Remember all those pairs of socks I was contracted to knit? In case you don’t recall, I was actually contracted to knit nine pairs of socks in May of 2010. Since then, I have been devoting a lot of knitting time to getting those churned out and sent off to their rightful owner. But, it’s all coming to an end. I am nearly finished. At last check, I had a foot of one sock and a toe of another to complete.

And, while I expect to get the toe of the second to last pair of outstanding socks done today, I do have some pics of some of the other contract pairs to tide you over.

These are Luminare, made out of Juliespins MCN 560 in Ultraviolet. These took forever to knit, because the yarn is no thicker than a heavy lace weight, but in the end, I think they are stunning and I will be sad to send them off.

These next socks were a real treat to knit. They practically flew off the needles. Knit in Bugga, which is one of my favorite yarns to knit with as it is the perfect balance between soft and sproingy, they are beautiful and functional as well. The pattern is a basic Feather & Fan, but it looks so pretty in this semi-solid.

Honestly, I can’t wait to get finished with these and send them out into the World. They have been a huge undertaking. Although, I do have to say, I was able to knit with a number of yarns I had never knit with before and that was a real plus. I now know which yarns are keepers and which yarns I will be passing on in future.

And really, it’s all about the process, right?

It’s the Dead Fish hat from Knitty. I knit this hat out of some scrap Malabrigo and some hand spun that I had lying around and I think you will agree, it turned out great.

She really seems quite taken with it. And I am just thrilled that we finally have a hat she will wear. Given that it’s currently a trillion degrees below zero, that’s pretty important.

Of course, the side effect to making one really great hat? Monkey wants one too. Stay tuned.

And, I have been slogging along on these in between some other light knitting to keep myself sane. I have four and a half pairs left to go. Which is good. But, in the meantime, I have to admit, I get the joy of knitting with yarn I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to get to know. And, I get to decide which yarn makes nice socks and which yarn might not be the best choice for socks.

These socks I finished at the beginning of September and while I loved the pattern, I am not entirely convinced that I love the yarn itself.

Although, I do have to concede that the yarn/pattern combo does make a pretty nice pair of socks. I hope the new owner will agree.

This particular pair were knit with Vesper sock yarn in Monet’s Garden.

And, while the pattern and yarn go well together, I have to admit, I found the yarn a bit thin for my tastes. I think I prefer a sproingier and more full bodied (does that make sense?) yarn.

I know I like me a good, sproingy yarn, because the socks I am knitting right now out of Bugga seem to be the Bee’s Knees. I love them.

But more on that later…

I knit this out of some of my new favorite dyer – Madelinetosh. This is her 80/10/10 MCN sport base in the color Sugar Coated.The pattern is Honey Cowl by Madelinetosh.

I might be a bit biased, but I think its the model/yarn combo that makes it really stunning. Don’t you agree?

Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt

Yarn: Wollmeise 100% merino (Were you expecting anything else?)

We are all busy fighting off colds, making quiche, and going to the park here at chezDarts. Hopefully soon the blogging mojo will be back. Although, I have to say, I think Ravelry might actually be the culprit. Somehow it just seems to suck endless hours out of my day.

Maybe I need an intervention?

What’s kept me away? Work, work travel, and contract knitting.

I knew it was time to cut down on the work travel when TG and I had this conversation two Monday’s ago:

Me: Hi honey. I will be home Thursday night, quite late.

Him: What time is it where you are?

Me: What do you mean? It’s the same time as where you are.

Him: Oh, where are you again? You are gone so often that I can’t keep track of what time zone you are in.

Whoops. Maybe too much travel.

As for contract knitting, this is what I have been up to:

Monkey Socks in Wollmeise Bluebell

and Circle Socks in Wollmeise Teifer See

That’s right, we are headed off to New Orleans for almost Mardi Gras. And, no, despite the title of this blog post, I won’t be showin’ my 38 longs and collecting beads.

We are going for the food, fun, and hopefully we will see a crocodile or two. I will let you know all about it when we get back.

In the meantime, I am thinking of what knitting to pack. See, they have upped the security on flights to and from the US, so, I think metal dpn’s are decidedly out.

I plan to bring my spice market sweater.

and some roundy rounds.

I just finished some of these and I think they will be the perfect project for the trip.

And no, we aren’t taking the kids. That way lies madness. See you on the flip side.

First, the first FO of the New Year to achieve blogworthy status. My new years babe, if you will.

Pattern: Clapotis

Yarn: WM 100% in Maus Jung

Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)

Cast on: Nov 30

Cast off: Dec 30

It will be going off to live with it’s new owner shortly.

I am resolutely not making any New Years goals for my knitting on this blog. I did that last year and didn’t knit a single thing. So, 2010 will be my go with the flow year. Let’s see what it will bring.

Happy New Year everyone!

Case in point – this photo was taken without any light. It took me 20 minutes of fiddling to get it this purdy. Oh, how I long for a proper photo set-up. Have I mentioned this? Maybe not enough.

Va-va-va-voom Red

This was knit with the left over Malabrigo from my red vest. It’s perfect.

I knit a fish. It is also a hat.

Sew Me Up!

The hat is from Knitty’s Winter ’08 issue.  I used left over Malabrigo, handspun, and some other, unidentifiable yarn. It will soon belong to this person:

A Hat for Bunnah

Tonight she told me that Cowboys is a dumb name because they don’t ride cows. She prefers “Horse Guys”. We settled on “Horse Persons”. Wacky is as wacky does, I guess. Hopefully she loves the hat.