Who is wearing socks anyway?

Has it been quite here again? Yes? Too quite?
That's why.

Someone does not mind me not washing my foot for some days now.
Or wait, does it smell like fish already?

No, I don't type with my right foot but...
That's a partially torn ligament (Everybody assures me that's the best that could happen compared to a fully torn ligament or a simple ligamental strain. Please keep quite on this one because in my opinion, the best would have been, not to twist my ankle in the first place!)
It has been responsible for hours and hours spent in hospital, at doctors and on the phone, trying to be on (paid) sick-leave, and, yes, resting my ankle while observing the invasion of dust bunnies and mysterious multiplication of dirty dishes.

It feels somehow nice though having official approval to spend the days lying on the sofa. I just wish there would be more time for knitting. But there isn't. The pile of reading material is higher than would be healthy resting my foot on.
However, feeling so bad about my Socktober record, I had to cast on for some mindless- knitting-while-reading socks. As so many things take the wrong turn in my life these days, so does this sock.

See, beautiful Socks That Rock yarn in the colourway Scottish Highlands*.
Which is very appropriate because of the weather here, momentarily changing from mild autumn sun to heavy dark rainfalls faster as you can say Socks That Rock in Scottish Highland. Or faster than you can spell p-o-o-l-i-n-g! And the pattern (rpm, knitty.com), although simple, demands for some serious counting. Well... Plan B is therefore the challenge to follow one of the most difficult books I ever read (Tolkien's Silmarillion) in audiobook format and knit (and count, and curse).
Anybody perked up his or her ears when I said Tolkien? Great, because last time it was so very, very helpful to have people commenting on my study work. This time it's a Tolkien seminar and my main concern is an essay on "The Evil of Saruman". You are so very welcome to share your thoughts!

*I really love this yarn, even hand-winding it into skeins. But I was not too happy to find a knot in the hank, hence the small ball in front.

Schnapszahl

I want a boy for my birthday
He doesn't have to be too smart
Just as long as he loves me
And keeps me in his heart
I want a boy to comfort me
And treat me tenderly
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
I want a boy to love
......................................--The Smiths

Events
1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1961 - Berlin Wall: The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
2004 - Adam Curry's first Daily Source Code is created, launching podcasting.

Births
1871 - Karl Liebknecht, German socialist and co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany*
1899 - Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, English film director (d. 1980)
1926 - Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary and politician*

Deaths
1910 - Florence Nightingale, English nurse (b. 1820)
1913 - August Bebel, German social democrat and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany*
1946 - H. G. Wells, English writer (b. 1866)

Other
International Lefthanders Day

* See a theme there, me and the lefties?

You guessed it by now, another important event took place on this day. It's my birthday!
I was planning for weeks to celebrate my birthday at a concert with Morrissey! I was so excited. But then my sister came for visit. And her boyfriend. Who just said Morri..-who? Somehow this ignorant remark, only excusable considering his age, melted my brain. Presumably I nodded to the suggestion of spending the weekend outside Reykjavik and travelling around Iceland instead. They wouldn't take advantage of my temporary unconsciousness that followed this blasphemic confession, wouldn't they?
Well, here you go. Among other things we went to see Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon. One of my birthday presents was a tripod. (Hopefully very helpful when taking pictures of my knit projects in the future) That's why I can give you a picture of the whole group, me on my first day of being 33 and the culprits who traded Morrissey for thousand year old ice cubes!

See the funny amphibian vehicles that drive/float/swim/sail around the lagoon.

Even cooler maybe that they still have these funny pens with floating boats inside. I haven't seen one of these in ages! - Finally, we are entering the gladder parts of this post.

Because it it says knitting here somewhere I'll show you a gorgeous parcel from Sundara Yarns, the Petal collection. I'm in love with this yarn!

[mouse over]

Willy says hi and thanks for all the sympathy regarding the kiddo's maltreatment terror. He lets you know he's a survivor and able to manage "the dive" now, a grand jump indoors through a window where even tiny arms cannot reach him (you bet they tried! ;-))

All-purpose lace (challenge #4) ...almost...

I thought I was for a change on time for this challenge. Well, not quite. What do Rachel and Theresa say: "If you bound off your lace RIGHT NOW - what could it be used for?I" and "Please exercise due diligence when dealing with many tiny unbound stitches". Unfortunately, my teammate DFS (Diamond Fantasy scarf) showed expeditious development and had to be unleashed already.
However, we are both happy to show you what kind of adventures are awaiting a young lace scarf on his first steps into the big wide world. Travelling it will be!
First, check out the car. DFS tested out the ride on top of the car and while he, nose edges in the wind and rollicking shouting out 'Mama, I can surf on a car', lace-mama makes a note to herself, 'roof rack stays in garage'.

While DFS is making friends with travel companions ('Hi, camping stool, how are you?') it was obvious to me that his hearty hug was not only an emotionally strong one.

Yes, DFS, we are going to leave the car. What we are going to do? Uhm, fishing maybe?
Yes, the blue guy with all the holes to your right could be your cousin.
(HE's staying home, though,
hehehe.....mwahaaahaa)

Since nobody is throwing a pretty young but damp lace scarf into a cooling box together with dead fish, he has to dry properly after having his 'dip'.
DFS here admiring our new house tent. The suspense of building it up for the first time is almost killing him...

I think he could be of great support drying smoothly just over here.

Ah, I'm looking forward to our trip. Unfortunately, it had to be postponed for a week because the weather was too bad.

weather.yahoo.com, weather.com

No - please no sympathy NOW. That's actually the current weather situation, meaning good enough to leave town. BUT.. on the right picture you can see that this s in fact pretty much the average Icelandic summer weather!
Okay, I am off now for a week and in case you were seriously scared: Don't call the lace-rights activists. This was just a dry run.
No lace was physically harmed! I kindly offered unlimited refreshments after the photoshoot, while we discussed DFS talent for acting. This was followed by a light stretching excercise and some acupuncture treatment. I am confident, this will prevent any psychological damage in the long run and compensate for missing a real rainy outdoor adventure.

A lace, a gaze and a race

Was that the Summer of Lace for me?

The Diamond Fantasy Scarf (design by Sivia Harding) is finished. At least almost, two ends need to be woven in.
And I haven't participated in ANY of the so very much entertaining assignments. I am ashamed of myself!
But I am sure, there will be another lace project in the future. This project was so much fun. I sense hints of a lace addiction.
And since I bound off I qualify for challenge #4 and might just move from the stands to join the fun actively.

Meanwhile, I am happily knitting up my Socks That Rock yarn in Cobalt Bloom. Here's a glimpse because at this stage of the project I am not giving away details. Only a peek. But aren't the colours gorgeous?

Last but not least, enter the new domain of technical tricks at sheepandnocity.
Today's lesson:

How to create a mouse-over effect

First of all, you need two pictures, preferably of the same size. They can only differ slightly to create only a tiny twinkling effect...

...create more motion with the mouse...

...or a David Copperfield illusion.

You will need include the following code into the HTML section of your post.

< img scr="picture_01.jpg" width="100" height="50" name="image_01"
onmouseover="image_01.src='picture_02.jpg';"
onmouseout="image_01.src='picture_01.jpg';" >

Afterwards, you have to adjust the different templates to your needs.
Starting with the "name", you don't really have to change something here. Just be aware, that the "01" works as a counter. If you include another mouseover command one day (in another post) you have to count up (image_02, image_03). Or simply chose another "name".

For the pictures you have to give the entire source path (in case you are uploading them in blogger, you can see the path there if you go to the "Edit HTML" mode.
Look for something that looks like this:

href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/ (...) /sock.jpg"

Copy the whole address of the pictures into the appropriate places.

< img scr="http:// (...) sock1.jpg" width="100" height="50" name="image_01"
onmouseover="image_01.src='http:// (...) sock2.jpg';"
onmouseout="image_01.src='http:// (...) sock1.jpg';" >

Take care to include the picture you want to have on mouseover on the right place.
At last, change the size of the pictures (width, height) according to your image.

Voilà!

(This one works with Blogger. If you use another blog software and this does not work, you might want to checkout for example this page and try the codes there.

Team spirit

Woohoo, my internet connection is working again. Alas, only 16% of the speed I should have (and pay for). But what the heck. This is still about 500 times faster than the connection I had since Monday and even that was infintely faster than the connection all the week before that - because there was none!

My thanks go out to all the participants of my little contest. I had some - HA! - many very nice comments already and I do feel very sorry about not having been able to reply to you yet. Also, the blogger system doesn't make it easy to track back people, therefore please be patient with me.

Now to the real content of this post. Remember the Summer of The Amazing Lace? I'm a joiner, did you know? How.. I brazenly ignored the two first challenges. I am feeling a bit ashamed because the hosts, Theresa and Rachel, are putting so much effort in this knitalong and get across such good summer and adventurous spirit. But how could I ever compete with so many hilarious contributions!?

I found a way! I'm going the cutie factor. And for quantity. Meet my teammateS:

See, the kitten picture in the last post as just a warm-up. A couple of days later, I am happy to introduce my own cute trouble-maker! The little one came to us with the name Leó but some prefer to call him Adenauer or Rudi Völler*, which I completely refuse to agree to!
*"Because he looks just like hime" - Help!! Opticians over here! Or what are these guys bringing in the straitjackets called again?
Oh well, you want to know something about my Amazing lace team mate.
Its the Diamond Fantasy Scarf from Sivia Harding, which I chose with recommendation from Kris aka strikker. Thank you, Kris! [check out her finished scarf here!]

The amazingly curious and normally hyperactive little lion cub soon approved my choice of yarn. For my first serious lace project I wisely chose sock weight: the incredibly colourful and soft but springy Cherry Tree Hill yarn I got from Becca in Amanda's Yarn Aboard swap. Thanks again, Becca! The whole Amazing Lace team over here is very happy thanks to your wonderful gift!
Apparently, a third teammate was just the right decision. After the scarf and I even crossed oceans, only to find at least one teammember completely unmodified, the support on four paws seems to make all the difference. Teammember Diamond is having a stretch at the moment. Pictures of the blocked scarf later because otherwise it would already be time to part from the rlace partner under the challenge's conditions.

Fitting to the CTH colourway Champlain Sunset I feel like sharing the sunset from Midsummerday with you. Woah, it is getting darker from now on!