This is the reason why my start of the summer of socks is postponed. The second sock for the Lilac Socks from the Townsend KAL, the second Sockapalooza sock and the first sock of my embossed leaves socks.
These are my ladder of life socks. They were originally intended for MyGuy, but were deemed to colorful and too patterned. Sigh! I have briefly considered giving them to MyGuy's nephew or nephew's girlfriend as they are both volunteers for the THW, but think the patterning might not be good in work boots. So they are mine. Much too hot for socks now, but at least the needles are free and I can borrow one for the sockapaloozas.
I finished sewing all the rows for my Bodensee quilt (calling a blue quilt Treehouse seems a bit ridiculous). Now the rows need to be joined and we will see if I add borders or just finish it like this which is what the book is showing.
Just when I have reached the toe of my first sockapalooza 4 sock, I broke not only the yarn, but also the needle. Grr! So annoying. Now I have another set of 2.25 mm though not from the same company and I will borrow one of those needles, but to do so I have to finish my ladder of life socks where I am using those. Now that is not quite as bad as it sounds as I have just turned the heel on the second sock, but it threw a spanner in things and I did not need that grief!
I have wanted to do this quilt for ages and now that the drunkard's path and the jewel box quilts are both with my Mom to be quilted I felt I finally could start something new. This is following the pattern called Treehouse from the Modern Quilt workshop by Ringle and Kerr, but my inspiration is far from a tree and the light in it. Can you guess what this was inspired by? When I laid out the first blocks I was feeling sorry for myself because it was not a bit as I had envisioned it, but looking at it with more blocks and in this photo, I think it might actually work. The blocks are bit like potatoe chips, if you have made one, you want to keep going. I have finished almost half of the blocks I need. I have some lovely backing fabric, too.
This is the current state of my Isabella from Knitty. The shoulders were crocheted together, the V-neck looks good. The thing might be too tight however. But for a final diagnosis I have to sew it up. Then the hem and the armholes have to be done up and it can go back to being hot.
This is the start of my sockapalooza socks. It is a mocaic pattern from Barbara Walkers Treasuries (the green one). The socks are slightly tight due to the yarn carried behind the slipped stitches, but I think they will be okay unless my pal as an extraordinarily high instep.
My Guy's bamboo socks are finally finished. As a matter of fact his mother asked about the pattern stitch as she likes them. The pattern is ringwood from Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I am happy to have them of the needles. Because it gets me a good bit closer to my sockapalooza pal's socks.
This are all the skeins of Wollmeise yarn I own and some of it will end up on the needles above and eventually on my pal's feet. I have wound the first skein, but need a second one to get started. The other skeins will become more socks for me.
This is the quilt top finished (unironed as usual). I am trying two different fabrics for borders, but might just bind it without borders. Next Saturday we will visit my mom, so I will get more input.
This is my current project. A fairly old WIP that I started when I wanted to see how a Drunkard's Path would look. The colors are brighter in reality and the whole thing does not even get close to pretty, but I want to get the blocks and the rows sewn together by the 2nd of June when we plan to visit my mother. Mum does a lot of wonderful patchwork and on top of quitling her own tops, she does mine, too. I have bought a border fabric that I thought would be perfect at a quilt festival earlier this year, but now I do have some doubts. Well it can go to the back if it does not work for the borders.
This one was sewn during a a one day workshop based on Ricky Timms' book. I think I want to keep it in this orientation, but need to think about how to do this and what frames to use as I do not have most of the fabrics anymore. I think small black, small red, wide black might look good. What do you think?
This is Staufen in the Black Forest and just eye candy.
This weekend we did a bit of sightseeing not far from where I live. We went to Donaueschingen and saw the beginning of the Danub. Doesn't look like a big river that has made thousands of Romanians homeless last year? But that is what it will grow into.
The building you can see in the spring is a church but there is a palace with a nice park as well. Unfortunatelly they are currently closed as the palace is being renovated.
As you can see I have the front of my Isabella cast on and am getting close to the armholes. I am not sure if I am going to do the split as written in the instructions as I have found that look not so great on me. I think I will modify it to a V-Neck.
This one is for Margaret who is still stitching on Federic. Instead of being a good SALer I am stitching the crab apple tree from Cross Stitch Collection 143. It is a very spring like pattern and I am stitching it on blue evenweave.
These are my current traveling socks, Ringwood pattern from Gentleman's Half Hose in Vintage Socks. They are for MyGuy.
This currently neglected sock is ladder of life, a free interweave pattern written to honor the helpers at 9/11. Originally they were intended for MyGuy too, but I think they will be mine, too busy for him.
Then we have a solitary Lilac Sock from the Townsend Socknitting Yahoo group. I have my needles in use for the current socks, so once those are finished this sock will get a partner.
This is a photo of me while we were on vacation. We had a lovely week at a wellness place and this picture was taken during one of our excursions to the ruins and sights in the area.
These socks were intended for February/March of Project Spectrum, but were only finished at the beginning of April when I really wanted to start lilac socks for the Townsend KAL yahoo group. The pattern is from Nancy Bush's Vintage Socks book. I am slowly working my way through the ribbing patterns in there as they make wonderful train knitting.
This is my head start on PS for April/May. Started when snow hit again after our lovely WARM vacations this is going to be Isabella from Knitty. For once I am using the actual yarn the model was done in.
Another PS project, though this has been an UFO for ages. I have finally finished the curved units and am now in the process of putting them together in a Drunkard's Path. The first row is done, I hope to get some more done on it today.
Over the last few days I sewed the 10 blocks that I had decided I needed to add when I first laid out the 70 existing blocks and sewed the top together. The pattern is Jewel Box and you can see that I once again chose to have two color scrappy quilt. This is one of my favorite types of quilt. I am thinking about adding a border, but the quilt already is 160x200 cm and I think just a red binding might be enoug.
I finished my white socks that were originally intended for the knit the classics for January. Though I had planned to use a simple eylet pattern, I could not resist when I found Gothic Lattice in one of Barbara Walker's Treasuries. After all Woman in White is a gothic novel. I am not sure if I would do the toe part like this again, but it's not bad enough for me to redo it. The socks are Regia Silk in white and very soft.
I knit these socks while I was home sick this week. I couldn't handle anything more complicated than stockinette and that was great for this yarn. It is Regia Africa and the redish color reminds me of the dirt roads in Ghana. I am happy how they turned out.
First a finished object. These are my railway socks from Vintage Knitting, finished in time for the January challenge in the yahoo group. The pattern is not very visible with this yarn, but I do love them and am wearing them now.
This one is an older WIP with blocks inspired by Gwen Marston's wonderful book Liberated Quiltmaking. I am considering leaving it like this, adding a sawtooth border or adding a flying geese border (both borders liberated, naturally). Any input will be welcome. I do not have any of the grey left, but have a lighter grey that might work. I love the bright pinks, they cheer me up in dreary January.
I am quite sick this week (again!), but obviously, so are my knits. My red sweater will have to be ripped back to the joining of the body and the sleeves as the raglan looks bad and does not really fit well. Without photo, but also aiming for the frog pond are a Make Waves sock in blue (to tight) and a white sock (ladders! I can not remember having ladders in my socks. But then I normally do not do them in purl stitches. I think doing the offending stitch in combination knitting should solve the problem, but it means ripping back.) Then I really wanted to knit simple stockinett socks and I made a mess out of the yarn ball- I finally cut the offending part of to untangle seperately and started the sock. I normally have left overs, so hope this will be fine.
Railway Socks. These are for the January Challenge in the Vintage Socks Knit Along. The yarn is not ideal for this pattern, but I like both, so I just keep knitting. I will need a second one for the challenge, so I better keep going.
These are my broadway mitts. As you can see, not much is missing, but since it is warm enough to not consider wearing a jacket when going for lunch, I feel no need to hurry them along. Especially since they are on the 3mm needles I do not really need.
And this is the actualy Sharfika. Neither the Sharfika nor her mitts get much work done on them, because, you guessed it, it's too warm.
This are the Child's First Sock Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks in Meilenweit Cotton. This socks have been WIPs ever since blue month in Project Spectrum and I got fed up with them hoging my needles and my sock bag, so while I had the flu the last 4 days I finally finished them while watching biathlon and skijumping. 
These are my finished socks. The yarn has been in my possession for ages and finally found socks to be in. Actually it was coincidence that the yarn and the pattern go together so well as I had completely forgotten how it would knit up. The socks turned out almost identical, much to my delight. I have AIMED for identical of course once I saw how great sock one looked, but as I had just started knitting with whatever yarnend there was, I am pleased how well I matched the place in the repeat for sock 2. 
This is the beginning of my red sweater. Actually it is the third beginning of that sweater. First there was Mrs CB's Camp Jacket: much too busy yarn for the pattern (Chicknits). Then I cast on Park from NoroKnits: I liked the changes I had made, but decided I did not want a hoodie after all. So this is the third cast on and I am winging it with EZ. I thought I would make a Hybrid, but with the waist shaping I am not sure the saddle shoulders would look good. Any comments or ideas on this?
And then there is this. That is the view out of my office at work. Luckily neither the trains nor the buses are all that loud and at least it easily reachable by public transport (=knitting or reading time).
I lost my brown knitted hat last week when dozens of people behind me leaving the bus and walking to the train did not see it fit to mention that my backpack was open. When I noticed and turned around to go find my knitting some "kind" soul said "you lost something back there". I was ready to strangle the bitch and I fill the urge whenever I see her commuting on the same train with me every damn day.... Anyway, at that time I did not notice that I should have walked further back and retrieved my hat somewhere too. So I did what any sensible knitter does: I knit a new one. I had been itching to make an Odessa from Grumperia. It did turn out nice, though you can not see too much in the photo. I left the beads of and knit the YO through the back to prevent holes and am happy with the result.
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This is the first of the finished objects: yellow Opal socks in Twin Rib. Done! I have to admit that I just wanted to get the yarn out of my stash. I like yellow for socks, but I growing less and less fond of the pseudo fair isle self patterning yarns. I am not buying anymore of that, but I love stripes, tweeding and (almost) solids.
