Borrowing time

I don't quite know what has happened to the last two weeks; they have passed by in a blur. I do know it's been two weeks since I last posted, which is Just Not Right. A variety of reasons for my absence, most notably the fact that the end of January was the end of our financial year in work, which as you may gather is the busiest time for us accountants. As such, I have been beavering away in the office and not had many evenings free for crafting (which then leaves me with nothing to share here!).

I'd like to say work was the only thing keeping me away, but towards the end of January we also received some rather sad news on the house front. Our landlords want to move back in, so once again we are moving house! We have to be out by the 12th April, so the hunt is now on to find somewhere else to live.

As if all that wasn't enough, the wedding is now only three months away! Fortunately, everything is ticking along nicely with the preparations, so of the three, this one is causing me the least amount of stress. I had hoped I'd have been able to share with you my adventures into proper jewellery making, but I haven't yet had the time to sit down with all my new tools and have a go.

I haven't abandoned my crafting altogether, though. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen my late entry into the Next Step Sock KAL hosted by Sarah over at Crafts From The Cwtch. Everything I had on the needles already was far too complicated for the state my mind was in when I had the time to knit last week, so I decided to jump in and start knitting another pair of socks.

As the purpose of the KAL is to challenge yourself to take the next step in sock knitting, for me that means knitting them toe-up instead of cuff-down. They are, after all, only my second pair of knit socks! I am using the same yarn as my last pair because I have enough for another pair of socks and I want to make sure I know what I am doing before I break out the Candy Skein Yummy Fingering for my first patterned pair!

I'm following Wendy Johnson's instructions for a basic short row toe and heel sock, because I tried to do Judy's magic cast on once and hated it. I had some issues with the crochet cast on Wendy suggests, but apart from that the short row toe really worked for me.

I have to say, I think I much prefer knitting socks toe up. They fit perfectly, and the toe in particular is a vast improvement on the first pair I knit in terms of comfort. Also, my first project using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off, which as expected, is surprisingly stretchy.

Not to be outdone by second sock syndrome, I have already started on sock number two, and have high hopes that between all the real-life drama I will have time to finish it off before the KAL ends at the end of the month.