The sock kit we've all been waiting for ...

Ta-dah!!

After many months of craziness and knitting frenzy, I am proud to announce that my Hiker Chick Sock Kit is finally available in my Etsy shop!  Pre-sales are going on now, and all kits will be availabe to ship beginning July 30th.  Kits are $38 each and include:  410 yards of hand-painted Rocket Sock superwash merino (your choice of 3 colorways), printed written pattern, and one set of 40-inch circular needles.  Don't forget that Veronika of Yarnonthehouse.com is also doing a giveaway for one of my kits--winner gets a choice of colorway.

Now, on with the show!

Took a little trip ...

Honey and I took a little trip to Las Vegas for the honeymoon we never had this past week.  It was great fun to be away from home, just the two of us!  Of course, no vacation would be complete without a trip to a LYS, and I found one:  Gail Knits.  It looked like a quick trip by public transportation from our hotel to the shop, but looks were deceiving--it became about a 4-hour investment of our time! (Las Vegas is not very commuter-friendly, I'm afraid.) It was also a little difficult to shop for yarn in 98 degree F. heat. 

If anyone ever tells you that the desert heat of Nevada is barely noticeable because it is a "dry heat", you should immediately imagine yourself having been stuffed inside your kitchen oven to be baked at a "dry heat" of, say, 450 degrees F.  It was just plain ugly hot in that desert!

Anyway, many beautiful skeins made it difficult to decide, and Honey patiently waited and waited. He chatted up the ladies who were working on baby items, table-side, while I finally elected to go with these:

I am sure that it was fate that I went to this yarn shop because I have been wanting to knit up a pair of those "Burning Stripes" socks by Susan Luni for about a year now, but I have had the darndest time finding Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball in complimentary colorways that I like--plus the online prices haven't been too friendly. I finally printed out the pattern right before the trip with the resolution that when I returned from Vegas, I was going to find the yarn for this pattern, regardless of obstacles. At the Vegas shop, however, Marks and Kattens Fame Trend caught my eye, and I think that will work out as the perfect substitute. There will be Burning Stripes socks for me!

I love vacations with yarn shops included!

A Slew of Socks!

Hooray!  The socks are finished!  The pattern is finished!  Hooray!

This kit, Hiker Chick, will be featured on Yarnonthehouse.com during the last week of July as a giveaway, so you should enter!  The kits will become available in my Etsy shop on July 30th for $38 and will include: one set of wooden 40" circular needles, one 410 yard skein of Zibeline Knits hand-painted Rocket Sock superwash merino yarn in the colorway of your choice (choose from one of the three colorways shown here), and my printed two-at-a-time, top-down sock pattern. The pattern will be sold separately, as well, in my Etsy shop and on Craftsy.  Look at my gorgeous socks and their colorways and imagine these on your feet!

Water Sprite (seen here in size large, which fits ankle/foot circumference of 8 to 11 inches):

Little Sister (seen here in size small, which fits ankle/foot circumference of 5 to 7 inches)

Copper Kettle (seen here in size medium, which fits ankle/foot circumference of 6 to 9 inches)