socks, stairs and dog love

 Right, so there were lots of other things that started with an 'S' this weekend. Namely SNOW. Lots and lots and lots of beautiful snow. However, it seems that I only took photos of the dogs, so I chose to leave the snow bit out of my collection of 'S' words in the title. Sorry, I do become distracted by the dogs at times...

 

Leading up to Christmas, I was in a sock knitting frenzy. Happily knitting sock after sock whilst working on my favourite socks pattern and dyeing up colours for sock kits. At the end of it all, both my parents benefited from a new pair of socks, and I just got round to photographing them this weekend. Above are my dad's in a Bronte and Mustard Seed combo that I'm quite liking.

And below, if you can see past the dog, are my mum's. These were the inspiration for the Sea Storm/Ghost/Dew Drop colour combination in the kits...and that's just what they are!

After a few minutes of pushing dogs out of the way, I just gave up and clicked away hoping to get a shot of 2 socks in focus...I think there's at least one in there...

There are so many delightful distractions outside the window in Mooresburg; wind, leaves, falling snow, any movement or noise at all...

...and so, the dogs danced around in between the socks and the camera enjoying the little bits of snow falling from the sky.

Oh, here's one of the socks!

legs...

tails...

behinds...

it's all cute really, so I'm not going to complain. Silly dogs. 

So I did manage to get a few decent sock pictures, but I think I like the dog-filled pictures better anyway...

The sock KAL is still going on in the Ravelry group until the end of March, still lots of time to join in! It has been so much fun to see Viola socks popping up, and some really lovely versions of the Favourite Sock pattern as well!

Like these, knit by the lovely traceyrr. She kindly test knit the pattern for me and made these beautiful socks in the process! Tracey's colour combo is Dew Drop (main) with Titus contrast. Thanks Tracey!

I have a pretty great prize in mind for this sock KAL as well, and I'll be dyeing that up this week so that I can share it with you soon. Stay tuned!

As for the second 'S' in the title of today's post, hooray, stairs are in place! my little dye studio now has access directly into the proper house - such a useful thing when there's 4 feet of snow outside the door!

And this seems to be the best photo I managed to take of the stairs over the weekend. I must have been really distracted by the cute dogs. Happily, I also discovered a new vantage of the studio space. It's looking pretty good!

If the weather had been on my side, last weekend would have seen running water in the shed as well. As it was, the brave plumber was rushing about Grey County fixing flooded basements and frozen pipes all over the place. I'll just have to content with my stairs for the moment.

socks socks socks...

With the way I go on about socks these days, I sometimes feel like a broken record. On the other hand, I THINK about socks even more than I mention them...so that's saying something. I have come to refer to my condition as a 'sockness'. Think I'm going to make it an official thing...'sockness'.

Anyhow, the sock news today is that I've been busy assembling sock kits for Viola meets Mooresburg Kickstarter backers. I've loved every minute of it, because making the kits has involved lots of creative problem solving, colour combining, drawing, painting and mini skein making. All things (except problem solving, which is a constant!) I do not get to do enough of. It's been a really fun excercise for me, and this is just the beginning!

All Kickstarter sock kits will be headed to the post office on Monday. I hope they find their way to their new homes swiftly indeed! The new sock pattern accompanying these kits will also be released next week, and will be available on Ravelry. I am really proud of this pattern, it's just a simple sock but it's my favourite sock. I had some excellent help from a friend in editing and test knitting as well, thank you Tracey! I am so pleased that I can share my favourite knitting project, and can't wait to see more pairs of my Favourite Socks cropping up around the interwebs (and in real life too!)

In other sock news, There is a Viola Sock KAL ticking along in the Viola Ravelry group. With all the excitement and frenzy of Kickstartering, I have not been as present as I would like with our lovely sock KAL. I also have been thinking that those sock kits might want a chance to participate in the KAL too...and so I propose that we extend our KAL deadline from the end of January to March 31st. Visit the Ravelry group to join in, I can't wait to see the Viola socks popping up!

For those of you who are still keen to get your hands on some Viola sock yarn (kit or no) you won't have to wait long. The next etsy update is scheduled for the first week of February! I will post more details soon, but there will most certainly be sock yarn in there (and it will reach you with lots of time to join in the KAL)