so now let's try part 2

Alrighty. I'm going to dive into Part 2 of the knitting retreat here, and guess what? It's actually more back story!!...hahahaha (man, do I love to ramble my way through a story). Ok. If you need it, here's a link to Part 1....and now, off we go!
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So about a month or so before the retreat, I was clicking around on Ravelry and I somehow stumbled across the fact there was a group of folks called "Sock Knitters Anonymous". Turns out that in the month of September, they were going to be hosting a "Mystery KAL" (KnitALong), and the designer of the sock pattern was none other than Nancy Bush herself, who was one of the teachers on my upcoming retreat. Very cool. So I decided to knit the socks to keep me entertained until the retreat! Here they are:

Fox Faces Socks
~ Ravelry Link ~ Link to My Project Page ~
(the pattern is currently unavailable, but should be up again soon on Nancy Bush's website)

So the deal with this KAL was that everyone was to knit their socks in yellow. The yarn I used was naturally dyed with weld by A Verb for Keeping Warm. The pattern was released in weekly increments in 4 parts. I learned something new in every single segment, which made it totally exciting.

The first week was the cuff of the sock, and it included an Estonian Cast-On and a sideways/lateral braid called a vikkel-braid.

Love that little sideways braid. And it was stretchy!! I might be adding vikkel braids all over the place now.

The second week we did the leg of the sock, and first there was a traditional technique of ribbing just the back upper portion of the sock so it wouldn't slouch. There was also a new-to-me lace pattern that Nancy thought looked like little Fox Faces...


....although as I was knitting, I always saw the logo for the "Transformers".


The third week we did the heel, and I learned how to do a "Dutch Heel", plus a new-to-me heel stitch pattern that worked up like a honeycomb.


The final week we did the foot and the toe, and the toe was also new to me...it was a more rounded "French Toe".


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This now concludes Part 2 of the retreat (without having yet really talked at all about the retreat itself--ha!). Stay tuned.