Knitting Socks Through Election Night

My Dave sock so far

No-one can have escaped the fact that today voting takes place for the General Election. I had a lie in this morning in preparation for a long night ahead in front of the TV. This year the pundits say that the results are expected to be very close to call and I'm going to try and stay up in front of Jeremy Vine and his swingometer at least until midnight to catch the shocks and successes of the night.

It's a good opportunity to finish the Rachel Coopey Dave sock I've been knitting. In a previous post I reviewed her Socks Volume 2 book. Dave is the easiest pattern it and is suitable for beginners learning the basics of sock knitting construction. It's just stocking stitch - no cables, colour changes or anything else to worry about, leaving me free to concentrate on the structure.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't go wrong. I had two frogging sessions: the first being when I went wrong on the heel flap and the second when I was incorrect about which stitches formed the instep. When I did manage to get it right I added markers to help me along.

The yarn I'm using was kindly donated by West Yorkshire Spinners for review. All views are my own. The 100g 4 ply ball is specifically spun for socks, is part of their country birds collection. It retails at £7.20 and unless you have ginormous feet one ball is enough for a pair of socks.

The shade is blue tit and the yarn contains colours inspired by the bird. It's a lovely soft yarn that doesn't have a tendency towards splitting. The change in colours appears random, although if you wanted to you could find the repeat section by pulling out the middle of the ball in order to start both socks at the same point in the colour scheme.

I'm knitting the Dave socks in the round and have found the country birds yarn very easy to knit with. It knits up rather like fair isle. I've already turned the heel and am now working on the foot. Tonight I'll post updates as I endeavour to finish the sock, and maybe start on the second, in front of the telly.

Here's what Dave is supposed to look like:

We'll see later on if mine turns out to be recognisable!

22.15

Exit polls put the Conservatives in front and the SNP with huge gains.  Lord Ashdown says that if the exit polls are right he will publicly eat his hat.

I've got a way to go to finish the sock and keep my toes warm:

00.05

Three seats declared and all have labour first, UKIP second and the Conservatives third. There are rumours that Ed Balls and Danny Alexander have lost their seats. David Dimbleby keeps asking politicians what they think of the exit poll, only to be told that they want to wait and see what the results are.

I've finished the toe and now need to graft the ends:

00.45

The Conservatives have won one seat. Theresa May refuses to speculate on what the rest of the results will be - the BBC is trying to fill time until more seats are announced.

Meanwhile I've finished grafting the toe. Rachel Coopey's Socks Volume 2 book has a very useful tutorial on kitchener stitch and I mastered it at the first time of trying.

As well as producing sock wool West Yorkshire Spinners also has a covetous book of patterns called Signature Socks. I'm interested in the future in knitting the woodland walk pattern. First however, I'm going to cast on the second sock for my country birds pair. It's going to be a long night!

Apologies for the dark photos due to camera problems.