Victorian Lace Socks KAL

Last month I decided to join the SixSox KAL group, but I lurked through the one they were knitting, the Horcrux socks. I hope to do them at some point but I knew I had to do the current one as soon as the pattern was posted. I debated about ordering some plain yarn but decided that I really should try to use up some of the yarn I have in my stash.

Here's my progress up to yesterday afternoon:

And here's my latest on my Shetland Tea Shawl:

And here's a pic of my chart and scribbling, just for the heck of it:

I've got 12 of 36 repeats finished.

I also managed to dye some yarn that my friend Rori is going to use for the Mystery Stole 3:

I used KnitPick's Paint-Your-Own yarn (the precursor to Bare) and Pro-Chem dyes. Here's a shot of how my yarn is usually drying: Not sure what the neighbors think, but it doesn't happen all that often and I don't know that they really care. They already know I'm a little weird.

My contest for what's different about my Swallowtail shawl is still going! I'll draw from all of the correct guesses on Friday, June 29th so leave me a comment with what you think is different about my shawl. Just in case you need a refresher about what it looks like:

And here it is pre-dyeing, modeled by Judie Overbeek:

The other project (well, one of many, truthfully!) has been tearing down the old front porch railing, ripping it apart, and rebuilding it about 12" lower (and building it better, of course!). Here's a before pic:

And here's how it looks now:

We need to prime and paint, preferably without "help" from little hands (which is why it isn't already done). It may not be all that different in the picture, but what a massive improvement! We can now sit there and not have the top rail going right in front of our eyes. We always felt like we were hiding. And just for the heck of it, here's a beautiful lily in our mailbox flower bed: Tomorrow night is KnitWit Night, which I always enjoy. Eight hours of eating, knitting, and chatting! You just about can't beat that. :-)