Still crawlin' along

With any luck, the Schnecken mittens' pattern will be released tomorrow (Almost typed "demain." That happens sometimes.)Keep those fingers crossed!

And after that, it's full speed ahead with those Gnome Socks:
(...and Clerkenwell.)

Surprise!

I was at home this morning, happily spending some quality time with no less than three new socks/mittens (left to right, that's the Gnome socks, the Flamittens and Clerkenwell,)when a mail carrier knocked on my door and handed me an oversized parcel from Knit Picks. I assumed that this must be the book and needles that I had recently ordered from them, but...well, isn't this box a little too large for just one book? Hmmm...

It turns out I was right to doubt the contents of the package, because I was hardly expecting to open it to find this:Samples of each new Fall 2010 colourway of Knit Picks Palette to play with! Let me tell you, the new colours are gorgeous!

I hardly knew what to make of it! Neither did Bubo...and Schnecke (have you met Schnecke yet?) was overwhelmed, to say the least!It is all so lovely and the fact that it was a surprise makes it doubly so. Thank you so, so much, Kelley and Stacey! I will definitely put the yarn to good use.

Strawberry Socks are out!

It's all true:There are socks, they have strawberries on them, and you can now make a pair of your very own! Get it here on Ravelry, and expect it to turn up in my Etsy shop sooner or later (the ol' Etsy shop is long overdue for a massive re-stocking.)

As the construction is simple and so is the strawberry motif, these socks would be a good first project for someone who is new to colourwork and/or fancy socks.

And now I'm off to work on some Gnome socks, and some Clerkenwell socks, and yet another pair of socks. Oh, and NEW mittens -- wait 'til you see THEM. This is multi-tasking at its finest.

I leave you with what I'm sure will be the first of several What-I-Did-On-(one of)-My-Summer-Vacations photo-tidbits. This is the mug that haunted me in NYC each day as I enjoyed my tea at Birch Coffee: Not exactly the piece of china that one would like to be greeted by each morning after one had recently heard the story of Lucy, as I had.

Home and away and back again

It's official -- The Garden is Bigger than All of Us. The peppers are especially prolific (and photogenic):Those are Super Chili (remember them?), Cayenne, Serrano, Jalapeno and Hot Portugal peppers. Someone may have gotten a little bit carried away in the hot pepper section of the garden centre.

There are also all kinds of interesting people to meet out in The-Bigger-than-All-of-Us Garden, such as this Fellow (Lady? I never can tell with bugs):
Hello! You have lovely beady-looking compound eyes, Mr./Ms. Mantis!

In knitting news, progress continues on the Strawberry socks:I'll also have you know that we are mere days away from their pattern release.

Progress has also begun on Clerkenwell, the new socks for Gentlemen:I've decided that just about everything looks three times better when it's photographed at Czehoski. Oh, and I kinneared Mick there (it was my first time):What a charming little place...and the fact that it's a mere three doors down from Romni Wools? You Torontonians really are fortunate.