Sockies for Baby Penny's friends and many more

These little guys are for April to take to China when she goes over to get little Penny. I met little Penny's grandma Penny on one of the Yahoo groups and knit some booties for April to take over. then I lost track of Penny(the grandma) for quite a while. A couple weeks ago I ran across her blog while surfing around some other blogs. Discovered that little Penny was still waiting for April to come get her and bring her home(adoptions take time). So, I contacted grandma Penny and offered her 3 pair of little sockies that I had sitting here waiting to go to Children in Common(can knit more for them later). She was pleased to get them, so I said I would send them along to April. Well, never being one to leave well enough alone, I whipped out 3 more pair and now I will be mailing them later this week. The pair at 12 oclock is made with Paton Classic Merino in a dark teal.

At 2 oclock is a pair made with some blue/teal/pink handspun by my dear friend Mary A. in MO.(toes are Patons Cl. Mer.). At 4 oclock is another pair made from some med. cocoa brown handspun that came from Mary A, too.

At 6 and 8 oclock are 2 pair made from a nice soft medium denim blue ragg-look Patons cl. mer. At 10 oclock is another pair made with yarn from Mary A, this is a soft light plum/pink combo(toes dk. plum Cascade 220). There are going to be some warm toes in that orphanage when April delivers these.

They were all knit on anywhere from 24 to 32 sts, depending on the yarn.

These are the slipper socks that I am working on for DGD H. and they need to be done by Sat. evening. I'm so happy to have the heel completed. I always feel like I'm in the home stretch when I get the heel gusset decreases finished. These ae on size 6US needles and I'm using LB Woolease(color, Blue Heather) andFun Fur. Like so many knitters, I'm not crazy about Fun Fur. But, H. is turning 14 yo and she will love them. I cast on 44 sts and worked K1,P1 for about 2 inches, then I dropped the FF and continued in K2,P2 for the rest of the cuff (5 more inches). Usual heel flap and turn and stockinette for the rest. Cooler evenings are on there way and H. will enjoy parading around with these on her feet.
I started this pair in the wee hours this morning. They are for Mittens for Akkol.

When I couldn't decide whether I had enough of some cream Galway, I pulled and unknown bright kelly green out of the wool stash. I wound it first with some LB Magic Stripes leftovers in faded denim/tan/white/grey self patterning. When I got to the end of the Magic Str. and still had lots of the green, I whipped out some left over charcoal Cervenia, joined it in and kept on winding. Durned if I didn't run out of that, too. Joined in some Black Cervenia and wounds some more, and yes ran out. Finished off with some Dk. Navy. Whew! That green was wound so tight there must have been a hundred miles of yarn in that ball(donated yarn, already wound when I got it). Anyway, I got out some size 5 US and cast on 48 sts and did a wide K1p1 ribbing and then swithced to K3P1 and now I'm headed down the cuff, in my spare time. LOL

These are awfully dark on my monitor. They are actually a nice sandy color of Pomfret(I don't think its made anymore). Its sport weight and help 3 strands tog. on size 10 US needles, very firm but cushy. Cast on 40 sts, k1p1 ribbed the whole cuff, about 8 or so inches, I just eyeballed it. In this pic the heel flap is about 1 inch. While I was waiting for all these piccies to upload I finished the flap and turned the heel. Yeah!

I'm not hazarding a guess what length these socks will end up. I knit socks by a formula or by trying them on the person who is to receive them. Since I can't try them on anyone, I am using my formula and will know what length they are when they are done. I do know they are going to be bigguns. LOL

DJ

Michigan Fiber Festival Pics

DH, DD#3 and I went to the Michigan Fiber Festival on Sat. Aug. 18. Here are pics of some of the wonderful animals that were there. I have know idea what variety the sheep are, I just know that I like them. The little alpaca are so darn cute. We didn't get to see the goat barn. But we were able to see all the angora rabbits, with and without their fur coats. There was a clipping demo going on and a girl who looked to be about 11 yo was using the clippers on a rabbit while the demonstrator was talking. That just goes to show me how smart I am, since I when I had angora I never did get the clipping right. I always had to use the scissors, which is not anywhere near as neat. At least it was all choppy looking when I did it.

This years festival was the 10th Anniv. It was the biggest festival so far. I have been going for 7 or 8 years and this was by far the best yet and they have all been very good. It's my one big fiber outing every year. I do admit to fiber overload at the end of the day, tho. There is so much to see and touch.

I will take pictures of my acquisitions later and post them another day.

Pictures!!!!!!!

I can hardly contain myself! I was actually able to upload piccies. What joy. These are the socks that I have been knitting for the Mittens for Akkol group. I think that we need something like 45 more pair to meet our goal. and we even have some extras in some of the size catagories. I'm posting this real quick, because the 'puter just did something weird and I'm scared I'll loose everything that I just uploaded. Will try to edit in more info later.

Update: The big grey socks are some old Patons that came from the thrift store about a year ago. I knew that I would find a use for it. They are biggies and very thick.
The cream pair on the left are Paton Classic Wool Merino, the bright pair in the middle are made with some LB Fishermans that I Kool-Aid dyed a couple years ago and had just enough left over for this pair. I combined some mohair that was donated by one of the ladies at the LYS about 3 yr. ago. They are a nice bright pinky coral color that some little girl is sure to just love having on her little feet. the cream pair on the right is made with 2 or 3 strand of some wool fingering that I got at the thrift store.

This big red pair are actually Paton classic and a stand of dark deep red knit together, again very thick and very warm.

The colors don't really show up very well on the 3 pair in this pic. The pair on the left is Patons Classic in a medium denim blue ragg look. The pair in the middle is a deep rich brown Lopi, soft, thick and woolie. The pair on the right is a nice med. cocoa brown handspun from my dear friend Mary A in MO.

This last pair is knit with 3 strand of Pomfret sport held together. It's hard to see on my monitor, but I did the cast-on in navy and the rest in is a nice sandy color. This is the pair that DGS didn't want to give back when I let him try them on. They are several sizes too big for him, but that didn't seem to matter. LOL I have another pair in the same yarn OTN right now, minus the navy cast-on row. These will be a little bigger than the ones pictured here.

We had an update and we are getting toward meeting our goal of 256 pair by the middle of Sept. I am sure that I will be able to finish the current pair, but may not get to do an 11th pair. I had set a goal of 12 pair, even tho I knew that I had 6 family knitting projects to get done by the 3rd week of Oct. I'm disappointed that I won't get 12 pair, but I'm thrilled to get 10 or 11 done, too.

Gotta post this before the 'puter does something crazy. DJ

Catchin up

I have been busy with the needles even tho I haven't been blogging, lately. I am really having trouble getting motivated to blog without piccies. Gotta find a way around that problem.
I finished the big wooly boot socks for my SIL and gave them to him with out taking a pic, just forgot. I am working on a pair of boot/slipper socks for DGD right now. I am making them with a fun fur cuff and Wool-ease. I don't really care for fun fur, but she is going to be 14 next week and will enjoy them. when I finish hers, I need to hurry up and cast on for the other SIL a pair of boot/slipper socks, hmmmm ya think I should use fun fur!??? LOL I have 3 pair of slipper socks that are due in October for 2 DD's and a DGS.
I'm still knitting big wooly socks for the Mittens 4 Akkol group. We are getting closer to our goal and it looks like we will even exceed it by quite a bit. We already have exceeded the goal for several of the sizes. Yeah, us!
Have been helping DD#3 to make preemie blankies. She sewed 14 last week and we cut out 8 more tonight for her to sew and/or embroider. I'm so glad to have her helping to support my charity work. More hands make lighter............
DD#1 was out of electricity from Thurs. til last night. Sunday DH and I put on
a breakfast buffet for the whole clan and then we did a taco bar for dinner for everybody, about 12 of us for each meal. We used fresh MI blueberries to make pancakes. We did scrambled eggs, home-made biscuits and gravy, ham slices, local watermelon, yummo! Can you say 5 pounds on the hips!?
We made a huge batch of home-made salsa with MI tomatoes and other ingredients, there is nothing quite like locally grown, fresh vine ripened produce. And yummy home-made quacamole, not home grown, but so good.
DH gets right in and helps me get everything ready or I just wouldn't be able to do all. Gotta love the guy.
Now that I have written a novel, I gotta go. Hugs.