Sock weather

Its so miserably cold here in Scotland, I am currently wearing two thin wool jumpers and we've lit the stove but still I'm not warm. Its been raining for days, nothing to do but knit socks. I finished the ones with the wool Amy brought me from Devon, now they are cheery, I should be wearing them today instead of the cozy but dull black ones I have on.

These are the ones I knitted in Italy, some interesting wool I found in a charity shop. I put a bit of cable on the side but its rather lost in the dark shades.

I had hoped to look for sock wool while I was in Italy, I'd been in correspondence with Diane who is in the same region of Lazio as our house and she'd given me a few suggestion. However, time didn't allow for wool sourcing so I came home a bit disappointed but thinking I had plenty of wool in the stash anyway. Then last week Mr FF had to go down to Darlington on business, a little town in the north of England near where we used to live about 20 years ago, so I went with him. We had an hour to kill and wandered into the town to see if the wonderful Victorian covered market still existed. Yes it was still there, still full of bargains and I discovered a wonderful little wool stall, A Fine Yarn , guess what, they had a huge assortment of sock wool including Italian ones. I had a great shop as you can see and an interesting chat with the lady who had some amazing handspun cashmere and knew all about the knitting scene in Edinburgh.A couple of balls of Opal, one of Trekking and two of Lana Grossa. I'm working away with these now for Christmas presents. Mr FF is scheduled to go to Darlington again on Wednesday, I'm not sure if I can keep away, besides it will be comfy knitting in the car with the heater on.