I have a wonderful father!

I meant to post this earlier, and just forgot.

About an hour after I posted my previous entry about the woeful lack of a cable needle, my father came by my condo.

He had seen my needle sitting on the table and, knowing I was stuck at home, thought I might want it. So, along with some library books my mom had checked out for me, he brought it by on his way to the office.

He noted that it appeared a little the worse for wear, since both their cat and puppy had gotten a hold of it. He offered to buy me a new one if it was ruined.

It wasn't ruined. I got a lot done on the sock...and was able to put off frogging the baby cardigan yet again!

Isn't my dad the best?

Now What?

I had promised myself that I wouldn't work on any other projects till I finished the Blarney socks. In this way I hoped to avoid second sock syndrome. Today I am stuck at home with laryngitis and have some seriously glorious knitting time ahead of me.

The problem: I accidentally left my cabling needle at my parents' house, thereby rendering it very difficult to work on cabled socks.

Possible Solutions (and why they won't work):
1. Use one of my other cable needles. (The socks are knit on size 2's and the cable needles I have are all 8's and larger)
2. Use a double pointed needle. (Don't own any.)
3. Buy another cable needle. (Not supposed to leave home when you have called in sick to work...besides, what if the teller wanted to ask me a question...I have NO voice.)
4. Go get my cable needle from my parents' house (Same reason as above)

So what am I going to do? Bite the bullet and do the other project I have been avoiding...frog back the baby sweater with the twisted stitches...

And then maybe work on a scarf...

The end

Whoops! or When Grafting Goes Wrong!

I knit a sock. A beautiful sock. A sock which according to my completely unbiased mother has the prettiest cables on it that she has ever seen.

I grafted the toe.

I forgot that due to the way I knit socks on two circulars that prior to grafting I needed to flip the sock inside out.

Now, the graft on the right side of the beautiful sock has purl stitches and the wrong side is knit…and it is too late to fix it…I wove and trimmed the ends before I noticed.

Thinking positively: I will be able to tell the right sock from the left…unless for the sake of consistency I purposefully misgraft the second sock as well!

These Socks Are Brought To You By The Letter M

I am very proud of these socks...I call them my Sesame Street Socks.

I have a philosophy about hand knit socks: "If I am going to take the time to make them, people are going to be able to notice them!"

The first pair of socks I made were a variegated rainbow from Regia. I had left overs...not enough to make another pair of socks, but too much to just toss out. So, when I saw the yellow yarn, also Regia, an idea began to form in my head...I would make CRAZY socks, with rainbow stripes, heel, and toe. The problem was, I only knew how to do a flap heel, and I was concerned that that would look a little funny.

So, the yarn languished in my stash for a little over a year. Then, I discovered the joy that is a short row heel! Perfect! And thus, the Sesame Street Socks were born.

(In all honesty, I think that flap heels are more comfortable than short row heels...and I have since found sock yarns that are cozier than the Regia...but these socks were not about comfort...they were about COLOR!)

A Proper Send Off

NorCalGal is moving back to NorCal since her husband is getting out of the Navy.

I am sad and will miss her.

I taught her how to knit, and it was fun watching her take to it like a duck to water. (Although she refuses to learn how to purl...I am being pushed to come up with knit-stitch only projects...)
As a goodbye, we met at the Silverdale yarn shop one last time. We walked around. We squeezed the skeins. We drooled over yarn that we could not afford. We wished that we could find sock yarn in cobalt blue. (Oh wait, that was just me...) It was perfect.

I am sad and will miss her.
Did I say that already?

On the plus side, I am sending her off to Sacramento in search of new yarn shops! And when I go down there to visit her we can go to them and walk around. We can squeeze the skeins. We can drool over yarn that we cannot afford. And we can actually find sock yarn in cobalt blue!

If You're Stressing and You Know It...

Use Your Swift!

There is nothing quite as relaxing as taking a plethora of skeins and wrapping them into little balls. Especially if you don't have a ball winder!

(And if you are a multi-tasker, you do this while listening to lectures on data standardization systems for one of your graduate courses...)