still socking

I haven't posted on this blog for ages but I'm still knitting socks.
Last winter I even knitted for money! A lady at bridge admired  my socks and asked wistfully if I could knit her some. Not really wanting to I named a high price of $35. "Yes!" she said "I'd like five pairs!" "Could I have a pair too?" asked her friend. So there I was committed to knitting six pairs of socks. I had fun getting the yarn, as they both wanted cream, blue and brown to match what they usually wear and Regia yarn produced the perfect thing - Ozon in 75% wool and 25% nylon. Sadly it is discontinued and I had to scour England and the US to get enough.
I finished the six pairs in a month and then made a bonus pair with the left-overs.

Ozon by Regia

Then in October 2011 on our trip to Nova Scotia two more ladies on the bus requested socks which I was happy to do as I had extra cash to buy more yarn - so everywhere we went I sought out the yarn shops to see what goodies were on offer. October is a good time as they all had new shipments of very desirable yarn.

David now has 24 pairs but the green Maizy socks are wearing thin at the heels - and I don't do mending. Maizy too is discontinued which is a shame as David loves them for summer - not so hot and don't attract grass seeds. I bought tencel to see if they will be an acceptable substitute.

tencel socks

deepsea socks go Melbourne

I finished Stephen's deepsea socks in time for our trip to Melbourne. We spent the night in his apartment at Freshwater: here he is modelling the socks on his 31st floor balcony overlooking the Yarra River and Melbourne CBD:

The wool is 30% silk 70% merino (sorry—hand-wash only Stephen) hand-dyed by dye4fun, an etsy.com seller in the USA. Dye4fun says: "this yarn is hand dyed in shades of blue, navy blue, and violet. This Deep Sea colorway has different intensities of color ranging from underwater shadows to light reflecting on the water. The color is randomly dyed, meaning that the yarn will not stripe or pool as you knit or crochet with it."

We went with Stephen and Julia on a progressive dinner along Southbank to 3 different restaurants, Pure South for entrée, Kouzina for main course and The Deck for dessert. Wonderful company and food and a great idea.

Kaffe Fassett's Exotic Easter

It's real winter now—cold and raining. Well, we can't have too much rain...

Astrid's Dutch Obsessions has sent me some more Kaffe Fassett wool, this time in Exotic Easter, pretty easter-egg colours for Alison.

birds' nest

I'm pleased to see that the birds are keeping up with the times and incorporating new fibres into their nests.

David found this tiny empty nest in the camellia courtyard yesterday and we are intrigued by how the birds have woven in an unknown green-ish fuzzy fibre—quite coarse so it didn't come from the clothes drier which has an outlet there.
The pieces of dry grass are fragile and need the green fuzz for stability.

Trekking Trinidad socks

My turn for some socks: I need them to go with my new purple jumper. I found this yarn on-line when I was googling to find out if Australians are allowed to take knitting on planes—because some Americans were chatting on Ravelry about what projects they take on planes. Strange, I thought, surely knitting needles are deemed a security risk... but knitchick has some hints at
http://acechick.typepad.com/knitchicks_features/knitting_on_planes/

Anyway the first Australian blog I visited said NO to knitting on planes so I read on and found a link to a wonderful source of sock yarn, Astrid's Dutch Obsessions in the Netherlands. I can't find this blog again but I like her idea that sock yarn doesn't count as stash so I ordered some too.

http://www.astridsdutchobsessions.com/scripts/default.asp

Astrid is very prompt with posting— I received the yarn in 7 days—and she doesn't charge an arm and a leg for posting.

Here it is: Trekking hand art 511 Trinidad 75% wool 25% polyamide and very soft. It came as a skein so this time we were very careful to wind the ball slowly.

Kaffe Fassett Landscape 'Fire' socks

My favourites so far! Easy to knit with well-behaved wool that doesn't split easily and gorgeous glowing colours!
Must get some more Kaffe Fassett wool.

socks and scarves

I've finished off the socks for Richard, so now he can have warm feet in Perth.
This is the Italian-made Grignasco Strong Print yarn - 75% wool and 25% polyamide so it will wash well and wear well - I hope.



They'll go nicely with jeans and perhaps a maroon jumper.




This is one of the spaghetti scarves I've been churning out for everyone who wants one: school colours of navyblue white and grey eyelash wool for Hannah and Daisy and a Redbacks hockey one for Alison.
Now Daisy is making her own - and excitedly texting whenever she completes another row of colour.
My friend Jan supplied the idea and lots of different yarns from her stash. Jan has CUPBOARDS of stash.
I spent another 3 hours last night on Mulberry Mess and produced a tiny little ball the size of a golf-ball.

tangled mess

I've just joined Ravelry which looks like fun.
Maybe I can get some help - in fact this is a YARN EMERGENCY.
I bought a skein of beautiful silk and merino, planning to knit a lacey shawl. David kindly offered his arms to hold the yarn while I wound - but DISASTER!
He says I wound too quickly - maybe - anyway he dropped it and we just went from bad to worse.

What was "Mulberry Crush" is now "Mulberry Mess".
Any suggestions for what to do? (other than put it in the bin).