I’d draped the newly finished Slip Stitch Socks on the picnic table while on holiday in the Cairngorms in September, as I wanted to take a few photos of them. We soon had a couple of interested visitors.
A few red squirrels were regular visitors, so we gave them nicknames. The two squirrels in this series of photos are Baby Girl and Tufty.
Baby Girl arrived for a snack. “Mmm… what’s this?”
“Is it alive?” she wondered.
“Curious and curiouser”, she thought as she timidly approached.
“Seems safe enough. Looks warm. Might make a cosy nest for the winter.” she thought.
“Nope, definitely not peanuts.”
Just below, Tufty was quietly nibbling peanuts and contemplating the new addition to his picnic table.
“Who is up there?” he asked, “What are you doing?”
“Whoa, Tufty, I’m just looking at these. Who owns these hand-knit socks?”
A magpie caws raucously, and both squirrels flee.
I take a few snapshots of the finished socks. I knitted the socks with a slip stitch pattern using Regia Snowflake Colour 7707.
Tufty arrives back to inspect his new socks.
Everything seemed okay on the table, so he turned his attention to his grumbling tummy.
He picks up a peanut and begins nibbling it. At this point, Baby Girl cautiously reappears.
She points at the socks. “Tufty, are you sure you want both of them? There seems to be more than one.”
“Time to go!” The expression on Tufty’s face gives Baby Girl her answer, and she quickly retreats.
“No, no, no, you can’t! Go away, Baby Girl.”
We loved seeing the red squirrels on holiday in the Cairngorms. The lodge we stayed in was built in a Scots Pine forest, and we were lucky enough to see the squirrels scampering through the trees often. We left out peanuts and hazelnuts for them in the mornings and late afternoon and waited by the windows to take photographs.
Nicolette, great looking socks! Love the colours! Your squirrel captions crack me ;). Keep up the good work.
Thank you.
Hi Nicolette,
I really enjoy your squirrels and the hand knit socks story and photos. You are a great photographer as well as sock designer and knitter!
Also, wanted to let you know that I received my yarn order a few days ago. I am thrilled with the beautiful yarns my sister and I ordered when I was in Arizona for her 70th birthday earlier in November. Her daughter will deliver her two skeins (one I am giving her as a Christmas gift) when she drives down to Arizona for Christmas.
You have a wonderful knitting sight–so interesting and informative. Not to mention all the luscious yarns available. Joyce in Utah USA
Hi Joyce
Thank you for letting me know that the yarn arrived safely with you. I’m so pleased that you love the colours.
I love taking photographs, have a lot of them, but I can’t take the praise for all of the photos. Neil takes the photos of me.
The red squirrels were a dream to see and photograph. They were great little characters. During our week in the Cairngorms, we got up early every morning to take photos of them and then again in the late afternoon.
Thank you for your lovely comments, they have really made my day!
Happy Knitting
Nicolette
Love the colours, love the socks – fantastic photos of your interested squirrels
– and love peanuts as well.
Thank you Anne, the squirrels were very cool. None of them even attempted to nibble my knitting. But they were very curious and interested.
So cute…what adorable squirrels…and red no less…we have the gray ones here…but guess they decided not to take the socks….they are very nice though….thanks for sharing YOUR PHOTO STORY…
The squirrels were so much fun Nikita. We really enjoyed photographing them. We mainly see grey ones here as well. Most of the red squirrels in UK live in Scotland (about 80%) of the British population. They were little characters!