In the Land of the Living...just about!

Well, I'm sitting here with a glass of red and it's the first night I've felt up to a little light blogging...Typical, blogger's getting cranky about adding pictures ! If they look a bit different, It's 'cos I'm grabbing them straight from Flickr 'cos Blogger's given up the ghost altogether now.

Considering I still feel like a used dishrag, I'm pretty confident in upgrading the "cold" to "flu" and it most certainly cramped my style when it came to speed knitting as I plain and simply could not put in the hours I needed. I also lost around 3-4 hours knitting time on the first day because I needed to go up a needle size and frogged a heartbreaking amount of knitting but to be honest was quite relieved when I figured out I was out of the game, there was no shame to have been beaten by someone who'se tagline is "Fast 'n' Furious Knitter!"

The nice thing about no longer being in the race was that as this sock had an afterthought heel, I could go straight ahead and try the cool dyeing technique as soon as I'd grafted the toes.

This was what I started with before I let loose with the paintbrush...



...Plain, simple lovely Rowan 4ply Soft on 2.25mm needles; and this is what it looked like after I let loose with the paintbrush...



...Or how about the back?...



...Well, 2 hours later that's what they looked like anyway! A little micro-steaming to set the colours and an overnight drying led to the heels finally being reunited the following day when I could officially try them on for the first time, the foot length being a total gamble but fortuitously being just right...



...Or what about this angle?



...Or this one?



To say I am incredibly pleased with these socks would be an understatement even though they do have quite an insane quality about them! Quite whether they will get much actual use is another matter, I kind of feel like they need framing for posterity!

Voting has now opened for round 3 socks and my " Sox and the City" has got a mention, you should look at all the fab entries on the Sock Madness website and vote for your favourite, there's some fun pics!

Well, round 5 continues on Sunday and, braving the weather, I headed out to a local(ish) stitch fair today to stock up on extra supplies, more about that next time but suffice to say, a good time was had by all. I may be out of the running but I'll still get a kick out of knitting along.

Thanks to all the wellwishers for your words of support. Now, if I could just get rid of this pesky cough and get some energy back...