Stylecraft Blogtour 2017 - Bee Cosy Slipper Socks

Hello lovely people and welcome to my woolly corner of the world. If it's your first time calling in, do have a wander around and get to know me a little better. If you're a regular visitor, thanks for popping by again. It's my great pleasure to be hosting the Stylecraft Blog Tour 2017 today. I've been following the Tour each day and have loved seeing all the incredible projects that my talented fellow Blogstars have designed. In case you've missed seeing any of this year's designs, here's a list of all the blogs so far:- 

Emma Varnam

Every Trick on the Hook

Crochet between Worlds

Cherry Heart

Annaboo's House

Lucia's Fig Tree

Zooty Owl

Attic 24

The Twisted Yarn

Hand Knitted Things

Catherine's Crochet Corner

Get Knotted Yarn Craft

This year, we're working with Stylecraft Batik yarn and the new Batik Elements range. I really love knitting with the Batik yarn - it's a DK weight, 80% acrylic and 20% wool, making a gorgeously springy and cosy yarn. The Batik Elements comes in eight variegated colourways...

Batik Elements top row l-r Mercury, Sulphur, Krypton, Bismuth
bottom row l-r Copper, Platinum, Iron, Phosphorus

and these eight new shades blend beautifully with the more solid colours in the range...

Stylecraft chose four of the Batik Elements yarns and put together four different yarn packs. Each one contains four balls of the Batik Elements yarn and six complementary balls of Batik yarn. When we were up at the Mill in July, we each chose our favourite pack to work with. Country Garden was the pack that called out to me. 

I brought my pack home with me, wound some yarn pegs and just let the yarn sit there on the table, deciding what it wanted to be. 

As the nights started drawing in and the evenings became a little cooler, the idea of making some lovely snugly slipper socks began to emerge. I'm sure I can't be the only one who likes to come home from work and get changed into pyjamas for the evening, before cosying down on the sofa with a mug of tea and a book to read or some knitting. It goes without saying of course that I'll be sharing my lap with Flo and more than likely there will be candles lit too. The perfect way to relax and unwind. 

So without further ado, let me present to you my Bee Cosy Slipper Socks. I love how the colours of the hexagons of Batik pop with the ridges of the Batik Elements in between! The whole leg just makes me smile a lot! The pattern is really easy and uses slip stitches to create the hexagonal honeycomb effect. There are lots of possibilities to play around with the colours too. I chose to use the Batik yarns just down the leg and knit the rest of the sock using the Elements yarn. But you could knit the cuff, heel flap and toe in the Elements and continue the colour stripes down the foot too, just knitting in the round rather than following the slip stitch pattern. There's plenty of yarn to make two or three pairs of slipper socks too so you can knit them for family and friends, as well as a pair for yourself of course!

If you have a lot of laminate or tiled floors in your home, you might want to use some 'Sock Stop' on the sole of each slipper sock to give a bit more grip. I bought a bottle from Amazon and it comes in lots of different colours. You simply put some card inside the sock to prevent the Sock Stop from spreading to any other part of the sock and then draw some lines and ridges on the sole. I haven't done it on mine as my house is mostly carpeted and I don't intend to do any Torvill and Dean impersonations if I can help it!

The pattern, in two sizes, is available for free on Ravelry here, but if you would like to make a donation to my JustGiving page to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of my lovely Mr JK, I would be over the moon! There is no need to donate, it's entirely up to you. The pattern is free for you to enjoy. 

And a modelled photo courtesy of my friend Sarah, who also obliged by wearing her pjs! I think this could be the start of a great modelling career, don't you? Thanks Sarah! 

The lovely people at Stylecraft have a yarn pack to give away today so you can knit your own slipper socks. All you have to do is follow the link here. The competition starts at 10am today (28th October) and runs for 24 hours. It's open to anyone, anywhere, so please do enter and you might be the lucky winner! Good luck and may the knitting gods and goddesses be ever in your favour! Tomorrow, the Blogtour heads up to Yorkshire to visit Kathryn at Crafternoon Treats and I happen to know that she's been hooking something rather splendid for you. Make sure you check it out. xxx