Big socks and mini stockings

Do you know how many stitches it takes to knit a pair of UK size 9 socks? Have a guess! Go on! I worked it out this week, that to knit me a plain pair of socks takes a staggering 24,000 stitches! I was amazed. Not that I begrudge one little stitch. I love knitting socks. It's so satisfying, taking a skein of beautiful yarn and turning it into something so comforting. I've finished my November socks in record time, and am thrilled with how they turned out. The colour changes in the Trekking yarn are lovely. Here, take a look......

The Primavera pattern was very easy to memorise, and I can see me making them again in a different yarn. In the meantime, I'm ready and chomping at the bit to start my December socks and bring my year of sock knitting to an end. I'm going to make Tidal Wave socks using Tofutsies yarn. Possibly not the most sensible choice of yarn for December, a thinnish wool and cotton blend with soy silk and chitin from crab and shrimp shells! Sounds interesting. I'm sure that they'll make a lovely cool pair of socks for the spring or summer.

I had a couple of interesting parcels this week. The first was my spinning wheel from Ashford. It's my birthday, wedding anniversary and Christmas present all in one! At the moment, it's all boxed up, waiting for the wood to be sealed. I'm being very restrained, but I want to try and get most of my current knitting projects finished off before I get completely distracted by spinning. The second parcel was from Amazon, and amongst other things, contained this book. I'd like to improve my crochet next year, and this book is just full of squares to mix and match.

The third parcel was a very, very nice squishy one, containing part of Snoopydog's Christmas present, so I'm afraid that I can't reveal its contents just yet. There was much oohing and aahing to be heard and suffice it to say that I had a jolly good fondle and squeeze!

I'm almost done with Christmas shopping now. To celebrate, I allowed myself a little 'well done!' present from the yarn department of John Lewis! You might remember that I wanted a particular colour of Rowan Colourscape chunky yarn, and Snoopydog beat me to it, by snaffling the last 2 skeins in the shop! Luckily, more has appeared on the shelves, so I just had to buy some, didn't I?! It's destined to become Cora, a cabled scarf, and the yarn goes perfectly with my purple cord jacket!

Following on from the decorations I made last weekend, I've started making mini Christmas stockings using some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I ordered it from Modern Knitting - if you haven't ever bought from them, they have an exellent range of sock yarns, and the service is always great! The pattern I'm using comes from Little Cotton Rabbits. So far, I've only made one, but I'm planning to make several and try out some of my beading and colourwork skills. I'll show you how I get on next time.

These mini stockings have become my 99th project on Ravelry, so I'm thinking about what to cast on for my 100th. It's got to be something special. A jumper? A shawl? A blanket? Pop back again to see what I decide on! Have a good week!