shopping

Cycling in the Achterhoek

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Hello! Last Saturday, my husband was going to study mosses in de Achterhoek. (That’s right, mosses – with our many, varied and sometimes slightly nerdy interests, we’re neither of us ever bored). I decided to tag along – at least to the parking place where he was meeting a group of other moss lovers. There, we split up (only for the day – no worries) and I hopped on my bicycle. I’d brought a map, snacks, lunch and my camera, too, because I thought you might like to join me virtually.

For those of you not familiar with the Achterhoek – it’s a mainly rural region in the east of the Netherlands, bordering Germany. Starting in The Hague, drive 180  kilometres straight to the east and that’s where you’ll end up. It was a grey and chilly morning, and I wished I’d thought of bringing mittens and a hat.

After a little over an hour’s cycling through fields and woods, and passing some lovely homes and gardens along the way…

… I arrived in the town of Borculo.

Two (bronze) women were doing their laundry in the Berkel river, next to the Washuisbrug (Washing-house bridge).

Borculo’s historic centre is really lovely, with an old watermill…

… cobbled streets…

… and – well, well, what have we here?

A yarn shop! What a surprise! (Not really – it was totally planned.) Let’s take a look inside. Lots of swatches to get a good idea of the yarns, that’s always nice.

A cupboard dedicated to baby yarns, with some wee garments for inspiration.

And a good selection of other yarns – sock yarns, a merino DK in many colours, thicker yarns, thinner yarns, cotton, wool, acrylic, alpaca. Something for everyone. What strikes me in this shop is that there are lots of multi-coloured and especially gradient yarns.

Is it just this yarn shop or is it a trend? There was one yarn that was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is called Lopapeysa, comes in 400 gram skeins, and will knit up into a complete sweater with a built-in colourwork round yoke and coloured ribbing on sleeves and body. Sort of like self-striping sock yarn, but then for a sweater. I don’t know if I’d ever use it, but I think it’s amazing.

It isn’t just yarns here, but also fabric and haberdashery. The shop is called Stof & Stuff after all (stof being the Dutch word for fabric).

A friendly shop, where even the door knobs both inside and out are covered in knitting.

I left with in some gifts in my bicycle bag. A length of gingham check ribbon with the cutest fox faces on it, that I gave away before photographing it. And a skein of multi-coloured sock yarn for my knitting student’s Birthday. She’s making tremendous progress and has really caught the sock knitting bug.

Well, time to cycle back. De Achterhoek has some of the most beautiful stretches of bicycle track I’ve ever cycled on.

Although the leaves on the trees are still green, it smells like autumn. The weather is cooling down and I’m knitting, knitting and knitting. Swatches and gifts, gifts and more gifts. I hope to talk about some of those soon. Bye for now!

Back to Knitting

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Hello, it’s good to ‘see’ you again and I hope all is well with you. Although it’s still warm and summery here, there are signs aplenty that autumn is around the corner. In our garden, the apples are almost ripe.

The grapes, too, and some of their leaves are already turning colour.

I feel like I’ve been rather lazy over the past month-and-a-half or so, but someone else called it being ‘creatively dormant’ – a far kinder and more helpful way of putting it.

So, apart from knitting several pairs of socks and making a felt butterfly, what did this ‘creative dormancy’ look like? I have not been sleeping the time away (I wish!), but have been walking or cycling almost every day. Usually close to home, but sometimes a little further afield, and one day outside the Wadden Sea dyke. It looks very tranquil in the photo below, but actually there was quite a strong wind.

I also visited a couple of lovely markets, one of them in a botanical garden.

There were some delicious farmhouse cheeses and other tasty foods.

And yarns, too, like these bright hand dyed ones…

… and this fine tweed, with inspiration for some stranded colourwork.

Lazing about/being creatively dormant for a while didn’t always feel comfortable, but I think it was just what I needed, because now I feel inspired and energized again, full of new plans for things to knit, make and write about.

At the top of this post you can see the start of a gift project that I can’t tell you about until it has been gifted because the giftee may be reading this. What I can tell you about is my plan for a Norwegian cardigan. During our May holiday in Germany, I came across a book by Norwegian knitting designer Kristin Wiola Ødegård.

The German title is Traumhafte Strickjacken aus Norwegen, and the original is Ett år med kofter. I took a look at the designer’s website, and saw that there is an E-book version available in English: One Year with Wiola Cardigans. Wiola’s website is really worth checking out – very inspiring. It’s not just the knitting itself that is beautiful, but also the added embroidery and other embellishments.

I bought two copies of the book – one for myself and one for a friend, and we’re both going to knit something from it. My friend is going to make Rakel in a cardigan version (Ravelry link).

And I’ve chosen Helma (Ravelry link).

Together, my friend and I drove up to Seldensa last Friday, the yarn shop I wrote about here and here. Choosing wasn’t easy, because how do you choose from all these colours????

Or from these???

It took a while (fortunately shopkeeper Nynke is very patient and even plied us with tea), but we both succeeded in choosing yarns and colours for our projects we’re happy with. I’ve given choosing colours for stranded knitting a lot of thought lately, and hope to tell you a bit about that next week. Hope to see you again then!

A Yarn Shop on a Terp

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On hot summer days, it’s always a few degrees cooler on the coast and there is often a refreshing sea breeze as well. To escape the heat, we sometimes drive northwards to the coast nearest to us, in Friesland. I thought you might like to join us on one of these trips, especially because it involves yarn.

It is not a coast with sandy beaches and breakers, but a coastline surrounded by dykes with the sea or mud flats right behind them, depending on the tides.

Before the dykes, people built terpen (dwelling mounds) to stay safe when the land was flooded during storms and high tides. We used to live in a village on a terp until we moved to our present home, but it is not that village I am taking you to today. Our destination is the tiny village of Eastrum, with about 190 inhabitants – and a yarn shop. The shop, called Seldensa, is housed in the former village café.

My husband drops me off and drives a few miles on to a good bird-watching spot, so that I can browse around Seldensa at leisure. Owner Nynke is a very friendly person, who gives advice if you need it and doesn’t bother you if you just want to look around, which is just how I like it. Apart from many yarn-filled shelves, she also has plenty of samples to provide inspiration.

Let’s zoom in on the sideways-knit top in the centre:

It is Floatside, designed by Wool & Pine, knit in Kremke’s ‘Morning Salutation’ (a lyocell/cotton blend). So lovely and summery.

In the back of the shop, there is a totally un-summery but equally lovely sample:

This is the Agnes Kofta, designed by Kristin Wiola Odegard. It is knit in the nice and woolly Norwegian ‘Finull’ yarn from Rauma that comes in such a huge range of colours:

Another of my favourite yarn brands here is Filcolana. I love their ‘Merci’ and ‘Anina’ yarns for baby’s and children’s knits. I didn’t take any pictures of those, but will tell you more about something I knit with Merci soon. I did take a photo of some of the gorgeous Holst Garn colours, though:

I can’t tell you what pattern or yarn was used for the Norwegian children’s cardigan next to the Holst yarn, I’m afraid. I do try to remember everything, but every now and then something slips my mind.
ETA: The children’s cardigan above is The Original Cardigan designed by Sophie Ochera knit in Holst Garn supersoft. A great pattern for using up yarn remnants.

After a couple of hours of soaking up colours and inspiration, and choosing some yarn, my husband joins me again and we eat our sandwiches strolling around the village.

The Saint Nicholas church on the top of the terp is a patchwork of bricks from different eras. The oldest part, the tower, dates from the 13th century. Cyclists or hikers following long-distance route Het Ziltepad are welcome to stay the night in the church. I’d love to do that sometime.

But for now, we’re just strolling through the quiet village, where hydrangeas are flowering behind the privet hedges.

Where it is as if time has stood still.

And where everyone seems to be snoozing during this warm lunchtime hour.

So peaceful.

During the summer months, Seldensa is one of the stops along the Vlasroute. This 30-kilometre long route tells the story of flax and the products made from it, like linen and linseed oil. Info about the Vlasroute can be found here. And my earlier blogpost about the route here.  I hope you enjoyed this little outing and hope to see you again soon. Until then, stay cool!

Soaking up Colours at Stiel

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Hello! One of my best friends and I have been on a fun day out. We drove to Bornerbroek in the east of the country, about 30 miles from the German border, to visit a yarn shop called Stiel Wolwerkplaats. (Stiel Wool Studio – the word stiel meaning craft or metier). I thought you might like soaking up the colours at Stiel, too. Just gazing at a wall of yarn in all the colours of the rainbow makes me so happy. Does it do that for you, too?

One of the things that distinguish Stiel from other yarn shops is that they also stock spinning fibres. It is the only shop I know of that does so. Their wall of spinning fibres is a joy to gaze at, too. And what I really appreciate is that next to the fibres, they have a bunch of mini-skeins to show what they look like when spun up. For instance in the photo below, the orange-pink mini-skein in the centre is the fibre top left. It’s very nice to be able to see how the colours blend together.

To the left of the big wall of yarn is a corner with BC Garn’s Bio Balance, a GOTS certified wool-and-cotton blend that I’d love to make something from. And next to that, beautiful embroidery wool-silk from Fyberspates.

In the windowsill several recently published knitting books.

I can’t possibly describe all of the yarns at Stiel – I’ll just pick out two more. First up: Balayage from German firm Pascuali, a blend of 80% baby alpaca and 20% extra fine organic merino wool.

It’s like meeting a friend I haven’t seen for a while. In 2020, at a time when we were all forced to stay at home a lot, I used 4 skeins of Balayage for my Thús 2 scarf with its rows of lacy houses.

I have given the original scarf away, and the shop where I originally bought the yarn has closed its doors, so I was tempted to buy some Balayage for another scarf like it. But I didn’t, as there were other things on my shopping list.

The second yarn that caught my eye was Kashmir Lux (95% geelong lambswool; 5% cashmere). Its colours are so very beautiful and subtle.

With 1000 metres on a 50 gram cone, it is an extremely fine yarn. I think it’s stunning, but what would I knit with such a fine yarn? For now, I left that on the shelves too.

Ah, so many impressions. Time for a cup of tea with a little something – apple pie for my friend, carrot cake for me.

We had tea at 100-year-old Theehuis Dennenoord. They have dozens of teas to choose from and serve huge slices of cake. It is a 30-minute drive from Stiel, but we had all day and wanted to make the most of it.

I’ve mentioned several things that didn’t come home with me, but what did? First of all, some spinning fibre in blues and greens. It is John Arbon’s Harvest Hues top in shade Juniper (zwartbles, bluefaced Leicester and merino). I’ve stored it away for autumn, because I have other spinning projects I want to finish first.

Next, Rowan Magazine 71. It is an older issue, from spring 2022, and just like the Balayage yarn it is a reminder of the difficult pandemic years. Most of the photographs were taken indoors, instead of in the usual beautiful scenery, probably because of restrictions. There is also more variation in the photo models in this magazine, compared to the usual skinny ones. This is one of my favourite designs in the Magazine – the Free cardigan designed by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard (the cardigan is called Free, the pattern isn’t free).

It seems to me that the pandemic had a positive effect on the Rowan team, not just in their choice of models, but also in their more creative approach to presenting the designs. The theme of the magazine is Joy, and the designers were asked where they found joy. Here is how two of my favourite designers depicted that on a kind of scrapbook page. Kaffe Fasset finds joy in colour (where else?).

And Erika Knight shows how making gives her joy.

Finally, several skeins of a soft cotton-and-cashmere yarn came home with me. They are meant for a wee garment for our second grandchild, expected later this summer. So exciting! Our daughter is doing well, the baby is growing healthily, and my knitting needles are working overtime. I can’t tell you about those projects yet, but I’m sure I’ll be able to find something else to write about next time. See you then!

A Stroll through Deventer

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Hello! Thank you so much for your thoughts on steeking my Sundborn cardigan – very helpful! It isn’t finished yet, but I’m getting there and will tell you about it next time.

Today, I’m taking you on a little outing. In between an errand and a visit, we had a couple of hours to spare in Deventer. I brought my camera because I thought you might like to stroll along through its lovely old city centre (it has two yarn shops!). It is market day…

… and the barrel organ treats us to some cheerful music. A similar one used to drive through our street every Saturday when I was a child, and I still always put a coin or two in the organ man’s  money box.

I like the hustle and bustle of the market, and I love the quiet back streets. There are so many fun and interesting things to discover. Take Thomas à Kempis’ words on a wall in a narrow alley, ‘You’re sure to feel happy at night after a day well spent’.

The combination of picture and words makes me smile. It reminds me of our grandson who loves cleaning with his own little broom and his dustpan and brush. Who did he get that from?

And take this gable stone, with Barbie looking at it through the window.

Dat regenvercken – the rain pig. Huh? Oh, I get it! A piggy bank for saving water instead of money. A hogshead! The spelling and general look suggest that it is centuries old, but the date on it says 1984. Such fun that someone would add a decoration like this to a wall just because.

The building on the left at the top of this post used to be the municipal savings bank. There are three words above its three upstairs windows: Arbeidzaamheid, Spaarzaamheid, Voorzichtigheid – Diligence, Frugality, Prudence.

The building was renovated at the end of the 19th century. I wonder what the words above the windows would have read had it been renovated recently. Spend, Spend, Spend?

Via a circuitous route we’re arriving at the Kleine Overstraat. With its small non-chain stores it is one of the nicest shopping streets I know. It is extremely hard not to spend, spend, spend here. Yarn is my weak spot (or one of them anyway).

Astrids Wol is specialized in Noro. She has other yarns as well, but many of her shelves are filled with these colourful Japanese yarns. So beautiful! I have knit quite a few things with Noro yarns over the years, and now there are some very attractive summer yarns, but I’m being frugal and prudent.

Astrid also has socks for sale – machine knit socks. They look deceptively like hand knit ones. It’s unsettling – why would I keep knitting socks if similar ones are for sale for little more than the cost of the yarn? Fortunately they are not the same thing at all – not nearly as nice and soft as hand knit socks. And look at the toes:

No, we hand knitters can do much better than that. I’m so glad we have not been completely made redundant by machines yet.

The second-hand shop where someone has spent so much love and attention on the window display…

… has vintage wooden knitting needle cases in a basket outside.

Walking past the stationery shop where I love spending time (and money)…

… we arrive at the second yarn shop – Dol op Wol.

Oooh, look at that! All those gorgeous blues and greens in an oh-so-soft blend of cotton, wool and cashmere. Yum!

But I already have so many other knitting plans. Still in frugal-and-prudent mode I file the yarn away in my memory, perhaps to take another look at later.

Well, time is up. I hope you’ve enjoyed our stroll. xxx

A Stroll round my Village

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Hello!  No knitting today, I’m afraid. I ran into a problem with the sweater I’m knitting for our daughter and ripped back quite a bit. I’m working on a solution and hope to tell you about it next week.

Instead, I’m taking you for a stroll round my village. It isn’t the village I now live in, but the Frisian village of Grou, where I grew up and that still feels very much like my village. It is also the village of the famous Frisian doctor, poet and storyteller Eeltsje Halbertsma.

He wrote in 1856, “ik beëagje neat mei myn skriuwen, as om myn Fryske lânsljuwe in noflike pear oeren te besoargjen.” (I have no other aim with my writings than to give my Frisian compatriots a few pleasant hours.) That’s my aim for today, too, only in my case it is people anywhere and minutes rather than hours.

We’re approaching the village centre through a narrow alley. In the second house on the left the friend who taught me finger crochet used to live, and on the right was the baker’s where we spent our pocket money on sweets.

This is the main street, where I have some shopping to do.

And this is the front door of the shop I’m taking you to. It used to be the police station, but now it’s a yarn shop (where else would I take you?).

With its new glass roof it is now a beautifully light space. No yarn shop is the same and every yarn shop reflects the taste of the person running it. In this case a very cheerful and colourful taste.

In the workshop space a beginner crochet workshop has just ended. Crochet seems to be more popular now than ever before.

Unfortunately, I can’t show you what I bought. It’s something very nice, but it’s a birthday present for a friend who’ll be reading this and I want to keep it a surprise.

Now, let’s walk on to the end of the shopping street. A tiny garden shed, an antiques shop and a gate.

And behind the gate the 13th century church. In the 1970s a new minister arrived. A hippie from Amsterdam, with a long beard and long hair. He introduced a circle of meditation benches into the church, where we kneeled and sang Dona nobis pacem, pacem, dona nobis pacem. Give us peace, peace, give us peace……………………………………….

Today’s stroll ends by the lake that seemed enormous to me as a child.

My village has changed in many ways, but many things have stayed the same, too. In the same spot where they have always been, there are still einekuorren (traditional nesting places for ducks).

It’s a lovely time of year for a stroll, with tulips flowering around the Eeltsje Halbertsma bust and kingcups along the waterside. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope to see you again next week. Bye!

A Sweater in a Week?

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The shop windows were filled with colourful yarns and projects. It all looked so lovely and inviting. Two pullovers from an airy self-striping yarn, one from bouclé as well as several fun hats in one window. And beautiful scarves with dots and zigzags in the other.

I was at ’t Ryahuis for yarn for a sweater for our daughter. Together we had chosen a pattern from a book I brought back from Germany a couple of years ago: Fynsk Forår by Annette Danielsen. It is in Danish so a bit of a puzzle, but I think I’ll manage.

The sweater is knit with two thin Isager yarns held together in muted shades, totally unlike the displays in the shop windows. One is Alpaca 2, a wool and alpaca yarn. The other is Trio, a linen blend in a shade called sage. At the gauge called for on 4.5 mm (US 7) needles, the yarns give a fairly open fabric. It will be a perfect sweater for the in-between seasons. Wouldn’t it be nice if she could wear it from, say, May? That would give me about a month to knit it. What do you think – will that be doable?

To celebrate its 100th anniversary De Volkskrant interviewed 100 centenarians, publishing an interview every week over the past two years. Reading about those long, long lives has been very interesting. One of the centenarians, Siena Voppen-Wegkamp, tells us: ‘I was 53 when my husband died. Seven children were still at home, the youngest 14. I went back to work as a household help. Don’t ask me how busy my life was at the time. I knit a sweater a week for the children, and was often sewing clothes into the night.’

De Volkskrant, 21 November 2022, pp. 16-17

Just imagine making every item of clothing for yourself and your large family by hand in what little spare time you have! A sweater in a week? Totally unrealistic for me! A sweater in a month sounds better. It usually takes me much, much longer, but then I usually have many projects going simultaneously. I’m going to give it a try.

That may mean that I’ll need to be a one-project person for a while, and the bee I’ve embroidered may have to wait for flowers until May.

There are enough flowers in our garden and our pear tree is blossoming, too. But the embroidered bee is very particular and only collects nectar from embroidered flowers.

Have a lovely weekend! My knitting needles will be busy. I hope there is something nice to knit on yours, too.

A Trip to Kampen

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Well, I was a tad too optimistic last week about finishing a wee Norwegian sweater. There is no news on the knitting front, and I hope you’ll enjoy a trip to Kampen instead. It’ll be cold and wet, so wrap up warmly and bring an umbrella! We’re walking to the old town centre through the park and one of the three city gates.

It can get quite busy here with tourists in summer, but today it’s just the locals and us. We could go on a guided tour, visit a museum or the cigar factory, but we’re not doing any of that. We’re just here for some shopping and a stroll.

The medieval town hall is very impressive, and there are many other interesting monuments. But what I like even more are the narrow alleys leading off the main shopping street.

One of the nice things about Kampen is that it has many small independent shops. Some of our favourites are the cheese shop, the Italian delicatessen and De Swaen with its handmade chocolates.

I know that some of you are quilters as well as knitters, and thought you might like to visit the quilt shop. The owner writes an inspiring blog, too. I don’t know how she does it – running the shop on her own, being a mum of four, blogging and making beautiful quilts. I’ll just let you browse on your own before we walk on to the river IJssel.

Ah, there you are again. Did you enjoy that? Now, let’s get some fresh air and take a walk along the river. The boats that will be sailing with groups of passengers later in the year are all at home.

Oh, we’re lucky! The Kogge (the replica of a medieval cargo ship) is here, too. Compared to today’s freight ships it’s tiny.

I don’t know about you, but I feel chilled to the bone. Time for some tea or coffee in the restaurant with the swan over the door.

And some sweet treats to go with it. I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip to Kampen. Next week I really hope to have some knitting to talk about. See you then!

Oh, the Places Knitters Go!

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Hello! It’s good to be back here. Maybe you haven’t even noticed I’ve been away, but we’ve been on a late summer holiday to Germany. We spent the first half in the Mosel region, and the second half in the Eifel. Above a photo of the view on the river Mosel from our balcony, and below our first holiday home from the outside:

In my dreams, that is. In real life this is Reichsburg Cochem. And in real life we stayed in a far humbler (but lovely) abode. In real life, this was what I looked out on when I sat knitting outside our cottage.

I didn’t knit all that much during our holiday, though. Partly because we were out walking and visiting places most of the time, and partly because it was so hot that the yarn almost felted in my hands. A few rows on a scarf here and there, and half a sock was all I knit.

Halfway through the holiday, I celebrated my birthday. We had some of the famous and delicious German Kuchen, of course. (The Germans are so much better at baking cakes than we Dutch are.) And I also got to decide what we were going to do the rest of the day. I chose a visit to another castle and… a yarn shop (what else?). This is Schloss Bürresheim.

The castle is entered through a kind of tunnel that leads to a courtyard with an outdoor summer kitchen. It’s very special, like being in a film.

Actually it is in a film. In an edited form, it is the castle where Indiana Jones’ father is held captive in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Now, let’s drive on to the yarn shop. It’s Die Kleine Wollfabrik in Kaisersesch. My guess is that tourists are a rarity in this town. It’s 30 ˚ C/86 ˚ F, with glaring sunlight and noise and dust from building activities in a colourless street. Oh, the places we knitters go! For a moment I wonder ‘what on earth am I doing here?’, and then step inside a world of colour.

There is yarn everywhere. In overflowing baskets…

… in cubbyholes, on shelves, on the floor…

… on top of storage units and in front of the windows. These skeins were dyed by the shop owner herself:

And there is also quite a bit of spinning fibre.

So, is this yarn shop worth a detour? If you’re looking for yarn for a sweater – frankly no. There is very little of that kind of yarn here. But if you’d like some yarn for socks or a shawl – absolutely. Be prepared for a kind of yarn jungle expedition, though. You’d be wise to have some kind of idea of what you’re looking for beforehand.

From all of the very colourful yarns, I chose several rather quiet ones for three pairs of socks to give away, and a variegated yarn for a pair for me. All of them yarns I haven’t knit with before – I’ll tell you more about them when I get round to knitting them up.

After all of the beautiful places we’ve been to, it’s good to be back home. In a sense, I’m a cow. Not the nicest thing to say of oneself perhaps, but what I mean is: I need time to chew things over. After ingesting lots of grass/impressions, both cows and I need some quiet time to digest everything. Sifting through my photographs and writing about my experiences helps me do that.

Thank you for reading. I hope to digest/write about a visit to another textiles-related place next week before getting back to my ordinary knitting chat. Hope to see you then!

A Yarn Shop and Sock Blockers

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Hello! As I said at the end of last week’s post, we added a couple of kilometres to the flax trail to visit a yarn shop. It is called Selden Sá! and is situated in Eastrum, a village of under 200 inhabitants.

For Selden Sá! to stay in business, either the people in Eastrum must be hugely prolific knitters eating up miles of yarn or there must be something about this out-of-the-way shop that makes people travel to it from far and wide. Let’s take a look around to find out.

Focused on flax, I spotted several linen yarns (e.g. Borgo de Pazzi Lino in photo at top). Lovely cool and summery. I also saw and fondled an extremely soft wool-and-cotton blend that would be perfect for a sweater for our grandson (photo below, to left of mannequins, third row from the top).

I’m hopeless at choosing things on the spot and regrettably didn’t buy any.

From people in my knitting group I’d already heard that Selden Sá! stocks many Scandinavian yarns and I recognized familiar ‘faces’ from Istex, Rauma, BC Garn and Holst Garn. There’s also a lot of Filcolana, a Danish brand I’m not familiar with but would definitely love to try.

For me, there is something so uplifting about browsing around in a yarn shop. All those colours! All those possibilities!

Don’t you just love it when a shop has lots of samples for inspiration?

A basket filled with swatches may not excite most people, but I could easily spend an entire afternoon studying them.

I wasn’t only browsing around, though, but also looking for something. What I needed was yarn for a pair of manly socks with an intricate stitch pattern in a light neutral, like solid grey or beige or something. What I left the shop with was a skein of hand-dyed variegated sock yarn in pink and taupe. Uh-oh, how unsensible! But very pretty, don’t you think?

I also bought a pair of wooden sock blockers – something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time.

I had just finished a pair of socks from a self-striping yarn and put them to soak as soon as we arrived home. To find out how much difference sock blockers make, I decided to block one sock and just hang the other sock to dry on the drying rack.

The socks fit my foot (shoe size 38) and the sock blockers were size 38-40. What I expected was that the sock would need to be stretched around the blocker. What actually happened was that the sock blocker disappeared completely inside the sock, hook and all! Upon drying, the sock shrank back a little, but still sat loosely around the blocker.

A bad buy? Well, that’s what I certainly thought at first. But when the socks were dry and I compared them, I could see a slight difference between the blocked and the unblocked sock. I don’t know if you can see it in the photo below, but the blocked sock (right) looked slightly neater, with more even stitches than the unblocked sock (left).

I expect the difference to be more marked in socks with a lace or cable pattern. I also suspect I need a pair of sock blockers in a larger size. Yes, I really think I need to pay Selden Sá another visit, for larger sock blockers, that soft wool-and-cotton yarn for our grandson and perhaps a few other things…

Do any of you have experience with sock blockers? Do you think they really make a difference? And do the blockers need to be larger than the socks or will that stretch out the knitted fabric too much?

I’d be grateful for your advice, but even if you don’t have any, I’m grateful for your visit. Bye! xxx