Catch Up

Holy cow, I'm behind in blogging. First off, a new chapter of Anne of Green Gables is available. Click here for Chapter 27: Vanity and Vexation of Spirit.

Now, on with the knitting! Here are Stephen's birthday socks being modeled:

And here they are with my finished Embossed Leaves socks:

I think they are perfect.

They are even the same size!

I think the Star Toe is so elegant and comfy:

And the yarn is sooo soft.  It's Panda Cotton in Vanilla Cream.

So, obviously I'm pleased with them. When I finished those I quickly cast on a new pair. These are "Anniversary Socks" by Nancy Bush, the pattern is in Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave. The yarn is Regia Silk in a cream color and it is lovely to work with and really shows off the beautiful stitch patterns. Here is the beginning of a cuff up close so you can see the beautiful tiny little cables:

Here you can see the front of the sock with its lacy diamonds and cabled ribs and the back is plain stockinette:

The heel flap is the Eye of Partridge pattern and I love it so much more than the usual slip stitch:

I'm also doing a Mystery Sock called "Scherherazade's Slippers" that Maia is designing and releasing in patterns each week for August. The yarn is Fleece Artist's Sea Wool in Brick.

This is with Clue 1 complete and I just printed out Clue 2 and I'm excited to start on that!

I love the idea of mystery patterns, it takes a certain leap of faith in the designer. I was disappointed when I found out about the highly popular Mystery Stole 3 after it was too late to join in the fun. So I was thrilled to find out about The Secret of the Stole. Same idea, different designer, and it's not too late to sign up if you want to join in the fun! I have my yarn and I've swatched (pictures coming soon), I just need to get beads. My yarn is KnitPicks Shadow (KnitPicks is my new favorite choice for affordable yarns by the way) in the colorway "Lost Lake Heather." It is a deep green, not quite mossy, with a touch of blue in it. It is hard to photograph and capture the colors accurately and this is the best I came up with:

Isn't it lovely? I think so. I made three swatches with three different sized needles and as soon as I block them I'll post and let you know what needle size I'm using. The first clue goes up on October 5th.

Speaking of October, my dad's birthday is coming up so I'm going to be making him a sweater. The yarn should be here any day and that'll probably be about all I work on for the rest of the month (except sock breaks of course) to get it done on time! And speaking of gift knitting, I'm working on a sweater for Stephen, details coming soon.

Also, I made these two Mason-Dixon washcloths for my Aunt Kay and along with a few fancy bath soaps they made a nice birthday gift:

The yarn is Twisted Sisters Daktari. It is really a bit too lightweight for this pattern and the slubby texture also wasn't right for this design but it was what I had on hand. I love the pattern though, a fun and quick knit. And speaking of birthdays, mine is tomorrow! It's also Rosh Hashanah so I'm taking the day off for some good family time. I think that is most of the knitting news. More on Clapotis and Kauni in the next update.