Three Cheers!!!

Found myself suddenly quite annoyed by all the almost finished socks in my basket, so dropped the ones I was working on and added the final touches to the following:My favorite and most successful socks to date
Brigit by Gigi Silva
Wollmeise in RakuRegenbogen
2,50mm & 2,25mm

Also very nice socks. Haven't worn them yet so can't be sure of the "droop" problem, but for now, they fit great and the yarn is lovely and cushy and they are fun.

Bellatrix by Gigi Silva

Monarch Fly Dye in Hott

2,50mm & 2,25mm And still another pair, this time toe up and they came out too long in the foot. I still haven't made toe up work for me. I am aware that many of you would knit your socks no other way, but the vote is still out for me. Although I do plan to work on it, perhaps with Firestarter or the Boyfriend Socks. If I knew mid sole how tall I needed to make the heel of that particular pattern for my arch, it might be possible to accurately calculate the increases.

Baudelaire by CookieA

STR midweight in a Rare Gems colorway with the cuffs knitted in Mustang Sally lightweight since I ran out of yarn.

2,25mm & 2,50mm

Now for a pictorial explanation of why I need more yardage in my sock yarns. The blue sock is Rebecca's, knit for herself, and yes, she is a grown woman. Red sock is my size 10 Bellatrix. Duh! Now I know I knit tight and I don't like to use larger needles and I have to deepen the heel and gusset to accommodate a freakishly high arch, but still, my foot is reasonably normal. This was just amazing to me to see the literal difference in volumne. Thanks to Bea for the photo.

And since I'm always whinging to Jo about running out of sock yarn and needing more yardage, she pointed me to Knitivity, where Ray's yardage is more generous, and he even sells cones of some of the stuff. Well worth a visit. I liked Etouffé and Jambalaya, but there are lots and lots of blues for those of you blue lovers. Jo of course picked those. Ray started dyeing yarns professionally when he was chased out of New Orleans by Katrina and started a new life in Houston.

Submitted my October Sockdown, the Brigits, and am knitting away on my Novembers, using Gigi Silva (again) for a homegrown designer with Eleanor done in Sock Hop's Big Yellow Taxi. Increased from 60 to 66 stitches by adding a stitch to each motif. But knitted on 2.25s in the handspun, they are quite snug. Will show them off next time, hopefully finished.

I'm beginning to burn out a bit on all the socks. Well, I say that, but although the passion may be waning, the obsession isn't. It seems if there is a choice to pick up a large project or a sock, the sock always wins. If you count stitches, I could probably knit a sweater in the same time as a pair of socks. Does this make sense? And those of you with high arches will understand the difficulty of shoving a handknit sock clad foot into any pair of shoes on the market. Sort of like Cinderella's stepsisters must have felt with that glass slipper. My only choice is sandals with an adjustable strap, let out to the max. So why am I churning out those exquisite little socklets in a veritable assembly line? Beats me, but I can't stop.

This cold rainy week-end inspired me to clean out one of my closets, well, at least the summer shoes. The ones that have been breeding in the dark recesses of my closet for years, since my foot was a size smaller. I threw out as many as I kept and still the closet is crowded. Memo to self...no more shoes for ten years. Although most of these are at least five years old. Since I am not hard on my shoes, they never die a natural death, which leaves me to make the decision to euthanise them at some point and until then, they are shoved to the back of the stacks. Where they reproduce. Ran out of steam before I got to the winter shoes.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We certainly did. And I had a long list of things to be thankful for. I've decided to start every day by thinking of one of them and saying a quiet word of appreciation to the powers that be.

Bellatrix for All Hallows Eve????

Progress report. Here is Sock 1 of Bellatrix from Socktopia. We've turned the heel, it fits, the weight of the skein seems to be almost OK to finish the pair. If I need a few rounds of black for the toe, so be it. It seems like it wants to stay up. Life is good.
Here were my STR Rockin' Sock Club Solstice Slip socks in Firebird. This is the length I arrived at, 7" leg, size medium, foot size small, size 2.50mms on the leg and 2.25mm on the feet. This is it, not another inch of yarn left, used up my keychain spare! With multiple inches to go on each foot, plus I'd love a dab of ribbing at the provisional cast-ons. Several angels stepped out of the woodwork to offer their left-overs, so I'm starting to knit again. Bless you each and every one. Hope to have them done over the week-end and post them to Summer of Socks. A package arrived from Japan on Thursday. First, I managed to order directly from the Amazon site without going through the other page for setting up an account.I'm just amazed. Late Wednesday, I received some sort of confirmation e-mail, totally in Japanese, and I wondered what was going on. Thought I would print it out and take it to a nearby Sushi restaurant for translation. I ordered these evening of August 27. Dawn Thursday morning on the 30th, they arrived with a Fed-Ex truck, although the package is marked Intl. Priority. Most of these are being carried by a shop in Canada, but I felt adventurous. Did I mention...they are fabulous!
Fleegle encouraged me with this Japanese order. Just want to thank her and put the blame where it belongs.

This beautifully dyed skein of sock yarn is from Madeline Tosh, who happens to be local, who knew? I believe this color is Peacock (I'll correct this if I find otherwise). Now I don't know which socks it wants to be, but it will let me know, I'm sure. I'm guessing zeros??
And here is the STR Rockin' Sock Club Summer of Love Lace, August's kit. The second pair this year designed by J.C.Briar. Lace cuffed socks. Not my color or pattern, but beautiful all the same and they will make good gifts. Two more kits to go for the year. Since we've heard a rumor that Cat Bordhi will be designing one, it leaves me wondering who will design the other and what colors they will be. Sivia Harding did the extraordinary design for the last year's holiday sock and it was gorgeous. CookieA did another. It is now getting truly exciting and I will be anxious to see what's in the next two kits. Guess I'll just have to knit something else until they arrive.Off for errands and dinner, then back to knitting. Wishing a happy and safe holiday week-end to one and all.