Swap Socks

I've been meaning to show you these utterly gorgeous hand-knit socks that were made just for me by the amazing Kelsey from Everyday Fray.  Back in August I had a hankering for some hand knitted socks, and after a pretty feeble attempt at knitting myself a scarf (lets just say I bought the yarn in August and I still haven't knitted more than a swatch), I realised that I'm not going to be knitting my own socks any time soon.

 

You should definitely check out Kelsey's blog post for all the deets on these socks.  It turns out that Kelsey and I have nearly the same size feet, which was a bonus, and these socks fit me perfectly.

 

They are soft, they are squishy, the cabling is amazing, and you can probably tell from my latest quilting efforts that I'm definitely not over last year's purple kick!

I know that hand knit socks are a lot of work to make and are delicate, so I'm only planning to wear these indoors with my wool lined slippers, and I'll be taking extra care with washing them too.  Autumn has just begun here and we had a couple of cool days.  It's not quite wool sock weather yet, but I'm sure looking forward to getting to wear these beauties.

Skills Swap - what I sent

Several months ago I said I would be interested in a skills swap.  I was keen for a pair of hand knitted socks, but lacking the skills to actually knit them myself, I offered up a quilted item made by me in exchange for the socks.  The lovely Kelsey of Everyday Fray put her hand up and so we have swapped!  Now that my items have arrived with Kelsey, I'm very excited to share them with you.

The thing that Kelsey actually asked for was a sewing machine cover.  She left it to me to choose the design, but we did discuss cute animals, including foxes.  I'll share more details of these items in a later post, but the sewing machine cover is a modified version of this pattern, and the little fox is made using this pattern.  I also made Kelsey a matching pouch using my favourite open wide zipper pouch tutorial from noodlehead.

Since it's so close to Christmas, I thought it might be fun to include something Christmassy as well.  I made this stocking, and a matching one for Kelsey's husband, using my own pattern.  It was really fun and I think I will have to do a whole set for my family one of these days.

The final handmade item that I included is this mini quilt.  All the coloured petals are Anna Maria Horner fabrics - 100 different ones in total.  Yes, I had all of these (and more) in my stash already.  I went for a kind of rainbow effect on a crisp white low volume background.  I'm very happy with how this mini turned out, and I think I will have to make another one for myself.  Good thing I love that hand done blanket stitch appliqué so much!

Kelsey and I also agreed to include some swag in our parcels.  This locally produced knitsch sock yarn is particularly lovely (it's actually what my mum is using to knit me another pair of socks) and with a name like "Mad Blood Stirreth", how could anyone resist?

At the same time I was buying the sock yarn, this Artisan Lace yarn kit caught my eye.  It has two skeins of yarn, three different lace scarf patterns and the right size knitting needles as well.  I have no idea if Kelsey likes knitting lace, but the scarves looked so pretty knitted up in the shop.

There are more photos and details to come on my handmade items, but I have to say that doing a direct swap like this was a lot of fun.  I found it more satisfying than making something for a relatively anonymous partner and I would definitely do something like this again.  Although Kelsey and I sent our parcels on the same day, NZ Post seems to be taking its own sweet time with delivering Kelsey's parcel to me, but I am very excited to receive it and hope to share the contents with you shortly!

Linking up with:

    

and with Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts.