Warming your feet

Friday Inspiration this week comes a day late - oops, sorry about that.
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day.
This weeks inspiration is about warming your feet. Winter warmers to me says thick cabled socks and felted slippers.
My favourite pair of thick socks are these:

The Pattern is Whitby (Rav Link) from Nancy Bush's "Socks on the Road". It is a super pattern, the diamonds down the front help you easily keep track of when to cable, and knitted on 3mm needles these seemed to fly by. They are also knitted in the very luxurious Posh Emily 4ply - a mix of wool, angora and cashmere. Not the most practical sock yarn but perfect for house socks.

Now onto felted clogs or slippers. I saw loads of these for sale at the Christmas market in Birmingham. I've never made any of these, but always wanted to. Fuzzy Feet from Knitty always sticks in my mind as a pattern to try. The Drops people have come up trumps with a couple of free patterns too: Felted Slippers and felted boot slippers

What is your favourite way of keeping your feet warm?
Do you have a favourite pair of socks you reach for to keep your toes toasty?
Is there a pair of socks/slippers you have been wanting to make for ages but haven't got around to?
What is your favourite finished object that warms your feet?
What is your favourite yarn to use for socks/slippers?

Link to your answers in the comments below so we can all see how you warm your feet.

Contacting Swap Partners

Please can everyone make sure they are contacting their swap partners? If you have yet to hear from your upstream, or haven't had a reply from your downstream, Ruth and I would like to know, so that we can make sure people haven't dropped out.

I know Christmas is a busy time, but the key to a successful swap is communication, so please remember both your upstream and downstream pals.

Friday Inspiration - Warming your Neck

This will be a less pretty post, as unlike Ruth, I don't have project photos for you. I haven't got as far as knitting anything to keep me warm yet!

Of course that hasn't stopped me looking.

In the last swap, I was sent Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr. There are some lovely scarves in this, which have several different and intriguing techniques. The one which is my favourite, is Drifting Pleats. It flows beautifully. I also like the way it works with variegated yarn, though I think I'd rather knit it in solid or semi-solid.

Thinking of Winter Warmers makes me think bulky yarns. My favourite bulky scarf is the Herringbone Scarf. It is a fairly simple technique, but looks quite effective. I think it would also probably look quite good in my handspun.

My current real love though, is cowls. They just look so cozy. The Chickadee Cowl is a great pattern for variegated yarn. Spiralicious is a charming lace cowl.

My favourite though, is a combination of scarf and cowl, the promenade scarf. I love the idea of buttoning it round my neck. Maybe I should go on a stash dive?

What is your favourite neck warming pattern?

Do you have a favourite FO?

Is there a style of neck warmer you particularly like?

Please post about neckwarmers on your blog, then come back here and link us to it, so we can have a look.

Friday Inspiration - Warming your Hands

Today is all about giving you inspiration for gloves, mittens and handwarmers.
I'll start with mittens as I am completely obsessed with stranded knitting at the moment and have recently finished my first pair of stranded mittens from the Selbuvotter book.
These were made in The Yarn Yard Bonny sock yarn and took about 25g of each colour.

There are quite a lot free patterns around at the moment for stranded mittens. The people page in Ravelry contains Favourite Mittens at the moment. You have to check out Pinneguiri's finished items - they are amazing.

Or how about cats, dogs, fish or even squirrels (pdf) on your mittens? Or you could take a basic mitt pattern and design your own using graph paper.

My current favourites are in the latest Twist collective, Postwar Mittens.

Natalie at The Yarn Yard is also hosting a Mitt-A-Long in the new year, so maybe a mystery mitt is for you? More details in their Rav group

See, I told you I was obsessed!

Don't fancy stranded mittens? How about thrummed mittens - they would certainly keep your hands toasty.

If you can't decide between gloves and mittens, how about some convertible mittens. I made these for a friend in Hipknits cashmere sock yarn from a book called "Not just more socks"

However there are loads of free patterns out there for convertible mitts, Broad Street Mittens from Knitty is one that springs to mind.

I have never knit gloves, so I can't comment on how annoying the fingers would be (the fingers on the convertible mitts were fairly annoying). I do have a thing for twisted stitches as well at the moment and think these Entangled Stitches gloves are amazing.

If fingers are too much for you. How about some Cranford Mitts?

Or the ever popular Fetching from Knitty

These were made in Posh Yarn aran weight Sophia (pure Cashmere) - a really treat.

So, what is your favourite winter warmer for your hands?

Do you have a favourite pattern or finished object?

What is your favourite yarn for gloves/mittens/handwarmers?

Are there any patterns out there you would love to own?

Or do you already have a winter warmer and you would like some mittens/gloves/handwarmers to match?

Post about "Warming your hands" on your blog and then link to it in the comments so we can all see what you like!

Friday Inspiration

Rather than have a series of weekly questions Delle and I have decided on an inspirational weekly post; which we hope you guys will join in with.
The idea is each week we choose a winter warmer e.g. Keeping your hands warm, keeping your head warm etc etc and will give you our favourite patterns, favourite finished objects and general inspiration for your handmade item or kit. We hope you will post your favourites/insipration on your blog - this should give more clues to your pal about your likes/dislikes and also give others some new ideas too.

Round 3 Questionnaire

This time, there is a different questionnaire, depending on whether you are taking part in the kit swap or the handmade item swap. Please make sure you post the correct questionnaire to your blog.

Kit Swap

What kind of kit are you interested in receiving?

Are you interested in any particular techniques?
Do you knit, crochet, or both?
What is your favourite colour?
What is your least favourite colour?
What’s your style? (elegant, traditional, glamourous, girly, natural, sporty, outgoing, etc.)
Do you have a favourite type of fiber or brand of yarn?
Do you have a least favourite type of yarn?
Do you do any other crafts?
Are there any knitting accessories you are interested in receiving?
What do you like to eat?
Any allergies/preferences (fiber-wise or treat-wise)?
Anything we missed that you’d like your partner to know?

Handmade Item Swap
What kind of items are you interested in receiving?
Do you knit, crochet, or both?
What is your favourite colour?
What is your least favourite colour?
What’s your style? (elegant, traditional, glamourous, girly, natural, sporty, outgoing, etc.)
Do you have a favourite type of fiber or brand of yarn?
Do you have a least favourite type of yarn?
Do you do any other crafts?
Are there any knitting accessories you are interested in receiving?
What do you like to eat?
Any allergies/preferences (fiber-wise or treat-wise)?
Anything we missed that you’d like your partner to know?