’m supposed to have a favourite one.

With my kids, obviously I love them both equally and could never choose between them. But with my patterns, I think I’m probably allowed to have a favourite. And if I had to pick a favourite shawl of mine it would have to be this one.

The PPS (Pattern Please Shawl) ticks all my boxes for a fun, wearable design that’s fun to knit.

There’s the name to start with - born of facebook group frustrations when ‘pattern?’ or ‘pattern please?’ crops up with monotonous regularity.

But there’s also the sheer versatility of the kite-shaped design. It starts off with a small number of stitches and increases to give a dramatic chevron effect (if you use stripes). It allows you to play with colour, with mini skeins, with big skeins - really - the world is your knitting oyster.

This version uses two full skeins of sockweight yarn and it’s probably the one I wear most often. The smaller version uses 1 x 100g skein of sock yarn along with a set of mini skeins to give a smaller, slightly skinner shawl but the kite shape ensures that it still has good wrappability. An important characteristic in any shawl.

What makes a good shawl design for you? Is it size, shape, stash-using-ability?

Do let me know in the comments.

Not So Vanilla Socks

Not So Vanilla Socks: cuff down and knit in a gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (Urth Yarns)

Sometimes you need some plain vanilla socks, sometimes you just need something a little bit more. When I came across this lovely gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (kindly gifted to me by Urth Yarns) I knew that I wanted to knit something quite simple, that would let the lovely yarn take centre stage.

This yarn - Echoes by Gusto Wool comes in 2 x 50g matched gradient skeins - making it perfect for a project such as this. And the pattern is a simple, two-round repeat which is easy to memorise.

This is a cuff down sock, knit with a slightly longer leg than usual - all the better to show off that gradual colour change. Paired with a traditional heel flap and a rounded toe this is a perfect sock for either gifting or for yourself - ideal for travel projects.

Although I’ve used a gradient yarn here this would work equally well with mini skeins - try the clasped weft join to avoid dealing with ends. Or it would look fab with a self stripe yarn too. In fact my next pair might be just that.

A corner to corner blanket: Free pattern

I knit this simple garter stitch blanket last year sometime and published it as a free pattern on Instagram for those who follow me there, with the full and certain intention of adding it to my free patterns page here too.

I have no idea why it fell off my to-do list, I can only assume that life, combined with my butterfly brain conspired against me.

In any case, I wanted to add it here as it’s such a lovely, straightforward knit. Ideal for a beginner or for those times when you just want a bit of relaxing, stress-free knitting. I knit this small lap blanket with DK yarn on 4mm needles but you could easily adapt it to work with fingering weight yarn (suggested 3mm needles) or worsted/aran (on 4.5/5mm needles, respectively).

It produced a perfect little square blanket - ideal for baby knitting as well in an appropriate yarn.

You can find the blanket over on my free pattern page, or it’s written out here (below) as well if you wanted to bookmark it for later.