Home, Finally! (and knitting)

I returned from Arizona late Saturday, and was too tired yesterday to do much more than unpack, start laundry, read mail, and knit while watching Tivo'd programs with Adam.

Here are the Opal socks that I finished before I left, made with the yarn that had all of the short pieces in the middle of the ball. There was still plenty to make the long cuffs that Adam likes:

The colors are pretty true, a dark navy patterning with stripes of reddish magenta and reddish orange. He wanted bright socks, he got bright socks, and he is really happy with them.

I had started a pair of Lucy Neatby's Fancy Feet socks for the Olympic knitting, and have already confessed that real life (i.e. selling a house and work) got in the way of finishing. I had taken a progress picture during the first week of the Olympics that I never posted, so here is the beginning stage (two beginnings, as I like to work on both socks at the same time):
You can see that the garter stitch cuff is knit to length, then grafted into a circle, and then stitches are picked up from the selvage to continue on with the leg, which has a row of bobbles just below the garter stitch. The yarn is Koigu, with a solid and a multicolor stranded throughout. I knit these on size 1 Brittany dpns.

The completed socks are pretty nice, and have already had their first machine wash and tumble dry, right after the pictures were taken. They came through with flying colors, and will probably be my new favorite socks, at least for a while:
Here's a detail of the stitch patterns:Some patterns were nicer to do than others, but the only one that I would change if I did these socks again would be the openwork pattern, right below the bobbles. I get cold ankles, so I don't like holes in wool socks, even planned holes.

I did knit a few rows of entrelac last night on the long-neglected Lady Eleanor, and am liking the pattern and linen yarn as much as I did when I began it. I'm up to about 2 feet in length now, so I just need to keep doing a couple of rows every day or so, and it will get done before long. Maybe I'll do a progress picture sometime if I think of it when I have the camera around.

No FLAK progress, I'm stil playing with the choice of pullover or cardigan, and type of neckline. This is the next project to get back to, soon!