Socks and sock kit.

It is with great shame that I note I have neglected this blog so much that as yet I haven't even posted pictures of the kit I received last week from my 'spoiler' in the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap. Running two blogs has proved rather challenging, and I admit that I have prioritised the blog I set up for the sock kit swap. It is a 'character blog' in which I post about events in my life as Emma Wigworthy, a knitting and spinning housewitch from Ottery St. Catchpole (mysteriously relocated to somewhere in Pennine Yorkshire!!). If you want to visit and read some of these magical ramblings you are most welcome to. The blog is called 'Yarns fromOttery St. Catchpole', and a lot more exciting than this muggle version of my life! Since the swap is over, and the next swap (starting at the beginning of May) is not to be secret, I can now connect together these two existences. Pictures of the kit I received last week appear at this other blog.

The current knitting news is that I have finished the Hufflepuff socks and published the pattern in my new Ravelry Pattern Store and at my Etsy shop:

Ravenclaw Pride Socks

These are what I've been busy knitting the last 2 or 3 weeks. I designed them after a friend in the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap suggested that I should do some 'proper Ravenclaw socks'. The pattern is for sale as a pdf in my Etsy shop (which is still named after a nefarious fairytale spinner, despite what Freyalyn told me about the meaning of his name!!). I have designed similar socks for the other Hogwarts houses, yet to be knitted. And I really need to do some spinning - my wheel has been rather neglected of late with all this designing and knitting going on. I shall (commits herself) spend at least an hour spinning silk this weekend.

Wonderful Wales

In my defence I have been away on holiday, though not for quite the whole time since my last post!! We rented a wonderful remote farmhouse in Wales where we basked in the peace and quiet (in between blasts of cbeebies from the satellite TV!), walked (yes- even in the biting cold that was the weather this Easter!), read and knitted (well - I knitted, Dave made paper models with the boys).

The farmhouse was idyllic - it was derelict until the very recent renovation (we are the second tenants the owners have had!) which was commissioned by the estate owner who deals in oak. So there were lots of replacement oak beams, oak internal walls and floors (apart from the slate slabs in the kitchen), and even oak toilet cisterns! The estate has a water turbine so we had an electric aga for heating and cooking, as well as the stove in the lounge which we kept feeding with bits of the old beams!

Sadly I have no photos of my own to share - our camera has become so temperamental it will only take a couple of pictures in between battery changes. Dave is looking for a new one for us. I can however post some pinched photos and links. This is the valley (the 'Tanat' valley) where we stayed - the farmhouse was right at the head, not far from the waterfall you can just see in this picture:


First off we visited a sculpture park and nature reserve at Lake Vyrnwy, where Dave bought me some binoculars to be my birthday present (a few days away now). We spotted siskins and coaltits among the many bluetits and chaffinches feeding near the hide we visited.

Next we visited the Centre for Alternative Technology which has changed a fair bit in the 8 years since last time we were there. Lots more displays, especially about recycling, and even more stuff about alternative ways to create electricity. They've installed a biomass boiler. Dave was disappointed not to see stuff about 'digesters', and I was disappointed by the poor state of the planting areas. Our last visit to CAT was a major inspiration in our own gardening, recycling, and energy-saving efforts. Nevertheless the boys loved the interactive displays. And after our experience at the farmhouse I've got even more enthusiastic about finding a property for our future rural eco-home (our dream) where we could operate a water turbine.

In the lounge of our farmhouse there was a big metal plaque behind the stove with a hare, some oak leaves, and the name 'Melangell' cast into it. We found out when we visited the little church in the valley that Melangell was a 7th century saint in the valley who saved a hare from being killed by the local prince's hounds (it hid under her robes while she was praying). The prince was so impressed by her holiness that he gave her the valley for her own and she founded a religious community there (now gone, all but the church which still has an ancient Romanesque shrine to her - the only remaining Romanesque Christian shrine in the UK apparently). Here's a picture of the shrine and an icon of St. Melangell for you:




The major treats of the holiday for the boys were our visits to King Arthur's Labyrinth (truly wonderful experience) and our ride on the Bala lakeside steam railway. I think my personal favourite was our walk to the waterfall near the farmhouse. The weather was sunny that day, the boys were so much fun to be with on the walk, and the location was like the best lake district fells without any other walkers at all (which never happens in the Lake District, and especially not during the Easter break!).

My swap package

Oh dear - I have rather neglected this bog the last couple of weeks haven't I? Let's hope a load of pictures will make up for it!

My sock kit swap partner has now recieved her packages (two in the event, to avoid £10 extra if it was all in one box!) Sadly the rhubarb and ginger jam and pumpkin pickle I made for her didn't make it in one piece - the jars broke on the journey. I may send her replacements. She was very pleased with the rest of the stuff, and as she has now got it I can, at last, post pictures here of the things I've been busy with since Christmas for the swap.

The rules were quite prescriptive regarding the main contents of the kit: sock yarn and a handmade bag in the partner's house colours, stitchmarkers, sock needles, and a sock pattern. Other extras were, of course, permitted.

Putting it all together has been quite a journey of creativity for me. It started with the bag, for which I had chosen a pattern (free from a link in Ravelry) even before I knew what house my partner belonged to. I also ordered fabric for lining the bag before partners were announced, as I thought it would work for all houses. After the e-mail arrived with my partner's details (a Slytherin) I hotffooted over to Texere and bought green cotton yarn, and some silver, glittery yarn for the bag. Using my newly acquired i-cord skills, a witches hat button from an e-bay purchase, and my new harmony circulars (:D), I created this:

I had to adapt the pattern somewhat for a different yarn weight to that specified + I used a full cable technique at the corners instead of the narrower crossed-stitch element in the original pattern. The metal eyelets were also my idea - I thought they would balance the silver elements in my version of the bag.

In the same trip to Texere that procured the bag yarns, I also purchased some undyed silk yarn, because the e-mail with my partner's details communicated the then devastating news that she is allergic to wool. Devastating because I had already bookmarked wool sock yarns in all the house colours at my favourite online supply shops. The best-laid plans of mice and men... and all that! So I had me a little adventure in dying yarn. The green I got with little trouble, handpainting the skein with a mixture of greens I created using the acid dye kit I bought at the Harrogate show last autumn. I named it 'Salazar' as that is the first name of the fictional founder of the house of Slytherin at Hogwarts. 'Silver' proved much more difficult though - none of my greys seemed to work with the green I'd created. I remembered reading about angelina in Spin-off and did a little research about it before buying some and carding it with silk to spin some yarn which I then dyed a greeny black and named 'Darke Sylver'. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you'll see the sparkle:

The stitchmarkers were lots of fun - an enquiry on Ravelry gleaned several links to tutorials for making them, which I did using beads from texere and other bits and pieces from ebay. I presented them on a card decorated with the Slytherin crest, and packaged them in a little green organza bag. For the pattern I printed a copy of Durmstrang socks and presented it in a folder I embossed with my partner's name and decorated with the Slytherin crest. Needles I got from Get knitted - Knitpicks Harmony of course (I am in love with them after all!!), and made a case to present them in, again embossed with my partner's name and decorated with the Slytherin crest. I also included a book of sock patterns I got at a reasonable price from Amazon. It has some cute patterns for childrens' socks I think will prove useful as my partner has a 3-year-old little boy.

And that just leaves goodies. What does someone in the UK, a desert when it comes to proprietary Potter sweets, do for goodies in a Potter-themed swap? Make it up! I exploited the fact that the books were written in the UK by a British writer and include lots of references to British goodies to create my own brands! Spotted Dick appears in the books, so I relabelled a Heinz tin of itand added some custard to serve it with. They purportedly come from the 'Hogwarts Kitchens'! I very cheaply bought sherbet lemons, mint humbugs and treacle toffee (all mentioned in the books) from local supermarkets, and repackaged them also as 'Muggle Sweets'!!

Learning and doing

What an exciting week it has been! Following last week's post I did indeed open an Etsy store with the username (and shop name) 'Rumpelstiltskin'. So far I have listed some spinning wheel oil and the Durmstrang sock pattern for sale. To do this I learnt how to make a 'banner' using Photoshop so I could have some visual whooomf at my store. Perhaps I can post it here? Let's see. Yes:



I also learnt how to create PDF files (so I can easily send the pattern via email), and found some free PDF software to do it with.

Already two people have bought the sock pattern, one of whom has posted a photo of the work in progress on Ravelry. It is very exciting and lovely to see my socks knitted by somebody else in beautiful alternative yarns.

At the suggestion of one of my friends in the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap I've also spent a lot of time this week creating a design for some Ravenclaw socks. I've ordered yarn to knit them with, as I need to test the pattern and create photos of an FO before I can publish.

I'm also researching sock blockers as I plan to make and paint some to sell in the store. I found a lot of posts in Ravelry decrying sock blockers as a waste of money because its not worth using them. What?!!!! I love my sock blockers, and wouldn't dream of giving socks I've made to anybody without first of all shaping them with some. Today I finished knitting some (more) school socks for Tom and took a picture after I'd blocked the first to demonstrate the joy of blockers. The blocked sock is not still on the blocker - it holds its new shape perfectly after steaming and airing on it:

Otherwise my time has been filled with completing the 'kit' for my Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap partner. Extending my creativity still more I made my own card packaging pouches and boxes with Harry Potter font saying 'especially for 'n'' and little house crests repeating all over it. When she has received the kit I'll post some photos of the contents, the final addition being some pumpkin pickle I made on Friday with some of our frozen allotment produce. It's very hot - I burned my fingers chopping the chillies for it!!

This evening I finally took some pictures of other recent 'FOs' - hats for the boys, knitted a couple of weeks ago (just in time for the snow, and then the hard frosts this week). I've posted pictures of ones from the same pattern before, the difference is that I've knitted the boys names into the border near one earflap on these:

And finally - a picture of the completed Durmstrang socks I used for the front of the pattern:

Durmstrang finished

Having taken less than a week to complete the first of my 'Durmstrang' socks, I have taken over a month to knit the second! It is now complete and I am wearing the pair as I write this. I will post pictures when I am home (writing this at my sister's). I have also almost finalised the pattern which Dave will help me to put into a PDF format.
After much deliberation I have decided to see if I can sell the pattern. I have been thinking for some time of opening an Etsy store as a little enterprise that I could make work with being a fulltime housewife and Mum. Having seen on Ravelry that the socks are well-liked, I think it is possible that some folk might actually be willing to part with some money to get the instructions to knit them. If I'm going to open an online shop I need something to sell in it, and thought the pattern would be a good start.
My thoughts on the store have progressed quite a bit since the first notion. I have thought of a shop name ('Rumpelstiltskin'), and have made a list of things I could make to sell, including handspun (got to have this in a shop called 'Rumpelstiltskin'!), hand-dyed yarns, small knits, my own patterns, painted bits and pieces, stitchmarkers (learnt how to make these from doing the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap), my lavender spinning wheel oil, and other handmade spinning and knitting accessories. If any of my readers have ideas/ comments/ feedback to offer this would be most welcome.

Yarns and yummies!

Was my last post really two weeks ago? Where does the time go? To the Hogwarts sock kit swap, I'll tell you. And one word just about covers it - Quidditch! Last week was spent playing online quidditch, which involved a quiz, a picture 'scavenger hunt', and (what else) seeking for the golden snitch, hidden by our headmistress in a very sneaky place.

I have managed some knitting though - two hats, one for Tom and one for Toby, with their names knitted into the border. I used the same Danah's earflap hat pattern that I've posted about here before. Pictures will follow when I have a little more time.

My package for the sock kit swap is nearly ready. I've dyed some silk yarn a varigated green mixture for a lucky Slytherin who's allergic to wool. I've also spun some silk blended with angelina to make a 'silver' yarn which I've dyed black. It contrasts nicely with the green, and the silver highlights work really well (pictures will follow after my 'spoilee' gets her package). For 'goodies' I've exploited my English location to provide some of the muggle sweets mentioned in the books - sherbet lemons, mint humbugs, and treacle toffee. I've also put in a tin of spotted dick, and some custard! Then there's my home-made jam, and I'm planning to make some pickle to put in too. And I must stop there because I'm already wondering what the postage will be on that lot!

Off to Dave's parents this weekend for a family get-together to celebrate his mum's 80th birthday. A meal out is proposed. Yummy!

One piccy for you -here's the snitch sock I've knitted to be a prize in the sock kit swap (the broomstick sock is yet to do!):