Last night, the Sharkitect and I woke up to the sound of explosions.  Our neighbors' house was going up in flames.  The family is okay but quite shaken up, as would be expected.  We don't know yet if the house can be salvaged since we assume there is extensive smoke damage.

This is my reminder to count my blessings again.  It's kind of like having another more personal Thanksgiving day almost at the halfway point from the original.  In the mean time, this sample photo of a new project I'm working on will help distract me from this tragic event:

I will be posting a pattern for my entrelac bucket hat soon, if you're interested.  I've made up several versions and the pattern is being tested so it should be available soon.  The version above is made in Knit One Crochet Two TyDy in colorway 265 Hibiscus.  The hat only takes one 100gm skein.

...of my photos today.  I gave him the task of taking pics of my latest pair of hand knit socks and told him to use his imagination.  My photography style is redundant so I thought his perspective could be interesting.  Here's what I got:

(tricked up with Photo Shop)

(up close and personal)

(with props from the yard)

Pattern: Cable Rib Socks (link to Ravelry site may not be accessible to everyone at this time) by Erica Alexander from the book Favorite Socks   Yarn: Trekking XXL (colorway: 145 Shades of Orange)   Needles: US #0 & 1 (I used the Magic Loop technique)

I didn't follow the instructions 100% because I messed up somewhere at the point where I picked up stitches around the heel flap to continue with the side cables.  I also lost count of some of the rows between cable crosses so some are longer/shorter than others.  I'm no perfectionist (I think I say this all the time) so it's not going to bother me.  They turned out nice enough and I love the colorway.  I've dubbed these my Clockwork socks (cuz they're orange--any Kubrick fans out there?)  Anyway, the socks are going to be much more pleasant than the theme of that movie.  

Here are my own boring photos of the socks:

(on my lumpy Duct foot--I guess fake appendages can loose their shape too)

(cables close-up)

(not the socks--just a close-up of the baby Dogwood bloom that was tricked up in the top photo by DS)

~Inner Monologue: Can one use too many parenthesis?  I count 11 pairs in this post.  I may have a record here.~

This is what happens when you let a dog outside after a long day and night of rain.

You can tell by the feet that she doesn't just dig with her nose.  Right now she's having fun running in and out of the doggie door with her squeaker toy.  She's great entertainment.  We won't mention what we'll have to vacuum out of the carpet soon enough.