What a wonderful week this has been! I told my boss that he must be crazy to go away and close the office and leave me with an entire week at home. It gives me a little taste of retirement and I like it WAY too much! In addition the weather was gorgeous. On Thursday, my husband’s birthday, we drove to Keystone and walked on the ferry over to Pt. Townsend. On the drive down, only about a mile from our house, we passed a field and saw SIX bald eagles sunning themselves on the ground! It’s not unusual to see bald eagles, even in the trees around our house, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen that many on the ground.

Coming around the bend to the ferry, we had to pull over to the side of the road and admire the view. The sun was shining and you could look across the fields to the calm waters of Puget Sound with snow capped mountains in the background. Beautiful! Unfortunately, you will have to take my word for it. Like complete dummies, we remembered to bring the camera, but left the battery happily charging away back home.

However, I do have at least one knitting pic for you:

The Austermann Step fraternal twin socks are finished. Other than the frustration of trying unsuccessfully to match the stripes, this yarn was such a pleasure to work with. It is so incredibly soft. Do you like my sock blockers? My husband made them for me – I’m so pleased with them. I won’t really use them for washing my socks (stretches out the top rib), but I love them for being able to take pictures.

Last summer was the Summer of Lace and this summer is turning out to be the Summer of Socks. My knitting group wants to do a program on socks in October and yours truly has been appointed the fearless leader. I think I want to concentrate on free patterns off the net. I would like to knit as many of them as I can, and with my current sock yarn stash I should have no shortage of materials. Here’s the plan:

More Fun than Cables by Marguerite out of Knit Picks Essential (already finished).

Old Shale Two, once again by Marguerite. Knitted and given away so will have to do again with yarn to be determined.

Lizzies Lacy Ribs by Debi. Already started out of Regia Cotton. Scroll down on her sidebar for a list of her patterns.

Rob’s Twined Rib Socks, also by Debi. Not sure about these. I love the pattern, but would need to find some Sport Weight sock yarn. Any suggestions?

Broadripple socks, by Rob Matyska out of Lorna’s Laces.

Pomatomus by Cookie A. out of Regia Silk. As long as I don’t have to pronounce it.

Hedera by Cookie A. out of Regia Silk.

Mini Basketweave Toddler Socks by Marguerite out of scrap worsted.

I will also include several socks already knitted from my own generic top down pattern.

That’s the tentative schedule. I do have to look through Sock Bugs patterns and may substitute one of those. That gives me six pairs of socks to knit between now and October, not counting the toddler socks, which can be done in just a couple of evenings. Any hints or suggestions will gladly be accepted!