This morning I finished off the second Broadripple sock to get the pair done in my target time of a week which I'm rather impressed with. I'm putting my knitting energy into my second Pablo Blue sock, and casting on for another pair of Slalom socks, this time in some rather lovely purple Admiral Bambus. I'm quite taken with the idea of wearing something as unusual as bamboo on my feet, but I'm feeling rather uncertain about the amount of people who've told me that the Admiral yarns are often somewhat short on weight and yardage, and with my rather long feet and need for a slightly longer cuff due to my love of Converse all stars and Dr Martin boots I'm a little frowny about running out. However my not particularly great kitchen scales (wonderful for measuring out recipe ingredients, not so skilled at measuring tricky items like sock wool) seem to suggest that I might have a full skein. I think I shall still be knitting rather nervously towards the toe of sock number two I think.

This weekend also sees me going off on my jollies for a week to that paradise of yarn shops London. With a two hour train journey there, and another one back there should be plenty of opportunity for me to get stuck into my current sock projects. Not to mention the fact that I'll be dragging lsb to lots of lovely yarn shops and to meet lots of lovely London knitters. So I shall be going off the radar for a short while, but rest assured I shall be back soon. 

I'm back from my holidays, but very very busy still. I have however managed to do the smallest amount of knitting possible. Lsb's slalom socks are just over halfway done now and in between attempting to be a domestic goddess, nursey stuff and whatever else I'm plodding along with they're coming along nicely. I start another placement next week and one that requires me to participate in lots of activity groups with patients, does anyone want to take a guess at how long it's going to take me to get a knitting group up and running? It is, as we all know a brilliant therapeutic activity and so much fun too!

I've now got the basketweave scarf and the camera in the same room together, and as it's very close to being finished I promise I'll upload a photo of it next time I update. I daren't do it now as I almost crashed the internet uploading all my holiday photos and I'm not sure it's recovered yet.

A very overdue update, I've finished my placement and about 5 minutes ago I finished my last essay of the year, it's now just awaiting printing off and handing in. I've also got five knitting er I mean reading weeks before I start my next placement - which actually sounds rather exciting (a community team for people with a history of disengaging from conventional mental health services).

I've managed to be quite productive in my time off, I finished the first rainbow sock but it's rather dull being stocking stitch throughout so I can't be bothered posting pictures right now. My next target's going to be finishing the second of my slalom socks, which I seem to have stalled on at about one and a half repeats down the leg. I genuinely love this pattern but given that lately my only free time in which to knit has been while travelling to and from work and the slalom sock is just a little too fiddly given that I have the memory of a fish (anyone remember Dory from Finding Nemo? Yep, that's me) so have to have something in which to keep count of my rows.  So with more than five minutes free time over the next few weeks I might actually get somewhere with the second sock and not feel quite so bad about the small amount of knitting I seem to be doing lately.

Finally finished the first slalom sock (zero free time and too much academic work do not a happy knitter make). I'm rather enjoying this project if I'm honest and as well as looking rather effective, for anyone with a bit of prior sock experience it's easy enough. I've already got lsb tugging on my sleeve and making puppy dog eyes when he asks when he can have a pair of his own. And yes, that funny blue looking chap holding my sock is the one and only cookie monster, he seems happy enough holding that rather than a cookie or two, and I'm sure his creators would agree it's more in keeping with his new healthy image (whoever decided to blame cookie monster for the rising tide of obese American children needs a serious psychiatric consultation). Anyway I'm rather proud of myself today, not only did I get my sock finished off and cast on for the second one I also got out and went for a rather refreshing run in the brief period of time when it doesn't rain in Yorkshire.

For anyone doing or thinking of doing the Slalom sock (It was in a recent issue of Yarn Forward magazine, don't ask me which one as my brain isn't working right now. But it had pretty fingerless lace mitts on the cover) don't make the same mistake I did, there's a typo in the chart that just doesn't sit right with me. So my tip of the day is to either follow the written instructions, or if you're the type of knitter who's more comfortable with charts rewrite the chart yourself in line with the typed instructions.

Freshly off needles are lsb's heel less socks, unfortunately the pictures don't show how bright they really are.















As per usual straight after this post is up I'll be starting on another replacement project. This time what I think is going to turn out to be a very nice pink version of Polly's slalom socks, and as lsb's purchased a camera battery for me as a reward for passing my last exam of the year I may actually get round to posting pictures on a regular basis.