It's True What They Say About Photographing Your Own Feet

In a fit of, oh, I dunno, sudden zeal for life, I got up at 8:00am this morning and decided to fit my entire day into three hours. I had to work at an expo this afternoon, so my regular Saturday morning activities needed to be condensed.

I managed to shower, dress, fart around with my very frustrating hair (I desperately need it cut, but I want to get it done by my friend who lives in NB. It's a 4.5 hour drive to go home, and I can't see that I'll be able to afford gas for that trip any time soon, so I'm putting it off until we all convert to hydrogen fuel. I pride myself on being realistic.), iron some clothes, get dressed and then, here's the best part - TAKE MY KNITTING OUT FOR A PHOTO SHOOT.

So, I'm standing out there with an armload of knitted items and my neighbour is outside, piling wood. I said, "ML, You're going to think I'm nuts. I'm taking photos of my knitting for my website."

She laughed and said, "Hey - you do what you've got to do. We're all artists over here - we understand."

I pulled out my Basic Cabled Sock made with Opal handpainted yarn and proceeded to curse the fact that it is indeed hard to take a photo of your own feet, or foot, in this case. It's not hard to take the top of the foot photos, it's trying to get the side view with the cables and the short row heel and all that.

So, I'm out there, on the lawn, hopping around so as to not dampen my sock with the morning dew on the grass and my neighbour is observing the whole thing. She assesses the situation and says, "Maybe you could prop your foot on the log." So, I hopped over to the collection of logs on my lawn - we have four sections of the tree we chopped after hurricane Juan still sitting on our lawn. I call them the art installation. Really, we're just so bad at getting rid of crap in our yard, we're lucky that the neighbours haven't complained to the city about us. Oh yes, I can organize my clothes in the closet by colour, but I can't be bothered to mow the lawn on a regular basis... but I digress, here's the sock, which I have been referring to as my cankle sock:

What I really like about this photo, is that if you look closely at my leg, you can see some leg hair glistening in the sun. You can also see that I have absolutely no hint of a tan. My diabolical plan to remain as pasty white as possible, despite the lure of the sun and its warming UV rays, has worked yet again this year. What I'm really hoping is that you don't notice the cankles.

Seriously, though, I love this sock. I've already cast on for the other one and I've got 5 repeats of the pattern done already.
I used Lucy Neatby's short row heels and then, with the help of Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy, I knit a short row toe with a zig zag bind off. I love how the heel and toe are kind of squishy. A thank you to Brainylady for the lovely pattern and to Claudia for the reference she made to the Simple Socks book ages ago.

Moving on...

I know these don't look like much, but those of you who have been reading this blog since last December will recognize these as another pair of Fuzzy Feet slippers. These are for my beloved husband. I had intended these as a gift for his birthday. In May. Ok, so they might be a little bit late. He hasn't finished painting the shed like he promised me. We're about even, I figure.

This,

Is the completed, but not seamed, Molly bolero for my youngest niece. Debbie Bliss is a woman after my own heart. Her patterns tell you exactly how many rows to knit. None of this "Knit for 20cm" crap. My inner anal retentive is so excited about Debbie that she's planning to organize the pantry cupboard in celebration. I love it.

You will start to sense a theme in a moment...

This is the beginning of a blanket for my cousin's unborn baby boy. The unborn baby girl will be getting a matching blanket in orange. I'm using Rowan All Season's cotton from Tangled Skeins. It was on sale for 70% off. Say it with me: "Suh-WEET!" Can you figure out why the girl is getting orange? Because there isn't any Pink ASC for the sale bin. Ok, there was one skein.

Do you see the theme yet? No? Let's see another photo, Jimmy...

This is yarn for a prize that I promised to someone ages ago and due to my horrible relationship with Canada Post (hey, they never bring me packages anymore), I haven't managed to get this into the mail. I am a horrible correspondent in this regard. This is the EXACT reason my name will NEVER appear on one of those Secret Pal swaps. I SUCK at mailing things. You know, I think it's b/c I used to LOVE going to the mail in my hometown. I knew everyone in the line up... we all had a nice chat, I dropped off or picked up my parcels and it was all very much like a Christmas gathering, but without the disappointment of gift wrapped sweat socks or the turkey dinner. Now, I don't know anyone there, they take my parcel, they don't chat with me, no one knows my name... It's kind of like, oh, I dunno. I'm too tired for analogies now. Linda - this is for you - it's Lucy Neatby's Celestial Merino. You can use it to make the travelling vines lace shawl from Dogs Steal Yarn. Or, you can make very luscious socks with it. Yum.

Have you picked out the theme yet? Yes, it's blue. I didn't realize it until I had everything spread on the lawn.

Tonight, in a fit of needing to share, I told my uncle about the blog. Hi uncle K. My auntie had expressed interest in seeing photos of my knitting... no snorts of laughter please, I do post the occasional photo... so I figured this would be the best way for her to see them. And to get some sort of commentary on what I'm doing. My auntie is very interested in learning to knit, so auntie K, here's you're first tip - sometimes, it's not about the knitting... it's about the friends you make along the way... from the LYS (Local Yarn Store) owner to the ladies who visit the shop... or the lovely ladies who visit your blog... Right gang?

On that note... for your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of photos from the fence between my yard and the neighbour's I took this morning. My neighbour planted the sunflowers and I planted the morning glories. The morning glories are actually climbing up the sunflowers all along the fence.

Look at that sky and the sunlight. That's a Canadian fall sky. Crisp and clean. It felt like fall out there tonight.