Starting and finishing

I was on a mission to finish a few of the multitude of UFOs in my cupboard over the Christmas/New Years holidays and actually managed a few (2 pairs of socks, a Kiri shawl in black Kid Seta), made a bit of progress on a couple (another pair of socks, a Hand Maiden Sea Silk scarf in a Jackie Erickson Schweitzer pattern) but gave into the temptation to start Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid (colour 3 with some additions). The body is half finished at this point but I had to stop to work on my spinning homework.

So am I any further ahead? Not really. I do have some more socks (most of mine are missing in action - put away last spring in some hiding place that I have not yet discovered) so my poor bare feet will now have something to keep warm, but I also have as much unfinished (actually more now since Mermaid is the full deal) as I had before.

So much for mssions and resolutions.

On a more positive note, I have finally tried out toe up socks. I haven't really liked the start of most I have seen - the toe is too wide and straight or it is way to fiddly for my taste so I checked a few patterns a developed a variation or 2 to suit me better. The toe starts with a two needle wrap of 6 loops and moves on from there in a star/round toe with lifted increases and more of a taper. The heel is a modified short row heel that is a little longer due to double wraps and the end finishes up with a nice loose bind off that I have seen on a couple of shawls. Thus Toe Me Up is born!

I have a few sock knitting hints to share and once I figure out the formatting etc will add some pics.

A bientot mes amis!