Why I haven’t been blogging; hose, socks, a shawl, and a teaser

I haven’t posted here in two months. That was not intentional. During those two months, I have been fighting colds, trying to heal a sick cat, traveled out of the country for work, traveled to my hometown to visit my elderly grandparents, and tried to get used to my new job.

My new job is an addition to my old job, so now in addition to managing one group of public health research projects in DR Congo, I now help another team manage another group of public health research projects there. This meant an additional trip this fall, and my trips have ranged between 2 1/2 to 6 weeks, so we’re not talking some overnight to Washington, DC.

The new job has meant more time and effort put into my work, but no pay raise, which is fine with me because my old job wasn’t providing enough challenge anymore.

But in the spate of work that hit me, I fell off the Summer of Socks bandwagon and the knit blogging bandwagon. I have been doing a bit of knitting, but somehow in my efforts to photograph my projects, I left several WIPs out. So, those will come later. But here is a photo of my second pair of Highland Schottische Kilt Hose, never before photographed even though they have been done since … September? August? These took 3.25 skeins of Nature Spun Sport weight in color French Clay.

I was also working this summer on some socks based on the Ampersand pattern (.pdf), made with Hello Yarn’s Tough Sock in color Glowing, that came out like this:

And a photograph of my Mystery Stole blocking, which was a nice challenge… I don’t have a modeled photo yet. I used 1.5 skeins of Schaefer’s Anne.

Last but not least is a teaser for a pattern that will be released very soon – more details to come! If you have a little one in mind, you should have time to whip this one up before the holidays. Stay tuned! [And thanks if you are still out there reading. I have been reading but haven't had lots of time for commenting.]