SoS 08 Has Begun .....

I had my empty needles waiting and yarn wound and I was ready to go at 12:01 June 21 for the Summer of Socks 08. This should help me in my 52 Pair Plunge 2 also, since I am behind already in that. I cast on for 3 pair of socks. I need a variety , you know. All three are pretty much mindless knitting (or semi mindless). Given the time of day (or middle of the night) they were started, I needed them to be mindless. Sock knitting then commenced for a good part of the night.
First on the needles was Koigu KPPPM (I don't know the color # as the label is long gone) I won this yarn last year in a knitting contest, or maybe it was 2 years ago, I don't remember. I was supposed to work Saturday night, but was put on call instead. I hate to go to sleep before 2 or 3 in the morning when I am on call, just in case that phone does ring. Well it didn't, and I was up until almost 4 working on these. There is a huge difference on the shades of these two balls of yarn. The one is much brighter than the other. And in the one there is a lot of orange and yellow, where as in the other it is more gold. At first it bothered me, but I am over it now, and I will love wearing them as they are.

Also on the needles, the OnLine sock yarn I got a couple weeks ago. I am making good progress on these too. At first touch I thought this yarn was going to be very similar to the Regia Cotton Surf (which I like), but it is not quite as thick or soft. It isn't as rough to work with as the Sockotta but doesn't have as much give as I would like. This is the Beach color. Just a plain stockinette stitch sock, it will no doubt go in the van for the emergency knitting while waiting for kids.... And I will have a lot of that in the next few weeks, as they have all started new vials at the allergist and need to go more frequently to get back up to maintenance dosing for their allergy shots.

The other one I started, was the other ball of OnLine in the Africa color. I am knitting this one in the Tiger Sock pattern. It is a fairly quick and mindless knitting pattern, but not so boring as stockinette. Anyway, I hope to have 3 pair of socks finished by the end of the week and 2 or 3 more cast on.

I got some yarn from TLE too. I am not sure if this is a yarn that is a short time offering, or just what the story is with this. I haven't seen it anywhere else and I didn't even see it on the Cherry Tree Hill site when I looked last. It is called Summer and is a Merino/Cotton/Acrylic blend. The color is Little Boy Blue. I will have to wind this so it is ready to go when I get one of the other pair finished. More summer socks!!!

Friday also brought the first clue for the Casablanca Kal ( I think sign ups are closed for this group now, but I am not sure) I don't know what possessed me to join another shawl KAL . I have a terrible track record with them as I have not finished even one of them so far. I have even frogged one to use the yarn for something else. The plan was to use some lace wt yarn I have had in my stash for years. Did I end up doing this .... well of course not. I ordered some Dream in Color Baby in the Deep Sea Flower color. Oh my !!!! I love this yarn. I have knit with the Smooshy and liked it, but this I love. I am sad that I don't get another clue until Friday. I am hoping that the love of this yarn will keep me on track with this KAL. I will have to buy some 3.75 Addi Lace needles though, the regular Addis are driving me crazy with the knit togethers. It was a very short first clue. I am knitting mine sans beads, I am just not much of a bead person, although I love the ones I have seen with beads. I really hope this weeks clue will be longer, so I can enjoy this wonderful yarn longer.

I think that is it for knitting. It is sunny here today, things are drying out. The Hospital is getting a Mobile Emergency Room set up, so they will be able to have emergency service again. I think it will be several weeks before the entire hospital will be able to open again as they sustained a lot of damage in the flood. We have continued to have thunderstorms off and on throughout the last week but nothing like 2 weeks ago. These sunny days are most welcomed. I hope the weather is good where you are too!!!!

Have a great week!!!!

Hey .....I screamed UNCLE

......But it fell on deaf ears I fear. What a weekend. I know I have been whining about the rain for quite awhile now, but really, enough is enough. We got flooded this weekend. Something like 10 inches of rain in 12 hours or some insane amount. This weekend was my nephew's wedding. It was about 200 miles south of here. Just the girls and I were going, the boy child and DH decided to stay home. I planned to leave about 1 1/2 hours earlier than needed as there are 2 yarn shops within 3 miles of where the wedding was..... I have my priorities straight here.... right?? So, as we are approaching the interstate there is a little news blurb stating several sections of 65 are closed due to flooding. I am heading south, and the closings are about 2 miles north so I continue on, but call my sister and let her know that if I hit high water, I am turning around. We got there without trouble, except for all the road construction which drastically ate into my yarn shopping time ( My 1 1/2 hour was shortened to about 20 minutes, who can yarn shop in 20 minutes??) I did however stop at KnitWitts Yarn Shoppe just long enough to get directions to where I needed to be. They were all very friendly and helpful and the shop is wonderful, what I got to see of it. I may just have to schedule a trip down there for a yarn crawl. I didn't get to make it to the second one The Village Knitter which was a little east of where we were heading. Anyway, back to the weather. As we are sitting in the reception hall, DH calls and says he and the boy child went to see Ironman (again) and found themselves stranded on that side of town. The flood waters rose so rapidly they could not get across town to return home. He said "don't even try to come home" the interstate is closed and there is no way into town. He and the boy child managed to get to a hotel for the night. I was feeling a little panicked, which is unusual for me. I am generally very laid back and don't worry about too much, but for some reason I had to at least head toward home. So we left after the dancing began. We drove for about an hour and was told by DH to stop driving and find a place to stay for the night. I am glad we stopped when we did, I didn't think about everyone else doing the same thing. We stopped at several hotels before we were able to find a room. After a sleepless night for me ( the girls slept like logs) I was ready to go. DH calls and says the roads are still closed but they should be opening soon, "just stay where you are until check out time". In the mean time the toilet in the room overflows ( I can't get away from high water it seems) They were nice about it and put us in a different room, but I really wanted to go, so we headed north. By the time we approached home the interstate was open and all was well we got home safely. But boy is there a lot of water everywhere. We will definitely be keeping all the displaced neighbors in our prayers. So many people we know have lost their homes or suffered severe water damage. We were very fortunate and suffered no damage. My brother's house had water right up to up to the house, but none came in. And my sister, (mother of the groom), was fortunate also. The Hospital suffered a lot of damage and evacuated all the patients. It is now closed for an indefinite amount of time. And the headlines today: Thunderstorms and flash floods are in the forecast.

How about some knitting. My youngest was so sweet, when we got to the hotel and settled in, she brought me my knitting and said, "here mom, you need to relax a bit" Oh, they know me well. I have finished a few socks, not pairs, but they will be soon. This one is knit in ShibuiKnits in the Marine color. I love this yarn. It is soft, it has a lot of "sproing" And is just really nice to work with.

The next one is knit in Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in yellow.

I am close to finishing the second one of this pair.

And I finished one in some Louet Gems in the Linen Grey color. This pair is for the driving daughter (who by the way would not help me drive this weekend). I have started a pair for myself in this design in the Pagewood Farms River Rock color. I will post a picture of it when I have more knit on it.

And in the mail from SSYC from the SALE section (there is a lot of nice yarn in the sale section, go check it out) I got some OnLine sock yarn. The wool/nylon blend feels like Opal and the cotton/wool blend feels like Regia Cotton Surf, both of which I like. I was hesitant to order more of the OnLine sock yarn since the only other one I had purchased was the Highland, and I really didn't like it. I didn't like knitting it and I don't like wearing them, but these are both to my liking : )

That is about it for today, I must go buy some water as we are on a boil water alert. I hope they are not sold out all over town. Have a wonderful week all!!!!!