Mini Archie's August Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Hello! I don't feel like I've managed much this month, but when I look at the pictures I've taken, I realise I've grafted the toes of eight socks (two of which were half knitted, and two which were started from scratch this month), made good progress on another pair, and hand pieced three LV blocks!  You'll notice that all of these can (and have!) been done while sitting on the settee watching telly (I've been catching up with 'Suits' from the beginning and have watched all of seasons one, two, and three. Unfortunately, the channel which was showing them has stopped at the end of season three so I need to keep an eye out for them starting season four.) and drinking tea.  Except when it's been too hot to drink tea, of course.  Roll on autumn!

Here's what I've been making this month:

Every time I crop photos of these blocks, they turn blurry - very frustrating!  Which is why there's a lot of floor in these pictures!

The camera doesn't seem to have the same problem with blocks without text fabric in them.

This one has just been finished and needs a press, but it felt mean to leave it out!

I've already blogged about three of the pairs of socks I've finished off this month (pair one, pair two, pair three) and here's the fourth pair:

These are the first socks I've ever knitted with indie-dyed yarn and also the first pair of merino/nylon socks I've ever knitted and they are very, very soft and the yarn is wonderful to work with. The yarn is called 'Mulled Wine' and is from (and dyed by) Made By Penguins and was one of four hanks I bought in a 'lucky dip' offer - I'm beginning to wish I'd got two sets!  This is item 16 from my Q3 FAL list and I'll be linking up with the finishes party when the time comes.

****** I've just noticed that the offer is still on!!!  Lucky Dip 100g merino/nylon  Lucky Dip 20g merino/nylon ******  (Tempting, verrrrrry tempting!)

The second pair of 'lucky dip' socks (these will all be Mam's Christmas present so I can't sit on my laurels for too long!) are coming on a treat, aided greatly by a *(thankfully rare) night of very sleep and then a trip to the car dealership to have a safety recall sorted.  This yarn is called 'Solar' (and was dyed using sunshine!. Yes, in the UK!!):

Sock one (I graft the toes when both are finished) - I love the difference between how the leg has knitted up and how the foot has and is fascinating to knit!  (There's a four-stitch difference between the two and I think that accounts for it.)

Sock two is coming along nicely.

Some of you might be wondering why the ball is on a big knitting needle.  Well, thanks to TECHknitter, I discovered that my yarn was twisting not because I was knitting in the round (which is what I thought was causing it and I was, quite frankly, getting sick of having to dangle my knitting to get the yarn to untwist itself) but because unspooling (whether from the outside or inside of 'caked' yarn (i.e. wound on a ball winder) imparts twist in the yarn, a little like a telephone cable, which then kinks up on itself. The solution?  Pull the yarn from the outside of the ball, but allow the ball to rotate rather than pulling it from above as I had been doing.  I tried a few things from around the house to solve the problem, but none allowed the ball to rotate smoothly and be practical for settee knitting until I tried the knitting needle.  I put it through the ball and then tuck the point end under my right thigh and the ball rotates as the yarn is pulled.  Is it perfect?  No.  Sometimes the ball doesn't rotate, but I'm quickly perfecting the art of pulling so that the ball is more likely to rotate.  Does it solve my twisted tangled yarn problem?  Yes.  And I'll be continuing to do it.  Thank goodness for Mini Archie liking the look of these hefty sticks (000, I think) in a studio sale and pleading for me to buy them! I wouldn't like to knit with them, mind, it'd be like knitting with broom shanks!


I think the reason I didn't feel as though I'd done much is because I haven't been in my sewing room or used my sewing machine, but it's amazing how much can be done while sitting on the settee watching Suits and Law&Order!



Linking up to the August Furtle
If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share.  This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up.

Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome.  If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help.

Please add the Furtling button to your blog post, please copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXDD7-BYr5nXJtGn7HIFUcDUZfLGBTpazWKP8TCUWdkA6zd2285lbJX4aoMug6QyKDdxtxA-njWnhvf0GugU-An4z5lTFcqmYnae0Gb68FR0ZmydWYETGSa2oF1NeQDMVNwZBnUHTpsD7/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email.  This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 7th September; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the August Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.


We've had a visitor this month and Mini Archie was quick to recruit her to the pirate watching duty rota:

I finks these big eyes of Penny's will be verrrrrrrrrry good at spotting Pirates. How long did you say she was staying? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter