Picture, picture... who wants a picture?

Finally... for your viewing pleasure... or not, as the case may be, is a selection of FO shots!!!

First we have Derek's denim work socks. After I gave them to him, he then told me that he had enough at the mine site! These will keep his sock drawer at home warm in the meantime!!! I used Denim Tuffy and some scraps of Smoke.

Next we have Denise's slippers. I used the leftovers from the comfort shawl I knit her about a year and a half ago... she matches now!

Third, we have Raith's slippers. These were made with a ball of yarn that was a mystery until the end (RHSS Soft Navy)... I learned how to hand-wind my own centre-pull balls well over 6 years ago, and this ball wasn't wound that way. I had wrapped it around the yarn label, which was the norm for me before learning the other method. That actually came in handy as I had run out of yarn half-way through the second "tongue". Thanks to having so much of my stash catalogued on Ravelry (including bin location) I was able to not only locate another ball of the same yarn, but one of the two listed was even the same dye lot from 2002!

Last but not least are Raith's "Wild" socks. He is the most-wool sensitive person I have ever met! He picked this yarn out of my stash for me to make him a pair of socks with. Since this yarn is Bernat Sox, a 75% acrylic/ 25% nylon blend, I gave them to him with the warning that his feet will sweat and these won't be nearly as comfortable as my other socks.

There are links to all of these projects in yesterday's post since I'm too lazy to grab the links to make my life a little easier. I'll have a longer post tomorrow... I'm pretty well done in with all the spring cleaning I've been doing this past week!

Travelling means slippers!

I can't recall exactly when the tradition started, but whenever Derek travels, I make him a new pair of slippers. He used to "blow through" a pair every time he went away, so I simply began making him a new pair before he left! Well, he has needed a new pair for some time now, and since his flight is at 7am, I figured it was about time I made some! I'm proud to announce my first FO of 2012: Derek's Travelling Slippers

I have also set up knitmeters on the sidebar to note how much yarn I've worked through this year. I downloaded my stash database on Ravelry, and it's over 170 km of yarn! Since this project was about 183m, that means I crocheted up 1/1000th of my stash! LOL! I will only be adding to that total as a project is finished, so the numbers will stay static until projects are done.

I am currently working on the yoke of my cardigan while I wait for the time for Derek and I to leave for the airport. I'm not getting the 3+ hours of knitting time as I had hoped because his 7am flight requires us to leave home by 2am! I can knit by feel somewhat, but I can't knit in total darkness. Here's how the collar turned out:

I will keep on working on this until it's time to get ready to go in about an hour or so. We printed up the pattern for the rose-coloured afghan today, so I'm pretty sure that Derek thinks that is the project I will be working on... won't he be surprised when he returns?!? I'm also hoping to have the cardigan done, or nearly done by the time he gets back. The cardigan, the popcorn afghan, and the commissioned projects will definitely keep me busy mindlessly for when I need a diversion from my mind wandering to places that it best not wander off to.


Nicole =o)

You ought to be in pictures!!!

First of all, please excuse the poor formatting for this post... I'm a bit out of practice with my HTML tags and such!! In any case, I'm happy to showcase a couple of recent design photos. Below is the official photo for the sock pattern Walk in the Garden. It's worked in sportweight wool on 2.75mm needles. It was originally designed for Ram Wools' footworks 1.0 design contest.

Below is the baby afghan I've named Manny. I created a new stitch for this design that gives it a thermal quality.

Below is a photo of one of the knitted MAM strips for the pattern Melissa. It's knit with a soft worsted weight yarn on 5.0mm needles. I'm really liking how it's turning out.

I'm at 20!!! Holy Crap!!!

Well it's official... I've hit the 20 pair mark for this year! That makes my average a little under 2 pairs a month, which is nothing to be ashamed of, unless you include the fact that my sock yarn stash doesn't seem to be getting any smaller!!! That's another 420 metres added to my total, which is now at 6087 metres... I'VE BROKEN THE 6 KM MARK!!!

On Tuesday afternoon I did the final stitches on the "Boss Wife Socks". These are the socks that I knit for the wife of Derek's boss Henry... whose socks were the last sock FO featured here. They've really been wonderful in everything they've done for us since {and even before} we moved out here, and it's just a small token of how much I {we} appreciate it. Clicking on the picture will take you to the Flickr page for it, or you can visit my main Flickr page to see all of my photos. If you want more details on these socks, leave me a comment, or go visit the project page on Ravelry. Of course you can view all my projects on my main projects page on Rav too!

Less than three days!

Well, it *was* 5 calendar days, but it was 95% done in less than 2, and the other 3 days *were* working days, so they don't really count! I would guesstimate it took me about 15-20 hours of crocheting time from start to finish on this project... with well over an hour spent on the last round alone!

And now as promised... PICTURES!!!

Yes! I've actually got the photographic proof that I've been accomplishing something around here. The only thing that didn't make it into this shoot was my new sock design. I'm going to keep that under wraps for the moment. I've uploaded blog-sized photos here, but if you are interested in seeing the larger versions, you can view them on my Flickr account. I also have some recent family shots added there as well.

Here's the finished photo of the socks I made for Derek's boss as a thank you for all the help and such they've given us. I hope he likes them! I even included a little card titled: "The Care and Feeding of your Hand-Knit Socks"!


Here's where I currently am with my first laceweight project, Steph's "Snowdrop Lace Shawl" done in Clea on 4 mm needles.


This is the current state of my blue shawl. It's around 16" and I've used up 2 balls of Patons Glittallic on it so far. Derek chose the yarn and the pattern, so I'm looking forward to finishing this one.

Another day, another sock!

Well I've decided to continue on profiling some of my recent sock FOs even though most of the pictures aren't up to par, and I haven't taken "in use" pics yet either. Today I'm going to show you Derek's Columbine socks. I knit them using wine Regia Silk, and the pattern is from Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles.


This is the completed pair of socks. I didn't need to adjust the pattern to fit other than foot length, and used 2.5 mm dpns. I also changed the heel to an eye of partridge heel as I feel this is a better wearing heel than the typical slip stitch heel flap. I had already tried the 2 circs method on my "Pippi" socks, and decided that it wasn't for me, which is why I used the dpns. The silk is absolutely dreamy to knit with, and I can't wait for my next opportunity to use this yarn.


Here is a close-up of the leg pattern. You can see that it gives a bit of interest to the leg without being overly lacy or "girly".

Little Shells Revealed

Please forgive the REALLY crappy resolution on these shots. I'm still trying to find the right settings that won't make Blogger crap out on me for pictures.


Here they are at long last! It was a surprisingly quick knit for me. Although you can't tell in this photo, the only difference between the socks is about 2 rounds of colour at the toe.


This pic shows how evenly matched the yarns were... even at the heel turn. I'm so tickled about this!


Here's a side view of the pair. This one actually shows the slight differences in the toe. I can't be more pleased with how matched these two were.

For those that are interested, the pattern is Little Shells, and the yarn is Fortissima Socka Colori. I don't have the label in front of me for the colour number though. Even though I don't have a shot of it, the shell pattern actually does show up with the self-patterning yarn, albeit subtly... you'll have to take my word for it!

Lissa, the princess...

Now for your viewing pleasure, I have some pics of Lissa:

Here's the princess all ready for the kid's Christmas party back in December... gotta *LOVE* those red ruby slippers!!!

Believe it or not, these two actually *do* love each other and this hug isn't *just* for the camera!

Lissa the princess is showing off Lissa the socks. I can't believe it took me this long to get some made for her, especially since she loves them so much!

Lissa, the sock...

Here is the Lissa sock. It's a generic top-down sock with a short row heel for a large toddler. Stay tuned for the pattern!