Flashing for Socktoberfest

I have a case of startitis and have too many wips at the moment. I've recently started these:

Helmet for the 5yo, finished.


Started working on the sixsox Mosaic Socks, my hubby is pestering me to knit him some socks so these are for him.


An irrisistable urge to knit fishies hit me one evening.


Other wips are the Latvian Socks, Gotland Island Mitts, and Big Granny Blanket.

I hereby do declare that I will not start anything else until all most of these are done.

The end of Socktoberfest is drawing near and I'm celebrating by flashing my sock stash. Join the celebration and flash yours too!

This just includes sock weight yarn, it does not include sock weight I've set aside for non-sock projects, nor does it include any sport/ww I intend to knit socks with.

The Solids


The Multis


Click here to see bigger pics of everything.

My Etsy Shop - Shameless Plug

I'm moving my entire inventory over to my etsy shop. I sell vintage (and not so vintage) knit and crochet patterns & supplies. There is not too much listed yet, but I have thousands to add. Come visit and you can add my etsy shop to your Bloglines feeds with this url: http://www.etsy.com/rss_shop.php?user_id=2663

One Hand, One Foot

Bought a couple of new mags and am doing the happy dance cause I got a 2006 calendar! I am one of the poor unfortunate souls who did not get a 2005 because I waited too long and they were all sold out.[sob] I l.o.v.e the Holiday Vogue, there are several things I am going to make and we will be seeing them in progress soon.



Three more dishcloths done and when I've finished a cloth there is always some cotton left over, but not enough for another cloth so I've been crocheting the leftovers into 4" squares and then bordering with red to make placemats. So here we have one placemat finished.



Warm Hands Post

Here is one finished Gotland Island mitten.


Click here to enlarge.

Socktoberfest Post

Here is one finished Latvian sock.


Click here to enlarge.

So Friday night, I'm working on the Feather & Fan shawl (I have 8 rows left till it's finished) and I got this huge urge to crochet, mindless crochet, round and round in granny squares. So I pulled out a K hook and odd balls of chunky/bulky yarns and here we have a Big Granny Square Blanket in progress.


Click here to enlarge.

Nicola Needs ...

OK, I don't usually do these things but I'm having so much fun reading these all over blogland that I just had to play too!

10) Nicola needs to embrace the natural qualities of her hair rather than fighting it with appliances and products

9) Nicola needs to make sure she doesn’t just become somebody who is marketed and
hyped for a quick profit

8) Nicola needs to use the phone for long gossip sessions with her friends about
how wonderful you are and you're expected to pick up the tab.

7) Nicola needs to work toward making commitments to fewer projects so she completes
more of the ones...

6) Nicola needs clothes

5) Nicola needs to actually see a real p*nis.

4) Nicola needs a rocket going somewhere.

3) Nicola needs to follow her heart!

2) Nicola needs to relax and forget about mistakes

1) Poor Nicola needs all the rest she can get these days.

Socks, Mittens and Cloths. Oh My!

Sandy is having a mitten-along and of course I had to sign up. This should help the Gotland Island Mitts to keep progressing. I'm currently finishing the first thumb then I'll post a pic of the first mitten.

For Socktoberfest, I present you with a wip photo of the Latvian Socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush.




And I'm so excited! I got my Sock Scrap Swap partner today. Looking through my scraps I've chosen to send these. Hope she likes them!



And for a FO, I've completed three more dishcloths. The green ones I'm keeping for myself.

Presenting Conwy (& others)

To everyone who commented on Thrift Shop yarn buying, there is one key word here "perseverance". It really is hit and miss but you have to keep going back, if something good comes in, believe me it will not last long. I am admittedly a thrift shop junkie, but all the times I come up empty handed are happily offset by the occassional rewards. I've found lots of super yarn deals and thinking of the best I would have to say the time I got 3 balls of kid mohair and the time I got a box full !! of hanks of Briggs & Little worsted wool (still have lots of this left). And all for less than a buck a ball.

Come join the fun over at Straying Power for a Sock Scrap Swap

Now, onto the WIPs and FOs. First may I present Conwy. This has been designated as my favourite sock to date:


Click here to enlarge.

Pattern: Conwy from "Knitting on the Road" by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Harris Tweed Shetland 4ply Shade 3
Gusset, Heel and Toe Talk: following my plan to follow instructions here, the gusset and heel were done using my regular method, so nothing new here. The toe was something new for me, with decreasing done 4 times in the round, I believe this is called the star toe. Can't say I'm too crazy about the decrease lines on the top and bottom of the toe but it does fit nicely and I will give it another try and see how I feel after I've worn them a while.

Second FO for the day is the Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl:


Click here to enlarge.

Pattern: Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl
Yarn: odd balls of novelty/specialty/bulky yarns from stash.

And I leave you with a peek at the WIPs:

Click here to enlarge.

1) Another feather & fan shawl, this time with fall colours.
2)green dishcloth. (yay! the yellow is all done).
3)Latvian Lace sock (doing a rib instead of the picot hem)
4) Gotland Island Mitten, getting close to the finger decreases.

Weekend Shopping and FOs

Did a little bit of shopping this weekend in Lethbridge. Popped into Walmart and they had some of the green cotton I've been looking for and having a hard time finding, plus the newest issue of Creative Knitting. Not much in it but I picked it up because there are two Christmas Stocking Mosaic patterns I like.



Did the round of the thrift stores and made a score at the Mennonite Thrift Shop. A bunch of old McCall's Needlework & Crafts (I collect these from the 50s-70s) and a little bag of odds and ends of sock yarn that immediately called out monster socks to me. There appears to be three different colorways here.



And finally, went into a wonderful little yarn shop: Knitting Time, where I found some lovlies. Been looking for the Great American afghan books for ages, they are very hard to find around here. So I picked up Great American Afghan and Great North American Afghan 2. Also got some cute Regia sock needles with little sock protectors, these are Us #0's which I needed a second set for the Latvian Socks the Folk Socks Kal is knitting. And finally mustn't leave without sock yarn, so here we have some Online sock yarn in a beautiful fall shade orange/lime/red.



And I did get some knitting done. Not as much as I had hoped, I was way too tired on the ride home to knit but did get the Chevron socks finished, and have another set of yellow dishcloths done. I have just enough yellow left for one more cloth I think.


Click here to enlarge.



Click here to enlarge.

I'm on the gussets of the second Conway sock and should have a FO next time I post.

Week of Mail

The mailman has been busy stopping by this week. First my "Folk Solks" book came so now I can start thinking about the Latvian socks for the folksolks kal.


I love elann.com. I placed my order on Monday and received my package on Wednesday! Here we have some circs I needed: Clover and Addi-Turbos. Then some Harris Tweed Shetland for a shawl (Butterfly Garden from Inknitters mag) I'm planning and some Endless Summer Cotton for dishcloths for my kitchen.

As you know I am a sock-addict and therefore must absolutely belong to a sock club. I've been neglectful up to this point but have rectified the situation by joing the sock of the month club from theknitter.com. The first kit arrived and I'm thrilled with it. Beautiful lace sock called "Hawaiin Leis" and some Trekking XXL which I have never knit with before.



Of course, when signing up, I had to add a few other items to my basket. So here we have Lornas Laces Glenwood and Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters in Firestorm:


On the knitting front, I'm working on both the Chevron and Conway socks. We are going away for this weekend for Thanksgiving and I have a 2 hour drive both ways (= 4 hrs pure knitting!) and hope to have them both finished when I return.

Finally, for Jane's contest here are my socks:

Gimme a K, Gimme an A, Gimme an L

It is KAL time! The sock knit-alongs have posted the new socks! The socknitters kals didn't have anything that spoke to me this time so I have just 3 new socks to knit.

The sixsocks is doing a mosaic pattern and oddly enough I've never knit a sock with a mosaic pattern before so this should be fun. Gotta sit down and pick out some yarn.

The FolkSocks group has chosen the "Latvian" sock and I'm expecting my book to arrive any day now. Nothing like a kal to give you an excuse for buying a new book!

The Knitting of the Road group has chosen "Conwy" for the new sock and I am in love. The pattern is beautiful and this yarn is to-die for. I'm using Harris Tweed Shetland 4ply and the colours are yummy.



Also on the needles: The Gotland Island mittens are progressing, slowly but surely. The yellow ball of cotton is decreasing and the number of dishcloths increasing. The chevron sock for my sister has one done and the second one underway. And like I didn't need another wip, I cast on and have not been able to put down this Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl. I'm using odd balls of fancy/novelty yarns from the stash.


Click here to enlarge.