Sock-ret Pal questionnaire!

Being a sock addict and loving secret pal exchanges I of course had to sign up for this! I love it! I'm looking forward to start sending stuff!

I'll be linking to this questionnaire so my pal can easily visit it in the future.


The basics:
How long have you been knitting? Since I was 5 years old or so, when my mother learned me. I picked it up again 2 years ago to knit scarfs for Christmas for my family, and it went from there!
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? Though I haven’t been knitting socks for that long (about 1.5 years) I can knit socks pretty easily and have knit about everything out there, from fairisle to lace. I will be trying intarsia soon for a pair of socks! The more complex the sock the more I like it!

The measurements:
While your pal may ask for some additional info to ensure a great fit, please provide your shoe size, or any other fitting related info you think is pertinent. I have a EU shoe size 37, which is a US6. I have quite thin ankles but heavy calves (there’s a 12cm difference between the biggest part of my calves and the smallest of my ankles!). I have fine feet as well and I like my socks to snug fit around the foot. If you need more info just let me know!

(fiber related) Favorites:
What colors do you love? Dark red/burgundy, purple (all variations), eggplant/plum, moss green, autumny browns/reds, black, dark blue, pink
Do you prefer solids or variegated? both
What fibers do you most love to knit with? I knit with everything! But for socks I prefer fingering/sock yarn
Who do you consider your favorite yarn vendors? Hard to say, anything from the US would be fine. I like smaller vendors like Hello Yarn and such. I also like Lorna’s Laces and Socks that Rock, and I don’t have much of the latter! (I have quite easy access to all the German sock yarns so I would prefer not to get those).
What projects (other than socks, of course*S*) do you most enjoy knitting? Lace, Scarfs, gloves/mittens

(fiber related) Dislikes:
What fibers can you not stand to knit with? To wear? I’m a bit bored with pure mohair as I have a lot of that, and I don’t really like pure cotton for socks except if like Cascade Fixation. I love any wool as I’m always cold!
What colors would you never wear? Yellow, Orange, anything Neon

The Tools:
Plastic or Metal? Bamboo or wood? Metal really, I don’t seem to get around liking bamboo or wood
Circs or Straights? Circs, I use them for about all my knitting!
DPNs or Magic Loop? Magic loop most of the time, though I occasionally like DPNs
Are there any knitting accessories you don't have in your collection but would like? A yarn cutter (you know, one of those things you can take on the plane), one of those row counters you just have to push to go up a row, something to put on the points of my circulars, ... there might be more I can’t think of right now

The Extras:
Do you have a wish list? If so, please share the link! I have one on Amazon Uk, email me if you want it
Do you like sweet, sour or salty? (or all of the above? *S*) I don’t eat a lot of sweets at all, you don’t really do me a favor by sending me any.
Do you have any allergies your pal should know about? (Certain foods, smoke, pet hair, etc) No allergies, but I hate the smell of smoke (cigarets and cigars, sorry guys)
Favorite scents? Scents you can't stand? Favourites are Vanilla and Lavender –if it’s not to strong- and Camomilla, but there is no real smell I don’t like. Not to flowery though.
Do you collect anything (other than yarn and knitting toys of course)? No active collections at the moment
When is your birthday? (month and day is fine!) July 3rd (so far far away)
Do you spin? Dye your own yarn? I do both, I love spinning and I’m addicted to dyeing my own yarn, but I can really appreciate a good dye job by others!
Your favorite author/band/vacation spot, anything you think will help your pal know you better... I like a lot, I’m easy to please! I like to read, I like female voices when it comes to music, Spain still is my favourite spot though I hope to visit Scandinavia and Canada soon!

Socks!

It's all about socks now! :D Yeah, I never seem to loose my addiction to knitting socks (and buying sock yarn! :D). I just love it so much. It's a portable and quick probject and I love wearing them.

So here's an update on the finished socks (I wanted to post about the gazillion unfinished ones too, but I didn't get pictures taken, so that's for the next time).

First of all, those finished in August :



Yarn : Fortissima sock yarn (don't know the other stats and I don't think I still have the label)
Needles : 2mm addi turbo
Started/finished : don't remember when I started them, finished them at the start of August

These are regular stockinet socks with a picot edge. These were my "movie socks". Don't have any new movie socks yet! I added a bit of calf shaping as I'm still not sure how many stitches to cast on for socks on 2mm needles, but I'm getting there. I also have quite heavy calves and thin ankles, so that sais the most! I love wearing these socks!






Yarn : my own handdyed regular sock yarn, in pinks
Needles : 2mm addi turbo
Started/ended : both in August, don't remember much more.

The heel on these is a bit to short (I want them to come higher on my ankles), but apart from that these are perfect socks! I should have started knitting anklets sooner!



So that's for August. Then the September pairs :




Yarn : my regular sock yarn (arnell I think, both colours are left-overs)
needles : 2mm addi turbo
Started/ended : started late august, ended last week or so

I love these socks! The stripes are so nice and they fit perfectly! And they were so much fun to knit! I just made a huge mistake on one of the heels, you can see that quite nicely when I don't wear them, but I was to lazy to fix them. I got my short row heels all going again now, so that's ok! More of these to come! (Maybe even regular socks).





Sock Wars socks

Yarn : Schachenmayr Extra 100% superwash merino
Needles : 3.75mm addi turbo
Started/ended : started Sunday Sept. 24, finished today Sept. 26

It's an easy pattern with DK weight yarn, but I don't like knitting socks this thick. That's why it took me so long to finish them, because I had to put them down as they were to boring. Glad they are done. I like the principle of the Sock Wars but I can honestly say I hope I don't make it any further then this, 'cause I just don't have the time and energy to do this right now. I do hope my pal likes the socks. They are flying to the US tomorrow.


So that's it for finished socks for now! I have a few more to show, hopefully over the weekend. I'm having 3 very full days of work ahead of me and I'm getting tired even thinking of it. But I'm getting used to it.

Now I leave you with one more picture. Last Friday I took the day off from work to go to a big craft fair here in Belgium (in Mechelen). I wasn't hoping to much yarnwise, till I spotted this little stand with lovely yarn. It was Klazien's Kreatie, which I first saw mentionned at Saartje's blog. I checked the website out then, but waited with ordering. Imagine my surprise to see this lovely yarn in person! I couldn't resist and took quite a bit home. Now I am going to order more, as I had no idea how much to take home for a sweater or so. This is what I got :




The smaller skeins are merino/nylon blend and will become socks. The big pile is Shetland wool and will become a nice scarf with some intarsia!

I did buy other stuff, but I'm not going to show it now. More sock yarn, some stamping supplies, some glue. Nothing big though.

For my SockretPal, I'll be posting my questionnaire soon!

What the postman left here ...

... the last couple of weeks/months.

As I haven't updated properly in a while now I decided to start with this. The postman has been quite busy the last couple of months. Mostly with things I ordered. But also with lovely gifts. So here you go, a view of everything :


First of all, the Yarn Aboard II box!! I signed up for both boxes and was the first to recieve one of the sock boxes!! Totally exciting!





This is how I first saw it!! Amanda the boxes look so nice!




And all this was inside : Socks that Rock yarn in the most gorgious colourway, Lovely sock patterns, 2 notebooks, some lavendar handcream, and Kool-Aid! Wauw, amazing! I can't wait to start using that yarn, it's my first skein ever!!


The box went off again, but before it flew out I took this picture :




Now Amanda asked us to take a picture of the box with something typical for our country. Well, in my case, there are 3 things in this picture. First of all, rain (hard to see, but it was pooring down), which is so typical for Belgium. If you ever come to visit here, no matter what season, make sure to bring rain stuff! Then there's chocolate, very typical for my country. And last, there's the building materials in the background. A typical knowledge of Belgians is that they all want to own their own house, no matter what, and we have the saying that "every Belgian has a rock in his stomach".

Hope this is ok Amanda!



Then, next arrived my "Whose lace is it anyway" package from Janice (need to look up her blog, will edit this later).




This package was simply amazing! I got 3 skeins of Zephyr yarn (which I love!), 2 skeins of Rowan Kidsilk, 2 lovely patterns, some sweet stitch markers and a lovely knitting bag! Can't wait to use it all! Thank you so much Janice!


Then last was a package through a swap. I sent Lois some Phildar magazines and she sent me these lovely japanese magazines! Thanks Lois, if you ever want to swap again just let me know!

Next up, the socks I'm knitting! All for now!

Look who's back!!

Yes she is!! She's back home! After 5 days of going from one place to another she was finally so exhausted we could track her and catch her. She was about 10km from here, but must have done about 80 or so!

Like I said she didn't let someone catch her. The whole morning people chased her and all, but only my boyfriend could get her. She was mentally exhausted though. Many people told me she had a very sad glance in her eyes. She might have been giving up about finding us. So sad. But she's home now!

She's not skinny or anything, she knew where to find food. Her feet are worn though, showing all the miles she did over those 5 days.

Thank you all so much for the prayers and the good thoughts! I can't tell you all how happy I am! I just took the picture above and am now off to spend more time with her!

THANK YOU!

Ps.: More updates in the coming few days as I'll be staying home with my sweetie!

My sweet dog is still lost ...

My girl is unfortunately still not found. I still have a little hope left that she'll return to us, but it has been 3 full days this afternoon and our hopes are getting very low. We want her back so much and we just can't imagine she won't be here anymore. I keep thinking ofher like she's here, like she is around.


We've contacted every possible network and official instance. We even got it published in a newspaper. One that's free on Sunday, but apparently a lot of people take it with them in the morning and read it, 'cause we got a lot of reactions out of this. It was also showed on tv, on of the biggest stations in Belgium. It was more related to the theft of breed dogs, but still, it was shown. And it was mentionned on several radio stations.


We got a few good tips yesterday that she was in a city about 25km from here. It's very possible and she's a hunting dog with a huge amount of energy.

But after searching extensively for 2 days we still haven't found her and we miss her like hell.
Yesterday I also contacted a lady in the Netherlands who speaks with animals. I really do believe in something like that. She'll be sending my sweet girl energy, and gave me some information to do so myself. I've been trying to "reach" my girl for the last couple of days already, telling her to come back to me.


I want to thank you for all the support. Please keep thinking of her, and if you believe in this, send her some energy. If she really is still out there she might need the energy to come home.
Another pic of her beneath. I miss her so much ...

Lost

I'm so sorry but I don't think I'll be around any time soon. Yesterday I got home to find out my dog was missing. My greatest companion, my biggest friend, the only good friend I have (I never had much friends). My only knitting companion. So I don't feel like knitting at all. I've cried non stop. She was 2, the best dog one could imagine, and as far as I know someone took her from me. I'm sure I'll never see her again and I just can't take this.

If you pray, please pray she'll come back to me. I know there are more important things, but please, I need her so much!

I'm so sorry ...