More Socks.....

What do you do when you are gifted with one skein of a fun Italian sock yarn? Make footies, of course!!! :.) And here are my completed footsies. I put some sewing elastic in the ribbing so that they stay up a bit better....and was lucky enough to find a nice white sock yarn that I used for the ribbing and toe. There just wasn't enough of the fun yarn to make an entire pair....unfortunately.

The pattern is from the book "Knitted Socks" by Ann Tillman. The yarn is Clown by Marks & Kattens. I used a size 2 (I believe) dpn. These were fun to knit up, although a bit frustrating. Try as I might, I just could not get the yarn pattern to match up on both socks. So these are my "fun" socks. :.) They should look really cute with my Keen sandals, too. :.)

I do have another pair of socks in progress. These are for my oldest daughter (who does not like wearing any natural fibers except for cotton and rayon). I'm using Bernat Sox yarn (acrylic/nylon blend) on size 1 dpns (2.50mm.....although I probably should have used the 2.25mm instead. My gauge is off by 1/2 a stitch...not that is really noticeable anyway). I am using the pattern "Simplicity" from the book "The Eclectic Sole". Surprisingly, the yarn has been really nice to knit with and it is a fun pattern to do. I extended the cuff a bit so it can be folded over (makes a really cute ankle sock). It seemed to take forever to knit the foot of the sock though. I ended up knitting 60 rows in all before I could start decreasing for the toe. Sock #1 is now done and I will cast on for sock #2 later on today.

It's been a while since I was able to update my blog. Life got crazy around here. My father was back in the hospital for yet another surgery. He spent the first night in ICU....and then two more days in a regular room. My mother doesn't drive in town so I was her transportation for the duration of my father's hospital stay. He is home and doing fine. Of course all of this was followed closely by a plethora of events that I had to attend at my youngest daughter's school. It's amazing how many activities there are for graduating seniors!!

So time for things like quilting, spinning, and playing with fiber in general has been pretty much non-existent the last couple of weeks. Knitting is the only thing I've been able to squeeze in. A few minutes here....a few minutes there.....and before you know it a sock is done. :.) Today is the first day I've been able to spend some time in the spinning room. I spent some time trying to finish carding up the lamb fleece I started working on weeks ago. So far I have 10 batts done.....2 more batts to finish up.....and probably enough fleece left for another 8 batts. The fleece was considerably larger than what I had originally thought. :.) It's been a sheer pleasure working with it though. I will have to start carding batts for my etsy site though (just about everything is sold now). So I have decided that I will alternate carding the lamb fleece with carding fiber for my etsy site. I'm hoping this will allow me to get some new batts up on my etsy site while still maintaining my interest in the lamb fleece.