Sockapalooza

I heard from my sock pal just after I had realized that I needed to get going with my sockapalooza socks again. I am now 6 rows away from the heel and expect to finish them next week.

Knitting these socks makes me wonder when a sock pattern is a new design. I have combined 2 patterns from different Treasuries from Barbara Walker and did something nice with the heel, but I am not sure if this could be put out as a pattern without infringing Barbara Walker's copyright. Possibly not.

It was nice to hear from my pal, but I had not been worried. (Waves to Pal!!!)

This Sunday my parents are coming for a visit, so tomorrow I need to do some cleaning and hope to combine it with a bit more decluttering. I am getting better at throwing things out, but there is still more than we can move.

Loot and Process

After more than 2 months I finally got the surface delivery of my Elann order. You can see my loot in the first photo.
This is the first of my ugly socks. Not much progress and you get a glimpse at my Mannheim tea cup (it lights the windows when you pour warm beverages in it, advertising the electricity company in Mannheim) and my PC table.
These look much less turquois than they do in real life, where they are more bluish. Those are blocks 5 and 6 of 12 for my current Jewel Box quilt. They are taking so far 3 fabrics from my stash so Judy's (Sunshine Quilts) July Stash Challenge is met. We will see what I do with those blocks once I have finished them. They would make a quilt of 120 cm by 160 cm on their own which is a size I do not like.

Along the brook

These two pictures were taken last Saturday when MyGuy and I went for an evening stroll. You can just make out one of the young swans in the first picture.

Time flies...

I have no pictures right now, but wanted to let you all know that I am still knitting, sewing and stitching. I have turned the heel on the first of the ugly socks and am almost at the heel of the second Lilac sock. I have sewn 20 Jewel Box blocks in turquois and black-brown and have made 5 sets a 4 blocks from them. I will add 7 more sets. This is my way of participating in the July stash challenge from Judy (Sunshine Quilts). And I have a bunch more ideas of what to do with Jewel Box blocks... This will be a series I think. Hope Mum does not get to put off when I bring her the "same" pattern to quilt again and again... I have done a few thread lengths on my cross stitch tree, but you can hardly tell. I am tempted to do some blue-/redwork, but the snowmen BOM I keep seeing, I can not track down...

Nine Patch and Leaves

Yesterday I finally finished this quilt, the binding was the only thing missing, I made the blogs at least 5 years ago and my wonderful Mom quilted it for me. While this quilt was not really a scrap quilt, more of a FQ quilt, it certainly could have been. I cut squares and put them in two bags: one light, one dark. Then I proceeded to sew nine patches 5 dark, 4 light, they are all the same. The last part made it a bit challenging when it came to sewing the blocks together, but the no sames touching proved workable, the similar ones not so much. The cross pattern that you see in the photo is not aparent in real life.
The quilt got the highest possible accolade: MyGuy said, he likes it and that this one I should keep. Wow! But I have to agree, it is a keeper.
This is the first of my embossed leaves socks in Farn by Wollmeise. I took 4 stitches out which I regret now, but they still fit. However all of the photos were blurry, this one least of all.

Armchair Traveler Booklist

Not being content with the many challenges I have already going I want to join another one. This one is the Armchair Traveler Challenge by A Life in Books.

The books I have chosen are:

English Passangers by Matthew Kneale ( a cross over from the Summer Reading Challenge)
Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry
Ladies Coupé by Anita Nair
Going after Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
Schmutzige Havanna Triologie by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez
Die Reisen des Herrn Baldassare by Amin Maalouf

Let's see how I will do with this. I need to read one of those each month which should be do able.

Summer of Socks Start

This is the sunspot sock with the first couple of rows. Not much progress, I know, but it is not a train sock, so it will be slow.


This on the other hand is my current commuter sock, a simple Nancy Bush Vintage Sock ribbing in an ugly yarn, that needed to leave my stash.
Since I am working on lots of things at the moment and have more WIPS than you want to count, here an old FO. I made this while I was at university. It only has two fabrics and it was quite a challenge to find enough sampler blocks for it. However I love it and think it turned out fairly balanced. I love the starkness of the two fabrics, made necessary by the fact that I could not find anything that would go with the purply-wine colored Jaquard. So plain muslin was used. I love two color quilts, but normally go with scrappy and different values.