Sock Stash part 1

I've been a bit lonely this week. Hubby is out of town on business again, and all there is here at home is me and the fur children-who are seriously lacking in their english speaking skills, though Chenille tries really hard. This is my little sweetie Chenille.

We rescued her from a shelter when she was just 4 weeks old. Not even weaned yet and someone dumped her at the shelter. We took her to the vet right away to learn how to feed her. My daughter Sarah and I took turns getting up every two hours during the night for feedings and comforting. It was like having a human baby in the house. It also was a wonderful opportunity to teach my daughters about the responsibilities of real life baby caring. The experience had a profound effect. Anyway, Chenille is very tiny. Being taken from her mother too early stunted her growth, but she has a HUGE personality, and talks non-stop to me sometimes. Unfortunately, it all sounds like loud Meows to me.

I've been puttering around the house, mostly putting things back the way they were before the party, and surfing the web. I am amazed at how many bloggers knit socks. I haven't knit socks since I closed the shop. Seeing all the great pics in blog land has been a real inspiration. I found myself wondering about my sock yarn stash. I couldn't remember what's in it. So I dug it out. At least, most of it, there's one box I can't get to in the storage shed cos hubby has blocked it off with something too heavy for me to move, so I'll have to wait until he gets home to rescue it. Anyway, I was very surprised at what I found. Apparently, I have saved one skein of every color of Opal I carried in my shop. I didn't like some of them, so I must have been thinking about Ebay at the time. (In a few years, those discontinued colors might be worth something.) Here's the photo of the Opal box contents, and a few skeins of a discontinued color of Jo Sharp DK wool I fell in love with.

This is the second box of sock yarn. Mostly Fortissima, a bit of Opal, Patons Kroy, and Lorna's Laces. I thought I had a lot more Lorna's Laces than that, so I'm quite disappointed. Perhaps the rest is in the box I can't get at. I have a few skeins of Opal colors that were never sold in the U.S. too (Ebay can be cool) that are not in these boxes, so they must be in the other one.


These are my latest acquisitions. Etsy is an evil place for someone who loves hand painted sock yarn. Sigh. I have 3 more skeins on the way. There's a decidedly purplish look to all of it too. (God, how I love purple!) The one on the right is washed out in the pic, but it's lavender, celery, and white.

This is Tommy. He wanted in the picture.

Now I'm absolutely dying to make a pair of socks. I think I'll try the Monkey Socks pattern. It seems to be all the rage right now in blog land. I must say, it is one of the few textured patterns that looks good in variegated yarn. Usually I don't like to do heavily textured patterns in variegated yarn because the pattern gets lost in the color changes of the yarn, but this particular pattern actually compliments the coloring.

Here's a pic of the boys. They were soaking up the sun. You can see the drain tube in Tommy's side, poor little guy. He's doing great though. Now I'm having trouble keeping him calm. He's feeling so good he wants to tear around the place. He needs to be careful until the stitches are removed.


Last, but not least, here's a pic of the new deck. It's not quite done yet. Needs railings and whatnot. But I sure am pleased with it. Hubby used pressure treated wood for the foundation, and Trex decking on top. Trex is that plastic stuff that will last way past when we die of old age. So we won't have to worry about this ever again.


Now, where is my ball winder. I wanna get those Monkey socks goin'.

Have a great day.