Sockapalooza Socks!!!!

Yippee!

I got my parcel from my Sockapalooza 4 pal today! She's called Nicola, too, and she's from Wiltshire. First up, was a Galaxy Ripple and some foot pampering things. there was also a lovely line drawing postcard of her local church which is now up in the kitchen. I'm afraid to say the Ripple bar didn't last much past this photo...

Then came the socks, wrapped in tissue and fastened with a ribbon and these lovely stitch markers.

I think these are the first socks Nicola knitted at the same time on circs, a technique I've not tried yet. They fit perfectly. Don't they look fab with my ever present black jeans?

Thank you Nicola, they are lovely!

Soundtrack: Don't You Want Me - The Human League; Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day

New(t)s

I've been clearing overgrown parts of the garden in the last few days, as well as undertaking the annual summer holiday cleaning frenzy (Susie Homemaker I am not, but I try...) and finishing my Sockapalooza socks. Whilst pulling back some ivy yesterday, I overturned the unused wormery, sloshed rainwater everywhere and promptly came face to face with my first ever newt. How exciting!

Also exciting is the positive response the Lone Star State socks have received. After careful consideration (which took all of, oooh, 30 seconds), I will share the pattern in due course. I'm going away for a few days and I would like my Sockapalooza Pal to get hers first, so keep an eye out over the next two or three weeks, for an update.

Introducing...

the Lone Star State socks!





I am so pleased with these socks, which I have designed for my Sockapalooza pal. And I have also finished them with two hours to spare to count for my July socks for Sock a Month 3. Woo hoo!

Pattern: my own, based on top-down with heel flap
Yarn: Angel Yarns Sock Yarn in Red, White and Blue
Needles: 2.5mm Addi DPNs

Sockapalooza update

Last month I blogged about my Sockapalooza sock. After a week of consideration I did decide to start again with it. I haven't actually frogged the original yet, since it's very useful to have it to refer to, but here is version 2:










I didn't go for the turn down cuff in the end, but I did shorten it. I also made thinner stripes on the cuff, which I prefer, and added an additional navy stripe to ease the transition from cuff to foot - otherwise there was a red stripe followed immediately by the white instep and it jarred on me visually. I also changed the position of the gusset decreases so they didn't crash into the colour change on the seamless intarsia.

I won't tell you what I call these socks yet - I'd love it if someone, besides the knitting group who already know, was able to recognise what my inspiration for these socks was.

Soundtrack: Party Hard - Pulp; Land of Confusion - Genesis; Mi Bebe Masoquista - Fatboy Slim; Ready To Run - Dixie Chicks

All Quiet...?

It's been a bit quiet here in Plain Tales Towers because the PC seems to have the technical equivalent of ADHD and cannot concentrate on anything to do with an internet connection for long. Don't you just love all these new speedy ways to communicate? Not.

Anyway, I digress... I've ground that axe often enough this week to anyone who will listen, and no I'm taking advantage of a necessary long stay at work for the Summer Bingo this evening to catch up with you all.

WIPs
(Adopts bad impersonation of Australian accent)
Can you tell what it is yet?

Yep, it's the heel flap on my Sockapalooza4 Pal's socks. Overall, I think I'm pleased with the way they are turning out. I have now got further than this, having completed the decreases on the gusset. I've mastered the seamless intarsia for the foot (white instep, red sole but dead battery hense no photo), but I've now reached that horrible stage where I can see where I could have done things slightly differently to make an improvement and I can't decide whether to just stop now and view this as a prototype or whether to soldier on and waste time. I'm veering towards the restart, since my Pal's preference was for short cuffs. I have indeed knitted shorter cuffs than I do for my own socks, but I think they could look cuter shorter with a turned down top. The top of the cuff is also navy blue, I hasten to add.

Springwatch at the Plain

In the past few weeks, it's all been hapening in my garden. First of all, Lilly nearly wet herself with fright coming face to face with a hedgehog three weeks ago. I took a photo but forgot to put it on my memory stick, so phoo-ey.

Then I had a mini-invasion by a magpie and a grey squirrel simultaneously, neither of which have been seen here before.

Then two weeks ago tomorrow I was about to rinse out my breakfast bowl, when I spotted a bird of prey in the middle of the lawn during a toenrial downpour. It flew onto the seat at the back, where I took a pretty dreadful picture of it from an upstairs window.



It was trying to eat its breakfast and left feathers all over the back of the chair... I haven't been able to identify it, since the light flash on the back of its head is foxing Dad and I but it could well be a juvenile.

Then finally, last Tuesday I came into the kitchen in time to see a Greater spotted Woodpecker dangling off of the peanut feeder. Sadly it flew away before I could get my camera.

Who needs Bill Oddie?