Sockamania winner !

I could not beleive my eyes ! I needed to take a little coffee break late afternoon yesterday and decided to surf on the net for a little while. Supper could wait , i had a big day and i felt tired. I like to check on the sockamania blog on a regular basis, read members comments and admire the beautiful socks they knit. My eyes set on the first post, it was a new one i had not read yet. It took me a while to realise i was reading the title. " And the winner is................." Oh, I had almost forgotten about the draw ! ( How can i forget that ??!?) My eyes read on, more rapidly, i felt so excited ! I wanted to know who was the lucky winner. Could not be me, never even thought i could win the first time...But there it was, clearly written......blueberries in the fields. I was astounded ! I thought i had read wrong. I had to read again and one more time...What ?!? I won ? Me ??? Can't be ?!? Must be a mistake...Look carefully...My God, it's really me ! I WON !!!!! I DID, I DID WON !!!! I was so excited, so happy and still could not believe my eyes ! I never win in any draw i participate. So this was really an unexpected surprise. I almost felt bad for the others who were hoping to be the chosen ones . I already made my choice of yarn. It is pure cashmere lace named sea blue. The founder of sockamania, Annie has an etsy shop and she gives the winner the opportunity to chose one skein of her luxurious yarn she sells in her shop. I do not know yet what project i will realise, but it has to be something special, something i will love to wear. Thanks Annie !

My first pair for sockamania

I finally made it ! I knitted this pair of socks for the sockamania sockalong and the theme for february was influenced by Valentine. The pattern is called " simply love " and i really enjoyed knitting them. I must say though that i did not follow the pattern exactly as it was suggested for several reasons. the pattern called for a toe up knitting and i did not understand the explainations even if the tutorials we were referred to, were clear and precise. I am a visual, i need someone to show me and i guess i will have to give it a try at a sock workshop. I found several yarn stores in Montreal ( I live 45km from the big city ) offering toe up workshop, so maybe one day, if it ever stops snowing, i may brave the crazy highway traffic and head for the crowed city life. I live in the countryside, i am not used to traffic and crowdy places. I love going to the city once in a while, it is the driving that makes me so nervous. But i could always take the train or the metro, it would be less stressfull and i could even knit! That is not such a bad idea after all. The second reason for not knitting the socks exactly the same was for the number of stitches. The pattern called for 64 stitches which for me was way too big. ( I have very small feet ) In reducing my stich count to 56, i could not make the heart pattern all around the leg, so i only included the heart pattern on the front. It still looks pretty but now that my pair is finished, i see that i could have followed the pattern if i had reduced my needle size. But being part a knitting community gives me the opportunity to learn. I am still feeling very proud of my accomplishment. As a teen ( soooo long ago ) i knitted several pairs of big woolen socks, but had forgotten all about sock knitting. I had never tried knitting with such fine yarn and small needles. And i never thought i would managed on my own with just a basic pattern i found on the internet. I realized once you do the heel part, the rest is easy. I know i still have a lot to learn on sock knitting as there are so many techniques, but i guess that once you succeed in doing a basic pattern, you can learn anything ! Sock knitting is so much fun ! I have two more pairs on the needles at the moment and sockamania will be offering it's march pattern coming this week ! I think my daughters will inherit a few pairs.