Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Knitted Sock

I, along with so many of you out there celebrating SocktoberFest, am participating in the Mystery Sock KAL with Through the Loops on Ravelry. I was off to a little bit of a late start last week and I totally didn't get a chance to post here about due to all those issues mentioned from the previous post. So tonight I give you a double dosing of mystery madness.

The pre-KAL note call for using a solid or semi-solid colorway and I'd been wanting to try out the Knit Picks Gloss that I picked up a little while ago. Since it appeared to fit the bill better than most of the colorways in my stash, the decision was easy.

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The night of the debate I was frantically trying to catch up with getting the cuff finished so I wouldn't be too behind everyone else. Lucky me that the steps are short and easy. I'm using dpns size 2 and I've got both socks going at one time so that by the time we get to the last clue I'll have a complete pair all ready to wear.

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When the second clue came out I was all ready to join my fellow mystery knitters. But then I forgot to print out the pattern at work two days in a row. Damn busy school people. Now, I'm fully recovered again and back in the black ready for clue #3.

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So where this sock is going is still any one's guess, but I'm enjoying it so far. I like the simple chain-like pattern along the leg. Match it with the colorway and I've got a very classy looking sock so far with a touch of elegant detail. If you're not participating in the group, you should check out the others on Ravelry and see the progress being made in various yarns and colorways. It's amazing how the same pattern can give quite a different look with a different yarn. It's kind of like a decide your own mystery book.

eta: Can anyone tell me what I did wrong here? I deleted the photo of the yarn from my hard drive but it was on my Flickr account so I attempted to use that photo and used the same method of posting a photo as you do in a forum post on Ravelry. The photo was there in my draft posting, but now that it's published, it's just a code link. What did I do wrong?

Misbehaving

No, not me. Never. It's this computer. It doesn't say charged unless it's plugged in and even then it's like working with those ancient bunny ears where you had to stand on your head and spit nickles while wearing some sort of homemade tin foil contraption around your ankles to make it work. I think some micro troll has moved in to reek havoc with shutting down programs with no warning and making funny noises at me periodically. It's all made work this week pretty interesting to say the least. But has made it impossible to share anything here with y'all. Downloading pics from last weekend and sock progress was also a no go... that is until this morning. I don't know how long this nicey-nice streak will last, so keep your fingers crossed that we can at least make it through this post.
First off to report is the Fall Fiber Festival in Orange VA last weekend. I was a little nervous about attending seeing that it's held just blocks down the road from the ex-in laws but meeting up with Sarah, Chan, and getting to meet Ann and (oh my, my mind is blank right now and I can't remember her name, sorry) made it worth it. It was good to get out and among the woolly fiberness. Although I was a little disappointed that not as many vendors came out to play as did last year. But that didn't stop me from finding a few beauties to take home with me.

From My Local Yarn Shop is this beautiful fall inspired Baby Alpaca yarn. There should be enough here to do a shawl of some sort but I don't have anything specific in mind just yet. But something tells me that I'm going to LOVE working with this yarn! I'm already in love with just holding it!

These two beauties are from Knitting Notions and are 100% superwash merino wool supersock. The colorways are deep and delicious. I'm sure they will be amazing knit up into an interesting sock pattern.

Then over at the Creatively Dyed Yarns booth I picked up this lovely skein with all it's fall glory. What a way to celebrate this glorious month!Here's a closer look at all the wonders included within this skein. What an amazing pair of socks these will be!!!

And speaking of socks.... what would Socktober be without socks on Friday...

Isn't it clear?

Today being Friday, I wore my clear Sketchers and a bright pair of hand knitted socks. Several co-workers stopped to ask about what kind of shoes I had on. They were quite confused. The thought the green was the shoe itself. I had to explain the whole hand knit sock thing. I got a few strange looks, but the knitted word was spread. I even had one person tell me that she thought that the idea of 'Socktober' was such a cool idea and she wished she could knit or had time to learn. Unfortunately right now, work is a bit hectic and although we share an 'office' there really is no spare time in our lives. But I promised her that one day when things settle down a little, I'll give her a lesson or two. I somehow think that 'Socktober' somehow put an extra step into her day! :)

And speaking of Socktober festivities, tonight I'm working on my Silk Stasia socks and I'm hoping to get a good leg up on the second foot. I'm holding off on doing the cuff on the first one until I do the second one so that I can get the most bang for my buck and use up the most amount of yarn that I can.

And once I get a good handle on the foot, I'm planning on casting on for the TTL Mystery Sock KAL with some Knit Picks Gloss in Porcini.
Now I must go get my knit on if I plan on getting anything done tonight.

Just the beginning....

Happy Socktober 1st and the beginning of my birthday month!!!
To celebrate I got myself a robe from Targeet with a sock monkey on the pocket and inner lining. I'm so excited! When I get home tonight I'm going to lounge around in it and work on some knitted socks!

promises, promises

OK. So I blew one of my promises. Get over it. I did. I don't really want to talk politics, but those of you who know me would be proud to know that I actually went to a debate party and didn't get home until really late. And today has been a day filled with yarn shopping and coughing up lung parts. I guess instead of leaving those bread crumbs along the blog path... OK, I won't go there. But I do have some good stuff to share.

My SP12 pal was good to me. She revealed herself to me with her final package that arrived on Thursday. Everything was wrapped so pretty but I couldn't find my camera before opening it all. I just wasn't patient enough for that. But I did take the time to look for it afterwards so that I could share my spoils with all of you.

There was a beautiful card with a lovely message inside from Allison and after visiting her blog, I have to wonder if she took this picture herself. It's so pretty that I might just frame it. The other photos on her blog are just as beautiful so if you have a moment to drop on over and check them out and leave her a little hello, I'm sure that would make her happy.

One of my favorite items in the package was this bag. Chan, it's got all the right pockets in all the right places. I've already decided that it has become my current go everywhere knitting bag.

These three cuties were also included and the first two have made their way into my desk at work to help bring a smile if a grooling day should cross my path. The pink kitty thing is a stapler of sorts. Two kids were in my room the other day and were fascinated with it! And I adore the monkey tape measure! I recently purchased a robe from Targeet with a sock monkey on the pocket (a photo saved for a future post through Socktober Fest) so I giggled like an 8 year old when I saw it. I keep showing all my knitting friends this weekend and now they want one too

And of course there was yarn. You can't forget the yarn.

Allison knew that I wanted to try my hand at some lace so she sent along some Silky Alpaca Lace by Classic Elite in a warm fall purple. She even made a few suggestions on patterns and I'm thinking of trying my hand at this one - Lacy Scarf Sampler. So maybe in the middle of all my started Christmas knitting I'll be crossing my fingers to actually work on this. But then again crossed fingers might prove to get in the way. But Allison was really a swapper after my own heart when she included some Dream in Color Smooshie in Chinatown Apple. This photo washes out the colorway a bit (damn crappy weather is effecting more than just my lungs). These will make lovely autumn socks.

And speaking of socks, I will leave you with a beginning of one of the other promises that I made, to show of my Sketchers. I'm planning to wear the every Friday during Socktober Fest to celebrate the hand knitted sock.

Postponement and Promises

OK, so I took my camera to school today to take some photos of some great stuff going on in classrooms and I forgot the camera in my desk. So I don't have the photos to download to the computer from the fab-u package my SP12 pal sent me yesterday. Have I mentioned that I love my SP12 pal? Well, I do. And when you see the photos you'll love her too.

So instead of photos of received packages I'll post some promises.

1. I promise to post tomorrow night regarding the SP12 package. For tonight I'll just enjoy it!
2. I promise work on finishing up my AHEDE pal's package this weekend so that it'll be ready to send out sometime next week so that she'll have plenty of time to enjoy all the fun stuff included as she prepares for Halloween.
3. I promise to get back to knitting socks. Even joined Socktober Fest. I'm hoping to finish the Anastasia socks, knit me some Steelers socks, and start on Aunt Carol's Christmas socks. I may be shooting high, but at least I'm shooting.
4. I promise to take photos of my clear Sketchers that I purchased over the summer to show off my knitted socks to add to the excitement of Socktober Fest. I even plan to wear them once a week during Socktober Fest.
5. I plan to somehow catch up on my blog reading and maybe even leave a few comments like bread crumbs along the trail.