RedScot's House of Orphans

The orphanage is one sock down.  Its friends have been sad to see it go, but Plum Crumble Jay No.1 has, after a long search through the interwebs, tv appeals, and a lifetime of waiting, found its sibling.

'jaywalkers' by grumperina in a&e 4-ply sock yarn in plum crumble

Yeah, okay, not technically an orphan, but a lovely friend up in Amsterdam wrote to ask how 'the orphans' were doing after I posted about all my single socks in the 'Drumroll' post a few weeks ago, and the name has stuck!  He also, in fact, gave meaning to the lives of all those single socks...  Oh, I have to quote him in full - it made me giggle!

"Hope all is well with you and the orphans (if you just make interracial couples of them, then there’s only one left… introduce the concept of polygamy - and you can just grab any two and wear them together… your single-sock sexual revolution may just remove the stigma of knitting one sock for good!)"

The Single-Sock Sexual Revolution may be something to look in to... later...  SSS?  NO, SSSR, baby, SSSR!

u can haz sibling

I do rather like the simplicity of this Jaywalker pattern - the 2 row pattern repeat is the perfect antidote to some of the complicated, wandering-cably, gazillion-row-repeatly, tear-your-hair-out-in-bunches tricksy patterns that I'm currently working on.  Very sooooothing, in fact.

Talking of tricksy numbers, here's a prime example.  Not soon after Plum Crumble Jay No.2 left the premises, Denim Dancer No.1 arrived at the orphanage door.

'come dancing' by laurie lee in frog hair fibers superwash merino sock in denim

Actually, the only tricksy part was the cuff - a picot edge involving knitting several rows, adding yo's on one row, folding down half and picking up inside stitches as well as current stitches.  And yes, I may have made it sound rather more difficult than it really is, but I was a tad perplexed and ended up with half the cuff looking semi-okay and the other half being twisted to hell and back again!

I must say though, that the pattern repeat is loveliness itself!  I MUST invest in a sock blocker so I can show my darlings off in a better light.

up close and personal

And the yarn... THE YARN!  So soft and smooshy and a JOY to work with.  Enough variation in colour to please the eye, but not so much that the pattern is lost.  Lovely, lovely, lovely!  But that cuff is enough to keep this little one housed at the orphanage for some time to come.

E is for...

Elephant

cake the cpaag nellyphant

(publicity shot)

I promised a post about Cake the Travelling Nellyphant many moons ago, but promptly forgot. Possibly in a fit of oo-shiny. Extremely possibly, in fact.  But today I am pleased to announce that Cake's Time Has Come. [insert suitably trumpety-trump-type fanfare here] 

Well, I suspect that a little background information may be called for...  Or possibly a lot.  How does one begin to tell the epic tale of Cake's travels around the globe?  Why, at the beginning, of course.  (Ugh - sorry about that!!)

Cake came into being at the hands of a lovely person named KnittyBe, a member of the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group on Ravelry.  She called her creation 'Cake' (after the patron-saint-like icon of the CPaAG) and saw that he was good. And cute. And small enough to fit in an envelope. And thus Cake the Travelling Nellyphant was born and was thrust out into the world of men and chocolate.

He left the US last July and arrived chez moi in August for the second leg of his Epic Journey Around The World. (The first leg being a wee jaunt down to Namibia and South Africa!)

cake in and on tour(s)

Yes indeed, Cake made himself at home very quickly and was a perfect house guest.  We spent our time together pretending to be tourists in Tours, playing 'Where's Wally Cake' in the flower market, introducing him to the joys of Nutella, exploring the wine cellars and château in Amboise, and, em... 'sampling' some local liquid produce...

hotel de ville

the american monument
yes, cake was there!

whodathunkit - multicoloured, psychedelic camouflage

hiding in a tree outside the basilica st martin

(he's sitting just above the lowest blossoms...)

come on in - the nutella's lovely

(for scale, cake is roughly 2 1/2 inches tall)

playing at door knockers on the saint hubert chapel door in amboise

examining all stages of the wine-making process

Since France, Cake has visited Denmark, Italy, India, Uruguay, the USA and Canada and there are still many more countries to go. This little guy has probably seen more of the world than most of the folks following his journey!  He was a pleasure to have around!  Even if he did finish off the Vouvray...

This post was brought to you by the letter 'E' for, erm... Nellyphant, and by the number 2 - the number of squares of chocolate I have left after typing this out!

A Wee Bit o' Luck

DS is going into hospital soon for a wee op on her sinuses and as part of a little parcel of good luck, I sent her a black cat.

rare 'jungle' breed

Yes, well spotted.  Not a live black cat.  Which is probably just as well, as I couldn't guarantee that it would:  

1. walk towards her (good luck to come)
   
2. cross in front of her from left to right (good luck),
   
3. not cross in front of her from right to left (bad luck) or indeed
   
4. cross her path at all.  

No, here you will find another example of the 'Lovable Toy' from Marion Edmund's book 'Last-Minute Knitted Gifts'.  I used the the basic overall body shape, then the rabbit head template and changed the ears from long, floppy bunny ones to triangular feline ones.  I added a little pink nose and whiskers, and cut out some cat's eyes from felt and sewed them on.  And then added the toy equivalent of a Dr Who-length scarf!

winner of the 2009 'first-to-blink-loses' staring contest

The kitty is made from Ice Yarns' Short Eyelash sparkly black yarn and the scarf and whiskers are Grignasco Tango in a charcoal marl colourway.  Yes, I know.  Fun fur.  But it does come in useful sometimes, honest!

Drumroll Please...

WOOHOO!  Thank you all for coming over and guessing in the nom-by date competition!  

Here's a list of everyone's guesses:  elin - July 20th 2009; Kristen - February 15th 2010;  Lab Cat - November 1st 2009; Jesh - September 14th 2009; Mary - February 26th 2010; Sloth-knits - August 15th 2009; Heather - 22nd March 2010; Lista - August 17th 2009; Rhionna - March 31st 2010; ZaftigWendy - July 12th 2009; ikkinlala - December 17th 2009; Kat - July 28th 2009; Iron Needles - October 1st 2009; Lorraine - December 7th 2009; itgirl - January 25th 2010 and Kelley - October 24th 2009.

30th January 2010

AND THE WINNER IS:

ITGIRL with her guess of January 25th 2010!

(and the crowd goes wild!)

Congratulations itgirl!  I'll contact you through Ravelry to get your address and then I'll post these little goodies on to you!

In other news, I seem to have developed a rather serious case of Second Sock Syndrome (or SSS to you initiates...)  You think I jest?  Think again, dear readers:

oh dear

Poor little sibling-less babies.  I feel rather cruel, now I've pulled them all out from their respective hiding-places and displayed their oneness-ness to the world.  (Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring these, erm... exclusive singletons together...  I think I hear mutinous mutterings of a murderous variety issuing from my living room...  I think I'll take them further away from the needle case, just to be safe.)

But to allay their fears of falling into nameless obscurity (and to maybe keep them from attempting to keel-hawl me) may I present, starting from bottom left and moving clock-wise: 'Jaywalker' by Grumperina in Angels&Elephants Hand Dyed Sock Wool, colourway Maisie; 'Crooked Cable Socks' by Sockbug in Phildar Phil. Luxe, colourway Nympheas; 'Muscari Socks' by Suzi Anvin in Angels&Elephants Hand Dyed Sock Wool, colourway Pentillie;  'Zombie Socks' by Sheryl Giles in Angels&Elephants Hand Dyed Sock Wool, colourway Maisie; and finally 'Kaibashira' by Chrissy Gardiner in King Cole ZigZag, colourway Heather.

obligatory arty-farty shot in colourway black and white

But that's not all.  I have another 4 socks on the needles, only two of which are actually a mate for any of these poor mites. And no, I couldn't tell you exactly where or what they are at the moment, either...

Oops.