Once Upon a (Southwark) sock - November

I think this is the first time that Once Upon a Sock and the first of the month have coincided for quite a while.  (Having checked, it was back in March).  Today is also the first day of Wovember - a celebration of all things wool.

A drainpipe outside the main cathedral

On Thursday of last week, Mr Knitty and I spent an evening at Southwark Cathedral, to see a talk on the book that goes alongside the All The Stations project, by Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe.  For those who don't know the project - Geoff and Vicki did a trip last summer, where they visited every single train station in the mainland UK.  (The full documentary is here )

The cathedral is gorgeous.  There was a monument to Shakespeare (given that he worked in the parish when he was at The Globe Theatre.

Of course, I had a pair of socks on the needles, which I worked on during the talk.  I'd decided that if anybody complained, I'd be prepared to stop.  Luckily, I was sitting at the back and nobody was paying attention to me, as they were listening to the talk and taking part in the Q&As. 

The socks at the beginning of the Q&A

When it came to the book signing afterwards, it made perfect sense to knit in the queue.  I think we were waiting about 90 minutes, so it was a good distraction and more work towards this year's box o' socks.  (Please can we ignore the dropped stitch somewhere round the toe which I found a couple of days ago).  Geoff could not get over the fact that I was knitting whilst waiting, to the extent that he asked if he could write it in the book.

The Candy socks are finally finished.  After messing up the heel at least three times, I told the socks that I didn't want them languishing in the project bag; I didn't think that it wanted to be languishing in the project bag - so could we please work together to get the heel turn sorted.  

Yarn - Regia Pairfect, in the colourway Candy.
Pattern is Sockmatician's toe-ups. 

These are knit in Regia Pairfect - designed to be knit from the cuff down.  I chose to knit it toe up, so the pink on the toe should be the cuff, and the thick stripes on the feet should be on the legs.  If I were to knit them again, I'd either try cuff down (gulp) or knit the toes and heels in orange and re-jig the yarn so that the pink cuff and thick stripes are in the right place. 

Last month, I also cast on an orange pair.  This was meant to be my socks for last June, then this June and then whenever-I-could-get-round-to-knit it. 

I've recently started using this progress keeper, because it's gorgeous.  I think it came with a yarn purchase...

Yarn: Opal 20 Years, colourway 9285 - Candle

The final pair, which still need a heel are my third time lucky socks.  This was the yarn I used in my first attempt at socks over four years ago.  The next attempt was over three years ago where I got halfway through the heel and no further.  (My friend Jane was telling me how to turn the heel with wraps and turns.  The lesson finished before the heel did).  They're now nearly finished - pending an afterthought heel.  

Yarn is Sirdar Heart and Sole.  I cannot remember the colourway.

There are a group of us who blog about socks on the first Thursday of the month.  If you knit socks and want to join us, you would be most welcome.  Each month we have a live link-up, hosted by Paula at Spin a Yarn.  If you want to join us, all you need to do is post your blog entry, add your link to the link up and link back to Paula's blog.  It doesn't matter if you crank out a pair of socks a week, or just manage a couple of rows a month - if you knit socks, you're part of our gang and it would be lovely to share your projects!