Booby Socks!

Yea! They are done and all wrapped up and ready to be delivered this afternoon. I'll give them to Brandon or Ron, to then be passed on to Denise (Ron's wife). Interesting knit, not sure I'll do it again or not. I do have more pink sock yarn intended for Breast Cancer Awareness but I have a different pattern I can use for those. Janel Laidman's Hope Socks from her Eclectic Sole book.

Here they are - Booby Sock by Rosemary "Chappy" Chapman, Yarn Zitron Trekking Sport XXL, needles US 1:

There's spinning this afternoon with more work on the camel. I'll be picking up from Tammy the yak/merino and baby camel top she picked up from Madrona last week. I'm also going to try my hand at teaching someone else a spinning technique. Since my n-plying is fresh in my head, Bobbie thought I could show Tammy how to do it. We have some practice yarn to try out before she jumps into the intended yarn.

I also want to finish a test knit preemie hat for Karen since she handed out the pattern last Wednesday. My only excuse is that I cast on last Wednesday that Booby Socks. ;^) I'll also pick up a sock test knit from Susan. It's one of Cindy's patterns that Susan is going to carry.

Booby Socks Progress

I finished working on sock #1 on Valentines. William was happy because we spent the day watching movies and shows. Okay, not so much on the shows because they were my shows but he was eventually happy to get to watch some movies.

The Zitron Trekking has little white 'hairs' that float out of the yarn and make me think I have Norbert hair on them until I pull it and find out its attached to the yarn. It feels soft yet scratchy. I have hopes that the soak when both are done will help soften them up a bit.

This is the first sock that I've done that the pattern didn't continue down the top of the foot. So the leg seems to fly because of the pattern and the foot just seemed to drag on. This was also my first star toe. I followed the instructions because the 'pull through the last 8 stitches' makes a 'nipple' for the toe tip. I think if I were not following the pattern I'd do a kitchener stitch bindoff.

I immediately strung the beads and then cast on for the second sock so that I can get these done and in the hands of the recipient. They truly are just 'too pink' for me.
Blocking will also take out the pouffy sections that are showing right now. I may have to make some sock blockers to be happy with this sock. ;^)

Chocolate Fest Night & Booby Socks

Brandon and I went to the Whole Foods Chocolate Fest event tonight. $5 each and this is what we got:

* Spinach Salad with strawberries, nuts and housemade dressing - pretty good, just a little too much dandelion greens.

* Shrimp Cocktail (two big ones!)

* Choice of Jamaican Jerk Beef or Chicken Satay with Masa's Pineapple Sesame Sauce, or there was a ginger sauce that Brandon had. I had beef, Brandon chicken. This was just a little too spicy for me, Brandon liked his.

* Chocolate Mole Wings - we each got one little drumette. They were pretty bland.

* Lula's Truffles & Peppermint Bark - yummy!

* Oak Knoll Framboise - raspberry wine. A little dry for my taste but went well if you drank it after the fondue. ;^)

* Chocolate Fondue - chocolate fountain of chocolate that you got to dip angel food cake into or the totally decadent double chocolate brownie chunks. (The brownie dipped in the fondue was actually a little too much for me.)

* Assorted chocolates - (These were called 'truffles') I went for the milk chocolate and they were great. Brandon liked his dark chocolates.

* Lake Champlain drinking chocolate - less thick and rich than Cacao's. Actually drinkable in quantities larger than a shot.

* Adora Chocolate Disks - these are supposed to be calcium supplements. I had the milk and Brandon had the dark chocolate. We both disliked the weird aftertaste they left. Brandon says its like the cheap chocolate you got as a kid at Easter. He's spoiled by the chocolate tasting they do at work - think Godiva and the like.

* Rogue Chocolate Beer Floats - I'm not a huge float fan, not a huge beer fan and so this wasn't that great for me. Brandon is new to the whole beer thing and didn't care for it either. He thought likes floats. ;^)

They also sent us each home with a bag of goodies:
Two Larabar Jocolat mini-bars(chocolate cherry & chocolate hazelnut); Two ThinkThin mini-bars (chunky peanut butter); Two Dagoba blocks - Sambirano (dark chocolate); Two Green & Black's Organic disks (milk or dark chocolate); 1 whole bar of Dagoba chocolate bar (lemon ginger - crystallized ginger with a hint of lemon).

There was a little Passport that we got stamped at each of the stations. It took us about an hour to go around the store and try out the different areas. We brought home some lobster bisque (for me to try out) and a bottle of hard cider (for Brandon to try) and a Belgian raspberry beer (I like Belgian beer). Definitely try it out if there's one near you next year!

Here's the progress I have on sock number one of the Booby Socks:

Frustration is.....

When the DH borrows your camera for the day without telling you the night before that he's taking said camera. Then you go to reach for the camera that should be tethered to your desk via the cable and its not there. So you wander around the house thinking that you spaced out and might have left it somewhere else but you're not finding it there either. It's enough to make a person doubt their sanity.

Finally you call the DH who admits that he has it and to 'trust him' on why he needed it for the day. Sigh. Sure I trust him, I was just going to take a picture of an FO and two WIPs while the daylight was bright. 'Waiting until he gets home' as was suggested just won't work. We have something going on tonight so won't be back home until full dark. Sigh.

So that 'secret' project is all done (the aforementioned FO), I have a good solid 11 inches on the Holding Hands Feeding Ducks Scarf. Cool easy to memorize pattern. I'm not sure though that I'm happy with the smaller needle size. I'm going to do a few test rows with larger needles and see if I like those results more.

I started the 'booby socks' for a co-worker's wife of Brandon's that recently underwent a double mastectomy. I have a good start on the leg and think these will go pretty fast.

I had hopes that we could borrow the beach house for the weekend, but the cousins beat us to the request. I'm contemplating a 'ladies beach retreat weekend' for friends in similar financial constraints and not likely to get away for fun things like this. We could easily sleep five or six people, more if there's air mattresses involved at the beach house. Share groceries and the only other cost for the weekend is the gas down and back. Something to think about....