I am so pleased that I have eventually finished this sock. I know it’s not much of a birthday present, but surely one sock is better than none! The finished product feels very substantial but not sure I’ll be choosing Lana Grossa again. I need to psych myself up to get started on the second one now. Please send words of encouragement my way.

As a slight diversion I have started on another pair of socks – this time for my 2 year old ds. There was some of a ball of Opal yarn left from last years socks for my mother and I have been meaning to make him a pair since then. I just love working with this yarn, it knits up so effortlessly. Maybe by the time I have the second one finished it will give me the courage to get started back on making the mate for the above sock.

I finished the Blackberry cardigan this weekend and I’m very happy with how it turned out. It is amazingly warm – so for once I’m hoping for cold weather. I worked it from the top down and made the arms a good bit narrower and longer than on the pattern. I think I ended up with a slightly longer length as well – about 21 inches. For the border I added some short rows at the back of the neck for a higher shawl collar and I added a few stitches at the front edge so that it had a bit more give at the curved edge.

The brooch came from Newbridge

and was a Christmas present to myself. It works well with the cardigan but I’ve got to be careful not to snag the knitting.