Bird Nerds

Another finished project!! I heart these socks so much!! (wasn't January supposed to be Mating Month? yeah. That never happened)

These are the "Fancy Silk Sock" pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, made with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. (lovelovelove) I used one Chocolate and one Vera, alternating each every other row. Hmm. You can see how if I'd just used the Vera, there would be some unsightly pooling and flashing. Oh, well! Love this yarn just the same. The pattern was well-written and I didn't change anything. My only suggestion would be to do a very loose cast-on, such as the single cast-on. The intial row should be really loose so that it can flare and ruffle. I usually use the double cast-on method, and it wasn't that great for this project.

Here's a "better" pic so you can see the detail. Sorry about the glare- we just have such poor lighting in this apt. It's hard to take nice pics.

This is an odd pic. I was trying to get a shot of the bottom so you could see better the alternating yarns. (y'all should've seen the yoga-pretzel move required to take this!)

We took another lovely hike this weekend. It's nice finding pretty places here, when my intial opinion was so low of this city.

We didn't actually walk that far, but stopped and bird-watched with DB's new mini binoculars. Birds sighted included: red-winged blackbird, juevenile red-tailed hawk, and a pair of some sort of small hawks (perhaps Sharp-Shin or Cooper's?), chickadees, nuthatches, Canada geese, and mallards. We also heard a pheasant, but didn't see it.

Here's a picture of a Pileated Woodpecker sighted last weekend:

If you're a bird nerd like DB and I, may I suggest Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Beautiful little essays about certain species such as Vaux's Swift, Swainson's Thrush, and also the Pileated Woodpecker.

What better way to end this post than with a Cuddle Puddle?

<>

Making the bed is for sissies.