Sorry about missing yesterday!! I have completely lost steam on the sock challenge and will be lucky to finish pair #11 tonight. Below is the first completed Tile sock from Socks, Socks, Socks done in worsted weight Blackberry Ridge yarn. I initially tried the Tile Socks with sport weight but couldn't fit them over my heel. I think I have done too much "easy" knitting lately. I'm going to continue to knit socks through October though but I hope to try some more intricate patterns.



I'll be back Sunday with lots of good Taos Wool Festival loot to show you. I hope to purchase the last 2 issues of Spin-Off, lots of Cormo yarn, and perhaps another Tracy Eicheim spindle. If he doesn't bring any spindles, maybe I'll look into some new cards or more alpaca fleece. There's also a new yarn store in Taos, the Taos Sunflower, I may try to find. I believe it is near the ski area. I'm probably going to ignore La Lana Wools altogether this year as nothing there is in my price range.

Lately I'm trying to restrain myself from buying MORE YARN. All I can think about is MORE YARN and MORE YARN. I keep checking all the yarn stores online for MORE YARN even though I know I'll be buying MORE YARN Saturday at the Taos Wool Festival. If I'm offline, I'm perusing my catalogs and thinking about MORE YARN.



I need to do a serious house cleaning because I've lost Peaches. I simply cannot find my brown rabbit girl anywhere. Where could she be? She has simply vanished into thin air.

One of these days I want to do a project with colors that I am sure I'd hate together. Occasionally I knit something and the colors look awful while I'm knitting but when I'm finished somehow the colors look fine together as a whole.



These Fireside socks using various colors of handspun and hand-dyed yarns are a good example. The whole time I was knitting I thought the colors were hideous but they look better as a whole. Yes, these are number #10 in the sock challenge.

What a crazy weekend! You'll have to wait until tomorrow for another sock photo. I had two friends request a handknit pair of socks this weekend so I'll be knitting socks even after the September sock challenge ends.



Please go check out June's beautiful handspun lace wedding shawl. She finished it just in time for her wedding next week.



Today's photo shows Peaches in the middle of a parsley snack.











If you're talented at coming up with names for pets, go to The Blog of Pratt and help him come up with a name for his adorable new house rabbit.

I really enjoyed working with this soft yarn for the Checkers & Squares Fair Isle socks from Blackberry Ridge Farm. This is my 9th pair of socks for the month and I do believe I'm going to aim for 12 by next Thursday. I will probably post once before Sunday with another pair completed.

I keep forgetting I have a few links I wanted to include here. All this sock knitting is making me forgetful!



First of all Susan sent me a wonderful textured argyle sock pattern. Check it out for yourself HERE. Thanks again for the lovely pattern Susan! I can't wait to try it out.



Secondly, I wanted to include a link to my new favorite blog, The Daily Scrabble Puzzle Blog. The bingo workouts are in SOWPODS but the solutions without a pound symbol are okay for OWL competition. I know I can get similar puzzles with my Scrabble CD-ROM but somehow it is more fun in a blog.



Finally, please send your good thoughts and prayers in knitblogger Deborah's direction. She lost her home and all her belongings as a result of hurricane Ivan. Deborah, I hope they let you back soon so you can start rebuilding.

I just ordered a ton of Harris Tweed from Elann to add to my fingering weight Shetland collection. I still need to come up with a colorful tone-on-tone project using all those reds I purchased previously.



The next pair of socks is coming along and will be done tomorrow afternoon. I'm stymied as to what to do after that. If my Herrschner's order comes I'll make another pair of Amy's Husbeast socks. If not, I guess I'll do another quickie pair of Fireside socks using up a bunch of different colors of handspun. The last pair I make for the month will be something using all 19 of the handspun rainbow yarn colors. It is always good to save the best for last.



I know it isn't nice for one female to comment on the enormous size of another female's posterior, but check it out.

Don't blame these colors on me. DH picked them out - he also requested I not do the texture pattern called for. These are the Textured Fair Isle Socks from the little VK sock book, volume 2, and I think they're my 8th pair of the month. I used fewer stitches, 48, to get gauge using Gjestal Ren Ny Ull Sport yarn. DH plans to wear these to the Taos Wool Festival in 2 weeks.



I think an alien must have abducted my husband.Previously he would only wear handknit beige or gray socks with exactly 8" of K2P2 ribbing. These socks are quite a change from that.

I sure am one lazy sock knitter. There's very little knitting progress to report. Yesterday I read all day and today I've been cooking up a storm. I made roasted ratatouille. Put eggplant cubes, green peppers, zucchini and yellow squash, garlic and onion slices on a tray, coat with olive oil and cook at 400 for about 20 minutes. Then I add more garlic, this time minced, and some chopped tomatoes and put the tray back in the oven for about 15 more minutes. This is what I'll be eating for lunch this week.



You'll have to wait until tomorrow for a photo of a finished pair of socks. In the meantime, here's the yarn from the Blackberry Ridge Checkers & Squares sock kit. They are next on the list and have an estimated due date of this Thursday. That should take me up to ten pairs of socks for the month.

Today is a lovely rainy day here. Cloudy, wet days are quite rare in New Mexico so we're really enjoying it.



I have two socks-in-progress: the textured fair isle socks from the VK Socks book #2 for DH and a fair isle pair from Blackberry Ridge.



Peaches loves to play in cardboard boxes but had to crouch or keep her ears down because she is so large. Finally one day at the produce market I saw that they were throwing away a bin used for displaying watermelons. I turned it over, cut a few holes in it and now it is her favorite place in the world.

Because I've had some requests about the sock pattern for yesterday, here is a scan of the pattern booklet. It is Reynolds Candide, pattern 991, designed by Pam Allen. As you can see, the socks in the pattern are knee socks and I shortened them. I also changed the heel to fit my narrow foot. Candide is either a worsted or a heavy worsted yarn?? and the pattern uses size 9 dpns. I used size 8 and Nature Spun worsted.

Yesterday's socks are not a Veronik Avery pattern as I said but are a Nadia Severns pattern. I have no clue why I said that - all this sock knitting is affecting my brain I guess.



Last night DH shocked me by asking for a pair of bright, colorwork socks to wear with sandals to the Taos Wool Festival in 2 weeks. I'll have to see what I can come up with for him. In the meantime, here are the 7th pair for the sock challenge. These are from an old Reynolds Candide pattern designed by Pam Allen. I used size 8 dpns and Nature Spun worsted weight. The colors are a lot darker in person and they still need to be blocked.

SOCK CHALLENGE, PAIR #6

I omitted the cable and garter rib from the leg of the socks from the Nadia Severns Hiking Socks from the small VK Socks book (the first one). I used size 5 dpns throughout (rather than changing needle sizes more often as the directions request) and used four colors of Country Garden DK. Here's a better shot of the pattern on the top of the foot.

I'm hoping that I can start and finish a pair of colorwork knee socks in worsted weight to show you late tomorrow. We'll see...

Sorry these are so dark. These were done with 32 stitches, size 8 dpns and two colors, blue & green, of Paton's Classic Wool. At this thickness they're more like slippers than socks but I'm still counting them in the sock challenge. I needed a quick pair to stay on track and these can be knit in less than 2 days. At mid-month, I've only finished five pairs of socks so it is going to be close. I'll have the colorwork hiking socks for you tomorrow.

I have temporarily unsubscribed from FiberRAOK. I'm not sure but there is a possibility we're moving so I thought I'd wait until after I have a new address to get back in line to be admitted. I greatly enjoyed sending out FiberRAOKs to the other participants.

Also, there is now a link at the bottom of this page if you want to subscribe to my blog via Bloglines.

I'm still too lazy to re-hook up my scanner. I like how much more roomy my desk feels without it. Instead I'm probably going to spend today happily considering what to do with the 60 lbs of roasted green chiles in my freezer. One day last week I realized I had eaten green chiles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I also found a video at the library called Food for the Ancestors: The Days of the Dead about the Mexican celebration so I'm planning to watch that this afternoon. This is the good life.



I'm currently working on the Hiking Socks from the 1st VK sock book (nice combo of colorwork and texture) and hope to start some lace socks and some Dale of Norway socks. When the Paton's Classic Wool arrives I'm going to make at least 1 more pair of Husbeast Socks. It is a great pattern and somewhat addicting.



I promise to show you some new socks tomorrow but until then, here is an old photo from the archives showing another pair of Dale of Norway socks - the Lillehammer socks done in Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport.

I've always envied those knitters who knit a lot during stressful times. I can knit but everything turns out poorly. So far this week I made one sock too tight (the tile socks from Socks, Socks, Socks), I ran out of yarn for another pair and found out some Classic Wool I'd ordered from Herschners for some socks won't be here for another month. So I've only accomplished one pair of socks this week. Once I get my scanner hooked back up I'll show them to you.



Here Peaches is demonstrating a good stress relief method - taking time to smell the wildflowers.

Whew! After spending all day getting ready to leave town, I find out I don't have to go after all. So the sock challenge is back on and yes, Judy, there are plenty of new photos of Peaches to share. I just got a roll back and plan to do a Peaches calendar to sell for rabbit rescue.

Hi all! It looks like I am going to be out of town for a few weeks so the sock challenge and my blog postings will have to be postponed. My thoughts are with all of you in or near Florida.



Keep on knitting!

Here's sock pair number four for the month. Another pair of Fireside socks done in one strand of Country Garden DK, one strand of Cormo yarn from Taos Wool Festival and some alpaca singles I was too lazy to spin. I was aiming for softness with these babies.



Not all the socks I'm knitting this month will be thick. Knitting with big needles makes my hands hurt.

Jennifer sent me these lovely rabbit items. Thank you again Jennifer. What a nice surprise. The wooden lop rabbit has different fabric ears depending on the season of the year. And even some rabbit 3-D stickers.









These are the Lithuanian Amber socks from Nancy Bush's Folks Socks done in Elann's Gjestal Ren Ny Ull Sport (actually a DK weight) and size 6 dpns I think.

100 COPIES SOLD!





This weekend the 100th copy of Stranded Color Knitting was sold since it went on sale in our Cafepress rabbit rescue store the second week of June. It has made a whopping $437 for rabbit rescue so far. I'm extremely grateful to all of you who have purchased the booklet. Debby Widolf, the rabbit rescuer in southwestern Colorado, reports she's used her half of the money for spay/neuter surgeries on her new foster bunnies.



Back to socks... I was looking through the Spin-Off Sock book and noticed the pattern for Fireside socks. You simply mix and match handspun yarns and singles to make a bulky yarn. My largest dpns are size 8 so I used those and 36 stitches for this pair. I used Paton's Classic Wool and some handspun sport-weight 2 ply alpaca yarn. These socks are for DH and are incredibly soft. He immediately put on the first sock and resisted taking it off again so I could measure it.



These socks also apparently have magical properties. I was embroiled in a 3-person Scrabble marathon while I was knitting them and I managed two triple-triples. Triple-triples are when you bingo/use all 7 letters and also hit two triple word scores. I normally am really lucky to get two triple-triples in a year of frequent Scrabble playing.

Happy Labor Day! We had a lovely day in Santa Fe. The weather is a bit cooler than usual and the air is filled with the wonderful smell of roasting chiles. First we happened upon the hip hop NAACP voter registration concert at the capitol/roundhouse. Then we walked to the new raw foods restaurant, Whole Foods Cafe (in the old Alfalfa's on Cordova), where I had a wonderful pizza. The crust was made from zucchini and almonds and topped with sun-dried tomato marinara sauce and basil-nut "cheese". The whole thing was served on a bed of field greens and it was wonderful. I really have to get a raw foods cookbook.



Santa Fe just got a Trader Joe's so I bought all sorts of goodies like sprouted wheat bread, fresh mozzarella, dark chocolate and baby artichokes. The prices were really great.



I've finished 3 3/4 pairs of socks so far and am now thinking I may be able to make 12 pair this month. Here are the Norah Gaughan Striped Devotion socks from Weekend Knitting done in Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool. To make the afterthought heel fit better, I did two plain rows between decrease rows instead of one.

THE END OF THE RAINBOW



I've finished the rainbow spinning project using Ashford Corriedale top from Halcyon. Using my all-time favorite Tracy Eichheim rabbit spindle I spun and plied 19 ounces (each ounce a different color). Now I'm off to knit some socks. If I want to finish 10 pairs this month I figure I need to have three done by the time I return on Monday afternoon.

SEPTEMBER SOCK CHALLENGE



Michelle posted that she is going to try to post to her blog every day in September. I was thinking about trying to do something special and came up with the September Sock Challenge. DH and I need more handknit socks, especially for fall hiking, so I'm going to knit ONLY socks this month and see how many pairs I can finish. I'm hoping I'll finish at least 10 pairs of socks this month. Tune in to see if I can manage to do it.



In the interest of self-disclosure, I already have some started.