Sock Curse

I never thought i would be the recipient of a curse. But it seems I am. A fully-fledged disabling Sock Curse.

The story so far...

I have some pretty German sock yarn. Tweed Sockengarn.

Looks innocent enough doesn't it?

I have a pattern. From Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

I've started the Fancy Silk Sock but this is all I have to show after casting on and working the cuff 6 times

I've prayed to all relevant deities, and made the appropriate offerings. At this stage it seems I have displeased the Knitting Deities....and I suspect it has

something to do with the weird things the magpies were doing in the garden yesterday. I know it's a crappy photo (I was taking it through the flyscreen) but I think

you can see the bird and it's suspicious behaviour if you look carefully

if that's not an Accursed behaviour then I don't know what is.

Blizzard!!!!

Really. It's blizzard conditions here today, in fact it's colder than it was during winter, and stormier, and windy-er. The sunflowers were blown almost to pieces, although are holding up with the help of some hastily applied string.

This weather should put an end to the knitting-mockery that has been occurring around here lately, in fact I suspect knitters will be the only ones still alive by the time this cold front has passed.

Last night saw me break the knitting curse and regain my mojo. It took some serious work on my part but I pushed on and bravely purchased some Noro Silk Garden to help me through. I managed to graft the toes on these

socks which have been sitting in the naughty basket for longer than I care to think. The pattern is Nine-to-Five Socks by Nicole Hind, which is available as a free Ravelry download. I used Tofutsies shade 731 from SWTC which is a soysilk/wool and chitin (seashells!) blend. It's a little splitty to work with and there were *gasp* some knots but as it is sooooo soft and delicious to wear I was able to forgive it, which is saying something as I usually don't forgive for knots. I have some doubts about the environmental and social implications of this yarn though, and haven't really been able to find much information about the production processes, so if anyone can help me out there I'd be grateful.

I've also managed to tink back Hey Teach the couple of rows required and am about to recommence work on it.

It's been great to have my mojo back I was missing it, life isn't the same without some knitting to be done.

The garden travels on. The pumpkins are taking over the world, in just a few weeks something that was a little seed is now a couple of metres of life. They are growing so fast I can almost see them grow, and I am spending a lot of time trying to do just that. Its amazing how much time I can spend watching pumpkins grow. The rubbish has been cleared out, which has felt cleansing and invigorating.

My seeds have become seedlings too, and the lettuces and broccoli are almost ready to move out of their safe little nursery in to the big world of the garden bed. We've picked and eaten the first of the greens and herbs. The garden is a bit late with everything as we went away for a few weeks in September and October so I couldn't get anything into the ground until after then.

My chicken plans progress. I am working on the "build it and they will come" philosophy. If I can just get myself a chook house the birds will make their way here.

You may be wondering why a knitting blog shows no signs of actually being, well, a knitting blog. Well, that's because I haven't actually been knitting much lately. Actually I haven't been knitting at all lately. The garden is absorbing all of my creative energy and I just don't seem to have anything left for the kntting.