I was in the washroom at the Mariposa Folk Festival office, too much information I know, but I saw this:  photos, lots of them, . . .

. . . glued on the wall all around the big mirror.

Is that a great idea or what! Imagine all your family photos or even your knitting project photos up as a collage. I could have a sock wall and then a sweater wall and . . . it bloggles the mind.

-Deb

I have been knitting socks pretty much full time, at least all my knitting time has been spent on socks. Two more done for size 11 feet. Lots of stitches.

My husband said they felt great on, even in the summer heat. So he'll get these (I'm a sucker for a few kind words) after they get photographed. I may have to get him to model them too.

But I'm not the only one knitting away. My mom has knit several pairs and Brenda sent me some more socks in the mail.

Fun ones too. Thanks Brenda.
I think I have 3 more socks to knit. I bet you can't wait to see them. Ha.
But I do have a life outside of socks and here's proof. My dad, my husband and I built a deck last week.

Yes, there are tools other than knitting needles. Who knew!
-Deb

Now it's back to the socks. I bet you can't wait to see some more. Here they are.

My mom knit these. With two daughters in the knitting business I guess she can't avoid being pulled into the fray once in a while. She's been a great sport about putting her own knitting aside to get a couple of pairs of socks done for me. Thanks Mom.

And Brenda sent a pair for the little people.

Aaah, aren't they cute? I see from her blog she has another sock ready to mail to me. I have 2 more packages of socks from her at the shop I haven't opened yet. Oh, boy more socks.
-Deb

Cat Bed?

I've been trying to work on a stole .... but Emmy thinks it's her new cat bed. I can't put it down for a second without her climbing right onto it for a snooze. Something about the combination of Silk & Silver, fine mohair and a merino/angora blend? This cat has good taste!

The blue item in the front is a new lace shawl from Sophy which I'm test knitting in our Silk & Silver which I've dyed in a combination of purple, blue and turquoise. 

- Lynda

The mistake sock is forgotten (except that I just mentioned it so it's really just pushed into the back closet of my head). This one is going so very well.

It feels right, the end is in sight and it's almost knitting itself. I love this. 

-Deb

I am, if I say so myself, a good rescuer of knitting projects. In my drop-in class I often spend the first half hour fixing up any misadventures my students have gotten into over the week. This is not because I read a lot of knitting articles, although I do, this is not because I get some sort of inspiration from the knitting god indicating where the problem may be, I wish, it is because I have made every single mistake anyone can come up with. And with a deadline coming up I've made a whole sock totally the wrong size! Well not exactly the wrong size but a combination of sizes. The finished sock has the width of leg for a woman, the width of foot for a woman and the length of foot for a man. It was meant to be a man's sock. duh!

I have no idea where my brain was when I cast on. I know what gauge I get with this yarn, I know that cables pull the sock fabric in and still I cast on way too few stitches. I wondered why it looked like I was going to have yarn left over from the 50g ball when I should have had to go into a second ball to finish a man's sock with a long leg. Sigh, denial is a grand thing. So I have started again with 18 sts more than last time. And I am going to rip back the toe and several inches of the finished sock and make it a woman's length because I'm really good at ripping and redoing things. No one, except you, will know the difference.
-Deb

Elizabeth asked what my secret is for getting so many socks done. The secret is a DEADLINE. Yup, end of the month all the socks go to the photographer. We have variations on the 3 basic sock patterns in the book. So first I have to have one sock for every variation and then I can add some more because . . . there are so many more stitch patterns I could add in !!
One more sock - done.

My husband had it on for a minute but not enough time to catch him with the camera. My camera is working, sort of. I jammed a toothpick into the side of the shutter so it stays open. Sooner or later my lenses is going to get scratched but it's lasting a little bit longer.

-Deb

The pile of socks grows larger.

And by tomorrow I will have 2 more to add. A baby sock which Brenda mailed to me today and a mock-cable sock I plan to finish tonight. I'm definitely back in the sock groove. After knitting a chunky sweater the first couple of socks were a bit of a shock to the system, going from a 6.0mm down to a 2.25mm needle is extreme. But now the new normal is the 2.25mm needle and I'll probably have a sock on the needles until into the fall now. Socks are so wonderful because of the diverse stitch patterns which can be worked into them. A simple traditional sock and a stitch dictionary and I am happy to knit for months. Although I have been informed today that I need to knit 2 toddler sweaters in between the socks. Variety is good too.

-Deb

It's been quite a week. Our community work came to it's culmination this weekend. We have been working all year towards the big Mariposa Folk Festival 50 year celebration. And it was fantastic.

Our part was to run the ArtsU education section of Mariposa. We ran 9 classes for 62 students. This is our second year and this constitutes a tremendous success. http://www.mariposafolk.com/index.php?show=artsu
And wouldn't you know it, my camera choose this weekend to totally tank on me! So here are some photos from last year  http://www.mariposafolk.com/index.php?show=16&gid=107 . Many of these students returned this year.

Mariposa was terrific and still thriving after 50 years, the last 10 years in it's place of origin, Orillia ON where I very happily live. The music is wonderful but it's also marvelous because we run into all kinds of people we know, fellow volunteers, towns people and sometimes old friends from 20 years ago (my husband seems to have someone tap him on the shoulder every year and say remember me? this year it was an old working buddy from 25 years ago when they both worked at a youth detention centre - a half hour of reminiscing commenced, and last year it was a young man who used to go to the National Ballet School who is now all grown up but still recognized paul who was residence head). It's amazing to realize how many people we know who are involved in this huge enterprise which comes off every year entirely run by volunteers. Amazing. http://www.mariposafolk.com/index.php?show=219

As I said My Camera Tanked!! The last couple of photos I got were of the latest socks off the needles.

This is in DK weight wool (Shelridge Farm) and it's gorgeous on my foot, you'll have to take my word for it.

And a sock weight wool sock, hand-dyed by Lynda, which came out beautifully. I'm working on my next one, a man's size mock-cable sock which I cannot show you, boo hoo. I guess I need to go camera shopping.

-Deb

I got this far with the red sock on the drive up to the cottage. Nice plain knitting.

That gives you some idea of how far we drive to get there. Although we live in cottage country (north of Toronto) we drive 4 1/2 hours to our cottage country. I know, weird. And I finished the pink sock. Yay.

I worked a mock cable pattern which is not lumpy at the crossing. It has a yo before and after the crossing which makes it a little lacy. So then on the foot I thought I would try to close the holes and it looks really cable-like. I'm really happy it will make a good men's cable sock.

Now it's hot as blazes here so I'm sitting in front of a fan, knitting socks.

-Deb