In the round...

..both knitting and crochet. I've made a start on a pair of socks for 0j0. When I have tried to knit socks before, it has been on four needles and from the top down. I was never happy with the way I got a loose ladder of stitches between needles, and found juggling the needles took away the pleasure of knitting. A couple of weeks ago, I came across an article on the use of circular needles to knit socks. I love circular needles for flat knitting, as they allow the weight of the knitting to be on your lap, rather than on the needles, and have occasionally used them "in the round" to knit hats, but I had thought that the number of stitches in a sock was too few to make this practical. Now I know better. If you would like to know how, have a look here. The reason I am not knitting the pair together is that my needles are not long enough, but I do have a longer set in a size down, so if this pair of socks turn out, I'll adapt the pattern to the change in tension. I have two 50gm balls of this navy blue Paton's Beehive that traveled out from UK in 1986. It's 25% wool, 25% nylon and 50% acrylic, so it should wear well. I think it should be enough, but if it looks to be running out, I can always start striping the cuff; another advantage of starting at the toes and working up! Once I've had this practice run, I have 4 balls of King Cole Superwash wool waiting in the wings, also from the 1980's! I shall get through my stash eventually...
In case you are wondering what the white thread is for, it is so I know which side is the start of my round.








A link on Craft Gossip led me to an article on Amigurumi, and following the leads, I wound up at BitterSweet's blog. She's a writer after my own heart, and a generous one as well, as she offers free patterns to those who enjoy her work. As there was a crochet hook in my pen tub, and a ball of knubby cotton on my table, I made this little fellow. I didn't have any toy stuffing, so I used cotton wool from the bathroom. He has turned out egg shaped rather than the sphere of the originals, but I don't suppose that matters, and I have used felt for the eyes, rather than the safety eyes that Hannah used. The head tuft was my addition.

I always have to think when using crochet patterns from the web. Single crochet in an American pattern is double crochet in an English one. I assumed that this was American, but I may have been wrong, and that could account for the elongated shape....or maybe I was just mean with the stuffing? Looking at him sitting on my desk, I have almost decided to give him some orange felt feet.