I Habe a Code in by Dose...plus yet more sock pics

No, honestly, my nose is streaming right now, I've taken the usual paracetamol which lasted all of half an hour so I've just got to tough it out so excuse me if there's more than the usual typing errors, I was probably mid-sneeze!

I really wanted to post to express my undying gratitude to all of you who have left such fab comments on my blog; JO who I found thru the power of ravelry (and our joint love of all things Colinette!), Donna who I met thru a quirk of fate and recently visited her knitting group; Riggwelter whose progress I've followed for a wee while; the lovely Quilter Sal who's written such nice things about me recently and is a fellow Sock Madness competitor; not forgetting sweet Romelda who despite going through all kinds of trials, still finds the time to catch up every once in a while. Then there's Kath and Anne who helped me join the madness of blogland in the first place and plenty more people I've "met" thru swaps and competitions. Far too many to mention, but thank you, all for you for your fab words, it's great to know my humble little diary's being read and enjoyed when there are far greater and more interesting posters out there.

Anyway, I've been mulling over recent posting and decided that things have been getting a wee bit stale. It's all too easy to just nip upstairs to the bedroom, snap a few shots of works in progress and make do but I decided the last pair of socks really needed a location shoot.

You see, there's been a competition each round, not for the first past the post (not me!) but for creativity. It was originally intended I think to encourage those who didn't complete their socks in time to add their own twists on the design but has blossomed into something quite different. The winner of the first prize staged a zombie-inspired black and white pic. with 2 feet advancing towards a scared prone figure. I was sure that the lady snapped knitting whilst on a log flume ride would win round 2 so I gave up trying to find a floor-length mirror to try my idea but instead, another lady with a poem and a series of pictures won.

I hasten to add that my entry was composed before I found out that the poem-inspired entry had won based on my frustration of finding a truly innovative setting. Still, I used what I could find around me, may I present: Sox and the City:

"I may never win prizes for speed;
though I knit as fast as I can...."

"....I'll never be seen on a thrillride (I'm a wimp!);
or get snapped with a famous man...."

".....I just need to use what I have;
to create my official entry..."

"...So please look kindly and vote;
For my "Sox and the City"
(From the top, there's Sox in the Blossom; Sox on the Rox; Sox on the beach and Sox and the City and yes, they are meant to have a double-entendre!). You can vote from the Sock Madness site link once all the entries are listed so we shall see, at least I know I've tried.

See, I can stage them when I have the time!

Anyway, we had a bit of drama today; hubbie's taken a day off to have a long weekend (he needs it, poor love!) so we were slobbing in the front room (well, he was playing bowling on the nintendo Wii nad I was nursing my cold) when one of these rolled by:



I did take a number of shots but unfortunately Blogger's playing silly buggers but you get the idea, as hubbie said "They're stealing our road!!!"


Or to be more precise, a bit of our road, ready for where the speed hump will be placed. They've been carving up the roads nearby adding speed bumps to slow the traffic down so it looks like we're next. They've cut an awful long strip though, I'm sure they're not THAT big!

It was rather funny though, watching it roll by threading between the cars. It's parked there tonight so it's a good job it's not bro's turn to visit us this weekend.

In other knitterly news, I've cast on yet another new project, this time a pair of (UK) size 10 socks for a fella, a knitting commision that I'm fitting in amongst my otherwise crowded schedule. I'm not rushing to finish them though, I've got a month to complete them so little and often's the name of the game. the next round of Sock Madness begins for me on Monday afternoon, only half the current entrants can go through to the next round (6) and even if I do, the next one's bound to clash with the holidays so I can definitely see the end in sight. I will still knitalong to the end though, just in a little less frantic manner!

I'm a nadge away from completing the collar on the freedom sweater too...


...I got exactly halfway around the cast-off edge before the yarn ran out. I purchased another ball and even though it's a different dye lot, using it as the cast off edge and sewing up only won't make it look too different. I ended up doing only 2 repeats of the bobble pattern rather than the recommended 4 and I think this collar length suits the shorter style much better. Oh well, maybe you'll see a FO on Sunday...then again, maybe not, depends how much I want to sew up tomorrow!

I think Floppy's starting to pose for the camera....



...He spent a full minute stuck there with his foot in his ear waiting for me to grab the camera and take the photo then forgot to scratch and put it down again...dogs!