My socks arrived!

Today was my turn to get the sockapalooza socks and I love them!
My pal from Rose Red spoiled me good. She had sent anonymous emails (with the most hilarious made up name) to ask some questions since I didn't have a blog then. She did a good job spying ever since I have the blog!
She knitted the most wonderful socks with hand painted yarn from The Knittery (colour water lilies) - and yes before you ask they do fit perfectly. She sent an email some days ago apologising that my socks would be delayed because she had been sick, but it was worth the wait.
To make up for the delay she included some goodies, sugar free treats and some Australian coffee. As you can see in the picture I'm already wearing the socks. It was a bit of a challenge to take that picture with one foot up on the bed.
I remembered that looking through sockapalooza blogs I noticed those specific socks already. I quite liked the colour and also it was one of those sock patterns which I'd like to knit (because it looks lovely) but it would just drive me insane. Thank you, thank you, my sock pal!!

Two Welcome Socks

Presents! Gifts! My lovely Sockapalooza4 Sock Pall Ann sent me a pair of beautiful socks in - guess! - Monkey pattern :) All the way from Vancouver, Canada. And she didn't stop there, I also received some great hand painted yarn from See Jayne Knit (colour 'Surf's Up') and some very cute little stitch markers - just what I was still missing for my next lace project. But let pictures speak for themselves: here are my new lovely goodies:



Thank you, Ann!!

socks, socks, socks and monkey addiction

Here they are: the Sockapalooza4 socks for my sock pal.... very simple ones - and I hope she will enjoy the soft Poison Nr.5 superwash yarn from Wollmeise. And again, ready to be posted off to my sock pal on Saturday.

But why stop there? Once sucked into the addiction to sock knitting, I could not leave it at that, could I?! In-between finishing my Ocean coloured Sea Silk shawl project (to be displayed here, once I have had some time for blocking it - by the way, any good blocking advice for over-sized shawls/stoles from anyone?) and continuing with the Lana Grossa 'Gala Print' jacket for my mum, I just couldn't resist the current monkey sock craze.

Thanks, M., for getting me 'hooked' to this new habit....! So here is one pair in "Rittersporn" for me (!!!!!) below and one in "Poison Nr. 5" for M on the left.

Sockapalooza sock finished

I finished my sockapalooza sock - actually I finished it last week I just couldn't take pictures. Here they are now hanging in my 'money tree' in my little garden. The wool was Zenzi from Wollmeise - fun to knit with. I hope my sock pal will enjoy them!

Worldwide Knit in Public Day

G and I joined the Stich and Bitch London Knit Crawl through London on yesterday's Worldwide Knit in Public Day. They started out at noon at St. Paul's, went across the river to Tate Modern, then to the Jubilee Gardens (under the London Eye) and finished by knitting under the Lions at Trafalgar Square from 5pm to 6pm. We joined them for the last two places only.... we had to buy some wool first :) Our local yarn shop is celebrating its first birthday - Happy Birthday, Stash! I had to buy some more yarn for my sister's blanket (the one that never seems to get to an end) and G bought some very nice kidsilk in sage and indigo - lace knitting is her new addiction and it took long enough for the Victorian Lace book to arrive! She waited for over a month for it.
So, armed with our knitting, we searched for the weird and wonderful people who would want to meet and knit in public, and we found them under the London Eye as it said in the Stich and Bitch Newsletter. My item of choice was the sockapalooza sock (as seen in the picture). G had her wonderfully soft HandMaiden shawl project. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm quite shy joining a new group and I always think no one is ever going to talk to me. Well, this wasn't true for this cool group of knitters. It didn't take much time and people in the group (as well as random passers-by) would ask about our projects. Initally I only wanted to stay for the Jubilee Gardens, but it was too nice talking, so that we ended up going to Trafalgar Square as well (and to the Pub after that....) This proved to be quite a challenge as there was a Free-Palestine-Demostration going on at Trafalgar. The person dealing with the sound system must have had a really bad day and the noise level was annoyingly high. So we ended up as a sort of added bonus attraction to the Lions for passing tourists (amongst questions of "are you knitting for peace?" "are you knitting for Palestine?" "what do you want to achieve by knitting here?"). All in all a lovely day!

Sock Progress

My first sock (here modelled by M.) for the Sockapalooza4 Exchange is almost done. I liked the colour of the wool so much (Poison No. 5 from Wollmeise), that I didn't knit a pattern after all, but left everything very simple. I hope my sock pal will like it...