Sock crisis!!

I have been having a major sock crisis!! I need to have a sock in progress, it's just one of those things. I finish a pair of socks and I have to cast on another pair straight away. Is that an addiction? From my last post you can see I cast on the Zokni socks in the Fauveline Yarn. This is the second time I have attempted these socks, the first time was with garnstudio fabel in the 672 colourway. This was far too busy to show the stitch pattern, so they got ripped out and the yarn became a Dragon Scales scarf. This time the Fauveline yarn was too fiddly and also too busy, so the little I had done (one and a bit repeats) got ripped out and that yarn put back in the stash for a later date. I really want to use this yarn because it is so interesting and very soft when knitted up which is a bit surprising. I have now cast on for a third time using a plain(-ish) light coloured yarn (the bottom one in this pic).

I am only on the rib so no opinions on its success yet but fingers crossed.

I have also whipped up a little project that I saw in the latest issue of Let's Knit magazine. I can't show it yet as it will be a gift. (If you are on ravelry you can see here). It took me an evening and about another hour to complete and I used up the single ball of Wendy Fusion from my stash.

I only have 2 other WIPs, one is the Drops 88-4 cardigan (link on left sidebar) which I really want to finish this month, and the other is a lacy scarf that has been hibernating for about 12 months. I picked it up the other day and it is actually quite pretty, so I may go back to that too.

Well I've gone and let myself in for another round of sock-related bloodshed and signed up for Sock Wars III. It all kicks off on 9th May. This time it is sponsored by South West Trading Company Tofutsies Yarn but I don't think you have to use that yarn. It seems that that would suggest that this time it will be sock yarn weight rather than DK weight as used in the last two rounds. Well we shall wait and see. Go on over and sign up, the more warriors the better, but be warned there is a $2 charge this time too, but what's that? A pound? Nothing really.

There is growing interest in the knitting group at Borders. They have even put it in the events page on the website (click the link and scroll down). I was up there on Sunday afternoon and there was a poster on the notice board just inside the door and one on the end of the knitting books section, so it is well publicised. There has been interest from customers of Stash too, so I wonder how many people will turn up. 'Citin'!! I was listening to the podcast "Lixie Knits It" and she mentioned she was on ravelry so I messaged her to say I liked her podcast. We "chatted" a bit and I mentioned the group and she said she will try to remember to mention it on the next podcast which she is doing at the weekend!

Have a look at this pattern, Cherie Amour from knitty.com. I managed to miss this one and only happened to click on a link from another blog. It is definitely going on my to-do list!

Finally on knitting news, I bought a ringbinder and some clear pockets and sorted out all my printed off knitting patterns. They were all over the place but are now filed by type - socks, scarves, jumpers etc. I had more than I thought in the end, I just kept finding them in my various knitting bags and piles of magazines. Oh there's a thought, I could go through the magazines and tear out the patterns I want to keep and chuck the rest in the recycling, hmm, may do that this evening.

Update on The Gorgeous One - he started getting very defiant and ignoring our attempts to stop him doing things he shouldn't so we rang up Amanda at BarkBusters for advice. She said to not give him any praise or cuddles etc for 48 hours!! It was agony. When he realised what was going on he started becoming extra cute and desperate for attention, bringing us all his toys and rolling around the floor as if to say "look at me, aren't I wonderful?" His behaviour did improve though when he worked out he wasn't getting attention. This morning he got lots of cuddles and seemed none the worse for his experience.

I hate to even think about it, but the big birthday is coming up later in the year. I have decided I would like to take better photos and learn how to do it properly. I like taking "snaps" but I'd like to be able to take arty type photos. I know you need to be a bit artistic to recognise an arty subject in the first place, and I'm not really that way inclined, but surely you can learn that to some extent. Anyway, Colin suggested that he gets me a digital SLR camera for the big birthday, so I'm going to take my time and get advice on what would be a good one to get for "an enthusiastic beginner"! I want to learn about lighting and f-stops and all that technical stuff that the compact point-and-shoot camera that I now have does for me. And then there's all the imaging software stuff these days instead of developing. Could be a huge learning curve.