From the Past...


I have been knitting so much on washcloths killing time until I go away for business, that I really don't have a ton of exciting washcloth pictures. So I found some pictures from Maryland Sheep & Wool that I wanted to share.

This first one is one that I love to see every year. I just love all the colors and they attracted me the first year I went but I passed on buying them. Then the second year I bought about five of them. This year I didn't buy any but just had to take a picture of them. They are the cocoons of the silk worms. They have been dyed to such wonderful colors. I still have not had time while at the show to watch the demo on how work them, but I have heard there are videos on the Internet. Maybe on the 8th day of the week , I will watch it and figure out how to work them. Just like food, color and presentation get you every time.

This was on the end cap of a booth. I love the color and again it's the texture and presentation that got me. Someone spent a lot of time making this and I just think it's awesome!
This one was hanging next to the one above. When you see things that are so unusual you just have to stop and look, touch and ask questions.
I know this is blurry but you can see that it's got texture all over the place. It reminds me of barnacles that attach themselves to pylons in the ocean here.
I promised the woman below that I would take a picture of her banner to give her credit for what you are about to see...

She has a hat on her head that hold a soda, beer or water so you don't lose your drink. I just thought it was so funny. I would be the one who bent over to pick up something off the ground and pour my drink completely out...and what would a sheep and wool show be without some really cute faces?




Happy Knitting Everyone!

Great Balls of Joy

I am so excited. I got the good word from a friend who owns a sheep farm about an hours drive from here where I live. She taught me how to spin and I bought my spinning wheel from her. It's sits idle in the living room but it is admired every time I walk past it. That's a start right?

Two years ago when I belonged to the local spinning guild, I was gifted two fleeces from a member who was moving from one house to another and wanted to purge her fleeces. No one in the room was jumping at the chance when they heard that they had to be picked and cleaned. Being the beginner I was, I jumped at the chance and took them home. They have been sitting under my bed ever since then. I did at least wash them, but nothing else. I bought some lock combs and have not really used them. So the enthusiasm had failed by the way side.

Maryland Sheep and Wool rekindled my enthusiasm for those forgotten fleeces. My friend Mary told me about Zeilinger Wool Co. She told me to bring my raw fleeces to them and they would take them, process them and then mail them back to me. I was truly not a believer for leaving my fleeces with someone else. Being the doubting Thomas that I am, I only trusted them with one fleece. If that one fleece came back unsatisfactory, I wouldn't give them anymore of the fleeces I have waiting under the bed. So I toted my fleece to the show and left it with Zeilingers. They said it should be to me sometime in July.

About the first of this month, I started thinking about my fleece. Where was it? Did they lose it or what? I figured that I would give them another few weeks and then start dialing. Opps, we don't dial anymore do we? Okay punching. Lo and behold, I fell asleep in the chair this past Saturday when DH went outside to mow the yard. When he came back in the had a box. I thought it was a shipment of books that I had ordered. I was so happy to see those books. I opened the box and got a BIG surprise. Not books, but fleece. It was coiled in the box like a big fuzzy hair ball. I had a devil of a time finding the end so I just picked a spot and broke it.

I somehow had it in my mind that the roving would come wound up in balls. After all, that's the only way I have seen roving. I had no idea that I had to wind it myself. Nevertheless, I did and got four rather large fluffy balls from the box. I am tickled pink with my roving. It's soft and looks pretty free of veg matter. I picked through it a bit and there doesn't seem to be too much.

I might have to spin some of this stuff here pretty quick. I have a full schedule until the end of this month so I may have to spin in August. That certainly won't stop me from admiring the ball of joy though!

So what color do you think they are? I can't decide. There is about 3 1/2 pounds of roving there. I am going to give the small ball away to another spinner so she can test it. All in all, I am just so pleased that I dragged that big honking bag up and down MS&W so I could get those. I am going to have to get the others ready to take next year!

Simplicity is what it's all about.

I love doing lace and socks. I think I am much better at socks than lace but that doesn't stop me from doing it. There are times that I want to throw the projects away and never look back, but I set them aside and take a breather. I set down the Lily Chin shawl for a few months and now have picked it back up. I have ripped out countless rows but somehow it has not stopped my desire to finish it. I want to triumph against my frustration. I can understand how other knitters have numerous UFOs. You just get to a point that if you rip out one more row on that project you are going to just toss it in the trash and move on. I haven't gotten to that point lately but I could feel my frustration level rising and needed a quick time out.

I ordered a massive amount of books from KnitPicks at 40% off recently and found a book that I think will be a lot of fun. I used to never understand the fascination with books until I became a chef. There is something about owing a book that is very empowering. If you saw my cookbook collection you would understand I have a grasp on that concept now. This concept has now moved to knitting books. I don't buy a lot of them at full price just because. So about once a year I order when KnitPicks has them on sale. I did my part this year for sure!

One of the books I ordered is this one. I have knit with one of her silk yarns and I loved it. It's this project here. So I was curious about what her books would be like. I went to KnitPicks and checked out what was on the inside for projects. I thought it had potential. I ordered the book.

A few days ago I worked on a new project to distract me from the Lily Chin shawl. This was knitting therapy that was so fast and it worked. I made these in less than two days. Yes, I did one and actually had to catch some ZZZs and darn it; go to work. As soon as I got the next day, I started and finished the second one. I still have some left over yarn and now am looking for a project befitting the left overs. I have a project in mind but not the proper sized needles. So I will have to buy needles before starting the next project.

Here is what I made. It's so simple that it was nerve soothing.
I made the washcloths from the book on page 78. I was so happy with how they turned out that I have been looking in my stash for other cotton yarns
to make more. I told DH that if they worked out
the way I hoped they will, the "others" will be
leaving us shortly. Today I will use one of them
and report back. I am not usually a wash cloth
user but this requires some testing.

I used TY-DY 100% yarn. I have never used this yarn before and I am pleased with how easy it was to work with. I split it a few times but that speaks of my technique more than it does the yarn if you get my drift.

I bought three balls total and have plans for the other two balls. I am hoping the plans work out but again, I have to buy some more needles. If you have never made yourself a washcloth, give it a shot. It's great for a really, really new beginner knitter. It's all knitting all the time. What could be easier??

Postscript: I used the washcloth after working on this post. I have to say that I was very impressed. I loved it so much that I am in the process of making more. 'Nough said...

Country Christmas Socks

I have been working on these socks a little longer than I wanted but when you have four projects going on at the same time, well you know... I wanted to get started on my Christmas knitting so that I won't be in panic mode come December. I see it all the time on other blogs that knitters are scrambling at the last minute to finish something for a family member and then other who are starting on the 23rd while driving to Grandma's house. That's just a bit too last minute for me. These will be a gift for someone in my family so I can't do into too much detail.

I have gotten better at reading instructions and these socks are from different patterns, sort of.

The heels are Eye of Partridge from Sensational Knitted Socks book by Charlene Schurch. I knit my first Eye of Partridge for the Ribbed Lace Socks. I liked it so much I decided to incorporate it into another pair of socks to see if I could do it and I did. The Ribbed Lace socks has no reinforcement yarn so you can really see the pattern clearly. This pair has reinforcement yarn so the pattern isn't as visible as I thought it was going to be. So the upside to this heel pattern is picking up the gusset stitches. It is very easy to pick them up with this heel pattern. I do like the ribbed heel that I learned first but I want to learn other patterns and this one is number two.

While I have been experimenting with the heel of my socks, the toe is still the same pattern I learned on my very first pair of socks. I am hoping to learn how to make a pair of socks from the toe up as I have heard that I can adjust the pattern more easily. I don't know this for a fact but hey, it never hurts to try and learn something new. While trying to get better at the toe, Sue from The Knitting Corner suggested a new toy. I bought it and it has made the kitchner stitch so much easier to work with.

I always dread closing up the toe but this tool has made it easier and now I close up the toes as soon as I get there. I have closed up every sock just as soon as I have finished it since getting this HUGE needle. I just love it!

I have not been posting because I have been trying to finish my UFOs and frankly, it's just not that exciting! I had to find someone on Ravelry to buy what's left of a full skein of yarn that I started my second Clapotis with. I really thought that two skeins totalling 737 yards was going to be enough. I was wrong. So I am sending her a check tomorrow morning to get that half skein so I can finish another UFO. Then it's on to the Lily Chin that is still giving me fits. I will blog about that later. For now I am off to do laundry...

Garden Update

I showed pictures a while back of our beginning garden. I went out this morning and took more pictures to update the garden. Since I belong to a Container Gardening group on Ravelry, I wanted them to see my latest pictures. I can't figure out how to post pictures on there so I am going to post them there and link from Ravelry.

Here is a view of the middle bed. The two metal trellises are supposed to be more full than what they are, but we waited too late in the season to plant the snow peas and the heat is eating them alive. If you look closely in the background you can see the vines are dying from the bottom up. I have see what happens in the past and I am debating whether or not to just pull them up and try something else. The pepper plants are skinny and look sad but I have noticed a few blossoms on them. I doubt they will yield any peppers this year but I will let them go a bit longer and see what happens. The cucumbers are small but they are going strong as well as the two basil plants I have in that bed. I am going to go and top off the basil plants and try to preserve them in a plastic bag for later this weekend.

This bed has three transplanted tomato plants. They were in the shade of our fence so we moved them about three weeks ago and they are trying but they don't look right; kind of skinny and a bit pale. I can't remember what kind they are but hopefully we will get some blooms soon. Behind the tomato plants there are bush beans. We didn't have much luck with them last year but this year they look like they are doing much better. We have some in another bed because we eat a lot of green beans. In the front is my lettuce bed. It's really too hot for the lettuce to do much more than what it is before it bolts. I am going to pinch them back for this weekend and maybe it will be enough for two portions; maybe.

This is the bed that I am most excited about. We planted more bush beans of a different variety. These are Jacobs Cattle. They are supposed to be a dry bean. We got about 1/4 cup last year. Not much to speak of and I decided that this year I was going to have enough to cook some. So we planted much more this year. Plus we planted bean in the same space we move the three little sad tomato plants from. They are coming up and I am thrilled. The bushes are full of blooms and I think this year will be the year we actually get a good yield.
Beside the beans are onions sets that are both red and white. We have never grown onions before so this is just a wait and see thing. So overall I think our little city garden is giving it a good try despite the heat wave too early in the season and the fact we were about 8 weeks late in planting. The squash and zucchini are coming along but haven't quite hit their stride but I have a feeling when the weather settles down they will be going gang busters.

Here is what the tomatoes in containers are up to. We have not done anything to them except mix in manure and water. I have not pinched the suckers. I have just let them go to see what will happen. These are supposed to be smallish tomato but I have lost the stick that came with the plant so it will be surprise. I think they might be yellow but not really sure. They are going really well and with the tomato scare going on right now, I will be glad to eat something of my own that won't make me sick.

Here is our first attempt at pear tomatoes. They are small but they are going strong. I have seen what people pay for these at the grocery store so any amount of these we get are great.
Well that's the total garden update. I will post more pictures another time when I have picked something or they are starting to show color.

Flowers
I love to garden and I am not really sure that I have done a good job until something happens; like some color. This year I didn't take too many chances on new flowers but here is what is going on now on the deck in pots.

These are really spring Pansies but I moved them to the shade and they are going full guns. Pretty soon I will have to find something else to put in that pot when these fizzle out.
These are Geraniums that DH picked out at the local boxed hardware store. I really didn't think they would do that well but they are doing pretty well. I love the color in the summer on the deck. We have a lot of shade in our yard due to the neighbors huge out of control oak tree. We have a maple that is bending over the deck trying to capture the sun because the oak is a sun hog. We are going to cut the maple down because we are afraid it will snap off in a hurricane or really big winds and take out our sun room with it. I love maple trees and it makes me sad to have to cut down a tree, but the house might be in danger. We have planted a little Japanese maple in the back yard that is under the shade of the oak. I was thinking that we should plant another one in the place of the maple as soon as we cut it down. If that neighbors ever cut down the oak, my shade garden will surely be toast.
This is one of the new Hydrangea bushes we planted in the spring. It has some really killer blooms on it but I know next year that might not happen. I still have one if not two more bushes that need to be moved to the shade but weekends are getting more full. DH has been doing a lot of over time so gardening on a Sunday is not high on his list of priorities. He pooped.
This is in the sun room and has a really cute story to it. My youngest son was about to go to Iraq about three years ago. He had some money (about $10) and bought me this plant. Right before he left, he said to please not let the plant die. It was so pretty when I got it and during the year he was gone, it looked like it had died. I was horrified. So I kept the pot in the same place for a year and threw some water on it when I remembered. Then one day I was looking at it and noticed there was a green shoot poking up from the dirt. I could not believe it. No flower ever appeared but there was some skimpy foliage. Three years later I have my first flower. The plant has gotten so tall in the current pot that it has fallen over. I think another flower might be coming soon. I am super pleased I did not throw it away but more than that; I didn't let my kid down by killing his gift.

Yet Another Pair of Green Socks...
This post got lost in the shuffle somewhere and was originally dated for April 20th and I guess I got more excited about other posts. Who knows, but here it is...

You might have guess it by now but if not I will tell you that my most favorite color is green. So I am a sitting duck for most green sock yarn. So here is another pair of green socks. I love how the pattern turned out. Now if I could just remember the name of the yarn. I think it's Austermann Step. Can't tell you the color way because I have lost the label. I know better now to keep things together. I even bought a knitting book so I can keep track to the kinds of projects I do, the yarns they were made with and the adjustments to any patterns. Maybe I can be more accurate when talking about the yarn, needles and project. It might take me a while to get started but I bought the book.

Here is the latest pair of green socks that were finished this week. I am thrilled they are done and now there are two more that need to be worked on.

Here is a close up of the color and pattern. I like them a lot. I had a thought that I might need some other colors, but then re-thought and decided to stick with colors that make me happy. Green makes me very happy!

Same Song Different Versus...

I never thought that I would be one of those people who was so taken with a pattern that they had to knit fifty zillion of the same thing. Besides these and these, I haven't made duplicates of too many other projects. I went on a mini yarn crawl with a friend last weekend and when we hit this place I went nuts. We were there to see a purse designer but I got distracted by some yarn. I have never knit with this before so I was excited to purchase some. The minute I saw the colors, I was a goner. I loved the richness of this yarn and I had to buy some. I purchased 2 skeins and was even more happy that I got 20% off. That made it the find for the day! I even had a project in mind when I bought the yarn. I have started the project...

No, your eyes are not deceiving you...it's another Clapotis. I just saw the pattern when I looked at they yarn. I like the first one that I knit, but the pattern of the colors was not was I was hoping for. So I am going to donate the first one to the local guild and keep this one.



Here is a close-up of how the colors are evolving. I am so pleased with this yarn. I would knit another project using this yarn.I am only on section on and the 6th repeat. I am a little nervous about having enough to finish the project. So far I am very pleased. Did I say that already???

Pattern Dilemma
I have a pattern dilemma and I thought putting it on the blog and getting some opinions would help me decide what to do. The yarn I am using is Lorna's and it is the Shepherd Sock yarn. It's the Country Christmas colorway. I have had this yarn for a year so thought I would get a head start for Christmas.

I started the pattern with a 2x2 ribbing. Did 25 rows and thought the pattern and the colors went well. I wanted to seeing the stripping and decided to let the pattern of the colors come out and then did 70 rows in stockinette. Here is what it looks like. While I like the colors, I don't like the break in them. As you can see the break goes is over two rows. It's hard to describe but I don't like the break in the color. Since I already had the second sock done to the ribbing, I thought I would thumb through Sensational Knitted Socks and pick out a 6 stitch pattern. I found the Bluebell Rib. After working about 10 rows of that pattern, I decided it was not going to work. The breaks in the colors weren't as obvious but you really couldn't see the pattern. So maybe I was headed in the right direction. I ripped that out and moved on to the Chain Rib. This is what that one looks like... As you can see, the color breaks don't show up as much with this pattern. As much as I hate to rip out 70 rows of a sock, I will. So which one is better? Should I continue with the stockinette or should I do the Chain Rib? I figure now is the time to pick one over the other. I picked the Chain Rib because I though it would make the sock look like bumpy candy canes. Either way one is going to get tinked. So whatcha think??

They Only Come Out At Night...Wrong!
This post started out with a different name and completely different subject matter. I was going to talk about something I was knitting on, but then there was a really shocking event and that threw my whole weekend out of whack.

I have four very noisy dogs and bark for no reason at all. The wind shifts, they bark. A blade of grass moves, they bark. Saturday after listening to endless minutes of barking, I finally got up and looked out the window in the living room. I thought I was seeing things when I saw this...

I went outside and nearly had a heart attack when I realized that the little fuzzy thing on the roof was a baby raccoon. Last year we knew a mother raccoon had nested in the attic in the house next door. The owner of the house bought the place in 1999 and has never lived in the house. We are perplexed as to why this man bought a house he has no intentions of living in. Better yet, he doesn't seem interested in taking care of the house. Hence the two holes on opposite sides of the house up under the eves. Momma had a litter last year and sadly one of my dogs got a baby who was a little too curious about the world outside the nest.

I knew that something was wrong when I saw a baby raccoon at 4:30 in the afternoon. We watched the baby for 2 hours while discussing the whereabouts of the mother. Something was really wrong, but we didn't know just how wrong until we went next door to tell the neighbors that there was a baby raccoon on the roof . The person who is currently a renter could care less about animals period. So it wasn't much of a surprise that he resisted calling someone to get the baby off the roof. So being the animal lover that I am, a two story ladder was thrown up against the house and two neighbors (not the bonehead who lives in the house) rescued two baby raccoons. As soon as the two squiggly babies were put in a cage, two more heads popped out. It was getting dark so we gave up. While talking to yet another neighbor, we discovered that he had captured the mother and she was handed over to Animal Control. Animal Control put her down for fear that she was a carrier of rabies. The neighbor didn't know that would happen to her. He was under he impression that she would be turned loose someplace in the woods. He also didn't know she has a nest with four babies. So he was a determined as we were to get those babies to a safe place. I placed a call to a Wildlife Rescue group and a vet tech agreed to take all four providing we could get the remaining babies. Two very skinny babies were handed off to a loving volunteer. The babies mother has been dead for over a week so the baby's have had no food or water for that time.

We tried for three nights to get the other two babies but were not successful. Last night we banged on the side of the house, brought food and water to the hole on the second story. No luck. We were all afraid time had run out for the last two. We talked the renter into letting us go into his attic and see what happened to the other two babies. Two very brave guys climbed up a ladder inside a closet with flashlights to check out the attic. No babies. The nest was empty. We have no idea what happened to the babies or where they went. Where ever they are, we hoping that if someone finds them they will call a Wildlife Rescue group and let them take care of the babies. I am keeping positive thoughts about what happened to them.5/28/08
Sadly there is an update to this story that I hadn't wanted. Yesterday morning the renter next door came over to my house at 7:30 in the morning to tell me there was very wet and cold baby at his door and to come get it. I threw on some clothes and dashed out in the pouring rain to scoop up a near dead baby. I tried to dry it off and give it comfort but sadly it was too weak to fight off the rain and the cold and died. There is another baby out in someones yard but we haven't heard anything about it and I have to assume that baby number four will not have a long life since it was malnourished and is just too young to survive outside the nest on it's own. I wasn't going to post such sad news but it really is all about the circle of life and how we have forced Mother Nature's creatures to try and adapt to living in our subdivisions that were built in their neighborhood. The renter got up on the ladder yesterday to try and start patching the hole on one side of the roof. I am hoping we don't have to go through this next year. It was fun watching the babies but the sad ending only drives home the point to me that we are all guests on this earth and it is our responsibility to make sure that we are good stewards.

5/29/08

Since everyone I have heard from is amazed about how the babies got to where they were, let me add some more shots that I took while we were trying to figure out how to get them down from the eve over the roof.

Here is a shot from the ground of two of the babies thinking about how to escape. This is a two story house and the one outside the house is sitting on a corner piece of siding that is about the thickness of a nickel. One piece was missing and he is digging his little nails into the wood trying to stay up there. No, one one fell because after deciding there were only two places to go, the one hanging by his toenail got talked into coming back in by the other sibling. So what you are looking at here is the sibling number one looking down at us and sibling number two changing his mind (you are looking as his rear end tyring to climb back in). It was a comedy act provided by mother nature! How could someone not want to help these guys??

In the beginning...
there was an idea to knit with two other knitters at my favorite LYS. Since I love socks and we have all made them together, a sock was declared the winner in the slightly organized KAL for our Thursday knitting group. We all agreed on one sock pattern and off we went. Each of us picking out a different kind of yarn. Since my sock yarn stash has expanded to more than one drawer in my storage system, I decided to dig into my stash. I am using my sock yarn purchased at MS&W from last year. I fell in love with this soft baby yellow yarn. I am usually nuts over shades in green but for some reason, the yellow spoke to me. Don't tell me that the rest of you haven't heard those two little words, "buy me". So being the obedient person I am, I did, not one but two.

So here is beginning as shaky as it was. I can see in the beginning that there were some misplaced holes in my sock, so it was frogged. I knit two at the same time on dpns. I do the cuff on one then move to the cuff of the second sock. Then it's on to the leg and then back to the other sock for the leg. I want a pair of sock done at once. No orphans here!
I got past the funny misplaced holes in the beginning and moved on to the body of the sock. Again I could see glaring errors and one of the socks was frogged back to the cuff when I was shamed by my knitting peers. What went wrong here, I do not know but I do know that it was fixed after many attempts.

I was having one of those "how can I make a photo of my latest project look really good" thought. I was working on the Eye of Partridge heel, which I have never done before. I noticed that there is a subtle pattern developing. I know how to count the rows in my short row heel already but not for this heel pattern. I started looking at it by holding the heel up to the light. I could see a nice diamond shape appearing. I was amused. So this is how it is developing. I have now turned the heel on one sock and am working on the heel of the second sock. Next the gusset. I will have to read that a few more times before I understand how to do it. It's been fun knitting this sock and will plan on knitting another set using this same pattern but a different color right after these. I love the pattern and since I am one for getting stuck in a rut, this new rut will be fun!

A No Knitting Day...
As much as I want to be a sheep farmer, it's not happening living in a large city environment. We live on a zero lot line so there is no privacy unless you spend all your waking hours indoors. Living near a beach is wonderful if you are a fun in the sun sort of person. I am not. I miss trees and I miss the shade with dappled sun light. So we have tried to create a little farm here at the city dwellers house. Yes, this has nothing to do with knitting other than the fact that I was so exhausted from working in the garden, I couldn't get any knitting to speak of done.

The weather here is getting warmer and wetter so we figured it was now or never to get our little city garden planted. Not only did we spend some bucks (I could have spent that money on yarn you know!) but we spent a lot of Mother's Day digging in the dirt. The fruits (really veggies) of our labor should be happening in about ten days. The earth is warming up and so are the temperatures.

A few weeks ago when we were at one of the big box hardware stores, one of my weaknesses came seeping out of me. I just love decorative garden do dads. Last year we used PVC pipes for our climbing veggies. I just couldn't bare to look at those again this year so hubby indulged my need for pretty garden things. We had to amend our soil and when I sent him to the store on Sunday he came back with these. The large one in the back will hold our Snow peas provided we haven't planted them too late in the season. The leaning tower to the left will also have Snow peas. The plants in the front are different colors of bell peppers. We love to grill them!

This bed has more Snow peas, some bush beans, spinach and assorted micro greens. I am never really sure how they will turn out but I keep trying. Last year I had a great crop, but they bolted and I didn't get as much out of the planting as I had wanted. The sticks are to remind me what was planted where. Once they come up the sticks will go. I am hoping that the birds didn't get all my seeds before it rained.
This next bed has another variety of bush beans, cucumbers, squash and of course more Snow peas. Can you tell I like snow peas??

This last bed has a some Jacob's cattle (a bean meant for drying), three different kinds of tomatoes, red and white onions and zucchini. We want to plant more things but will wait and see what comes up. I still have to purchase three or four basil plants and we bought some lavender. I have two plants in the front garden that are really going gang busters so I wanted more. I have the lavender because of my wool. I usually get my lavender from a farm NC and this year will be no exception.

I can't help myself with the containers. So here are those plantings. We did more tomatoes and I sneaked in a few flowers too. I am hopeful that my garden will yield wonderful things. As far as knitting it's back to normal. I have made some progress but that's another posting. Enjoy the out-of-doors before it gets too hot!

Laundry Day
I bought the neatest contraption from Ikea over a year ago, but have never used it. I actually bought two; one for me and one for my mom who never dries her unmentionables in the dryer. I have yet to send one to her but I broke out mine for laundry day. I like the fact that some really smart person came up with Superwash Wool. I am not big on hand washing my knitted items. Frankly I am just too lazy. There it is on the table. So washing my hand made socks in the washing machine and drying them in the dryer is great for me. Having said that, I just love this new toy.
This is the cutest thing to dry your socks or knee highs on. I have used it for my wool socks to try it out. It worked great, but there is a problem. We are not allowed clothes lines in our subdivision so it's hard to find a place to hang my Octopus for drying. I don't think that hooked on the branch of a tree is a good idea with breeding pairs of robins and doves looking for nice soft things to line their nest with. I don't want to have a theft of my socks. Since we don't have a rod running down the middle of our shower, there really isn't anywhere to hang these to dry. The only problem I have found with this sock dryer, is the hook is a bit too small. So I will try some new places to hang my socks safely.
Here is the shot that shows all the socks I have made since learning how to make socks. I laid down on a wet bag of compost to get the "art" shot. It reminds me of Spanish moss hanging from the trees in the south.


Here is another lay on the wet bag of compost shot. Now they just look like tube worms.


Here is the last shot of the socks. Now I guess I can give my MIL the socks that I knit for her in Jan...maybe later.