Socks and cowls

I finished my cowl, and it's so bright and warm and just what I needed while the weather remains bitterly cold. Clearly worn out with more than a vest t-shirt!!

Willow cowl

I decided to make a pair of socks as I've never been able to knit on dpns without creating 'ladders' and so far, so good. However the short sock needles I got for my birthday are too short for the amount of stitches I need on a single needle to turn the heel, so will buy some longer ones as well. That said I am a big fan of the short 10cm knitpro needles.

Also with this project I learned with the help of my new book 'Cast on, Bind off' how to do an Estonian cast on which gives a very stretchy edge suitable for socks, hats and sleeves. It's similar to a long tail cast on (using slingshot menthod), but every 2nd stitch you change the direction the yarn winds round the thumb. Not as difficult as it sounds and after a few attempts I seemed to have it completely sussed.

Estonian cast-on

The pattern in the book I'm using calls for Sirdar Country style yarn and I had the exact same colourway of the yarn in my stash. How often does that happen?!!

In non knitted things I have just started with a series of ideas for paintings/collages and this is one of a piece (still needs some additional work) that is currently on the drawing board right now

It's going to be part of something larger and as more work progresses I will show you more...