Because Her Foot Was Cold

I have a rule: I only make socks for myself. Everyone else's feet are too big.

The only time I broke this rule was when I gave a pair of socks to Ontie for reaching her Weight Watcher's goal. (Also, we have the same size feet, so it wasn't any added work.)

However, I recently broke the rule again for Blondie, whose feet are at least 3 sizes larger than mine. Why? Simple. Her foot was cold.

I was knitting on the sectional in our family room (surprise surprise), while Blondie played Guitar Hero barefoot. I was finishing up the Iris socks. (Plain vanilla sock pattern: 2X rib with a short row heel.) I had completed one of the socks, and had it sitting on the back of the couch for comparison with the mostly done sock. (I always size the first sock off of my actual foot, and then size the second one off of the first.) Blondie asked what I was working on. I told her a sock, and held up the in progress needles. She looked at it quizzically. (Which wasn't surprising since a sock in progress on two circulars IS pretty confusing to non-knitters.) I then tossed the finished sock to her so that she could see the end result. She was impressed, and then promptly pulled it on her foot.

I was shocked. It fit! It seems that though Blondie's feet are WAY longer than mine, they are also incredibly narrow. I have really short feet, but they are incredibly wide. So, the total area of our feet is identical, just the dimensions are different. She asked if she could leave it on, because her foot was cold. I said sure. (She looked adorable with one sock on and one sock off, and even at one point switched it to the other foot.)

When I finished the second sock, I looked at the pair. Blondie's feet, being longer than mine, had changed the shape of the original sock. I thought about it, remembered how much she had liked the sock, reminded myself that I hadn't exactly been "feeling" the yarn in the first place and had nothing that matched it....and caved.

Iris socks now live upstairs with Blondie. She was grateful...and since I have spent many an evening in bed with her watching tv, I was glad to finally have a barrier between myself and her FREEZING feet.

I've Created a Monster

Jester has been bugging me about making her a scarf to match her birthday beret. That is fine, I did promise I would try to get to it. The thing is, that I have a lot of other things on my plate that have to take priority.

She has expressed a desire, repeatedly, to learn to knit. She even said she would come to the knitting program at the library. (Frankly, that is the only reason why I have put off teaching her in the first place. Normally the minute someone asks to learn, I am whipping out needles and yarn and foisting it upon them.) However, she is getting impatient, and said if I taught her now she would still come to the program. (I admit it, I am worried no one will come.)

Tuesday was the American Idol night at Preacher and Psych's house, and Jester was going to be there. In a rare moment of brilliance I grabbed the rest of her beret yarn and some size 13 needles. She wants a scarf to match her beret? Then fine, she can make it herself.

Here is the amazing thing: Jester has taken to knitting faster and better than anyone I have ever taught with the possible exception of NorCalGal. While her tension and stitch quality are not yet quite where NorCalGal's were after one night, she has an added disadvantage. Jester is a leftie! She didn't tell me before I started teaching her, so she learned right handed knitting. (I try to have lefties face me when I teach them and mirror my motions, rather than sit next to me and mimic them.) So, the fact that she is this good using the wrong hand boggles the mind.

She finished the scarf by Thursday or Friday, and brought it to services today. I was going to show her how to cast off, but she had left the working needle at home. I ended up casting off for her, in the church parking lot, using the needle the scarf was on and a BIC ball point pen. She is already planning on buying more yarn to make another scarf and a beanie for her boyfriend.

What have I done?

The Scarf that didn't WANT to be Knit

I went to Target a WHILE ago with Broseph and Matador. (And by a while ago I mean a couple weeks before Halloween!) I needed to get some key components for my NCIS Abby costume, namely goth boots. Before we left, the three of us wandered over to the men's accessories section...where all of the hats were. While trying them on joking around, Broseph picked up a very suave brown fedora with a tan and orange band. It looked amazing on him. Matador and I, with some help from a Target employee who wandered by, convinced him that he had to buy it. He could wear it when he does concerts. My wheedling took the form of a promise to knit him a scarf to match the hat.

When I got home I promptly designed the "Fretwork" scarf, which had a slipstitch detail loosely based on a guitar neck. I even found two balls of Debbie Bliss yarn in chocolate brown in the stash. I cast on immediately.

I knit that scarf in my down time for several weeks, even getting so far as to join the second ball to the first. When I was 3/4 done I realized that I had cast on WAY too wide and that I was going to be stuck with a weenie little short scarf. (As she puts it in her candleflame scarf pattern...I was going to have a highwater scarf.) This was unacceptable.

The problems were:

• I should have realized the scarf was too wide when I went to join the second ball...duh, that was the halfway point!
• I had used stash yarn and lost the ball bands so there was no way to get additional yarn.
• I was using smallish needles for a scarf, so it was not a fast project to knit.
• The yarn was a solid color, so there were no little color surprises to keep me intrigued.
• The pattern, while pretty, could not be brainlessly knit during movies or tv shows when the lack of color variation wouldn't have mattered, because I had to actually look at every row I knit.

But, since I love Broseph, I unravelled the ENTIRE scarf and recast it on. Now I just had to go through the whole painful process again. So, I reacted in the same way I always react. I procrastinated. I knit A LOT of other things before picking this one up again. In fact, it was only guilt that finally drove me to force myself to knit it again.

To add insult to injury, the last 1/3 of the yarn was knotted into a riotous bundle of nastiness. I spent almost 2 hours untangling it and rolling what was left into a neat little ball...which then, of course, rolled all over the floor as I finished the scarf. (I seriously need to learn how to hand wind center pull balls.)

The end result, I must admit, did make the whole painful process worthwhile. I finished the scarf right before class started at Preacher and Psych's house last night. I wove the ends in and tossed it across the living room to Broseph. The wonderful guy wore the scarf for the duration of class and the rest of the evening. I think he really did appreciate it. He wanted to change before I took a picture... but I just wanted the thing photographed, blogged about, and DONE WITH!!!

Now...I just have to convince him to buy a camel corduroy blazer to wear in concert with Fretwork and the Fedora!

And to Think...They Are Going To Pay Me For This!

After much discussion and a few false starts...they have asked me to do a teen knitting program at the library. The tricky bit was that, for the first time, we are asking the teens to bring their own supplies. Normally, when doing crafts, we provide the materials...however, in the current economy...well, there have been budget cuts. I am very excited about the program, but a little apprehensive. Though I have taught a lot of people how to knit, including teaching classes to my residents in the dorm, this is the first "official" class that I have given for strangers. (It is a lot easier to teach people I know, or to teach one on one. Fingers Crossed!)

The teens will be making their own scarves. I am going to just do a simple 4" garter stitch scarf. They will cast on however many stitches that the ball band suggests for gauge. I will show them/help them cast on, and then set them free. Since it is a one time 2 hour workshop, there is NO WAY that they will finish in the time allotted. This is where it gets cool.

I have filmed myself casting on, knitting, and casting off as three separate videos. I am uploading these to youTube (and here), and will then put the URLs on the instruction sheet. The young adult librarian will also link to them from the library's teen and mySpace pages. Who said knitters couldn't be tech-savvy?

Taking Orders

I had a party a little over a week ago after church on Sunday night. All of the young people, and some not as young people, came over to play games and eat food. It was a holiday weekend, so none of the kids had school the next day.

As we were all sitting around on the sectional and couches chatting, I pulled out my always-near-to-hand current knitting project. (If I remember correctly it was the 2 row Noro Stripe Scarf.) All of a sudden one of the guys, BigOne, piped up that if I wanted I could make him a scarf.

"Oh really?"
"Yeah. I'll even let you make me an orange one!"
"Construction Cone orange?"
"Yep."
"And you'll wear this?"
"Yep."

The next thing I knew requests were flying at me from all of the guys in the room. It seems that, while I have been very good about giving the gals birthday handknits, the guys were feeling neglected. I ended up grabbing a small legal pad and writing down names and projects on a handy little list. By the time I got through everyone, BigOne had changed his choice from an orange scarf to a more manly ski cap. In fact, most of the requests were for ski caps in VERY blah colors: black, blue, grey, etc. At least ski caps are fast!

Anyone else have an order?

Rock Your Socks Off Storytime

I did a pajama time family story hour last night at one of the other library branches. I got to pick any theme I wanted, so I chose...SOCKS!!!

It was a LOT of fun. The program included:

New Socks by Bob Shea

Smitten by David Gordon

Where's My Sock by Joyce Dunbar

"Black Socks" (One of my favorite Girl Scout songs.)

An insanely long time dancing around like crazy people to "At the Hop"

And a flannel board that I did for a poem about socks that I found online.

I wore my crazy Sesame Street Socks and let all of the kids take their shoes off.

We even played a game where they had to put things in order from sheep to sock:

A stuffed sheep

Wool Roving

A Skein of Yarn

A partially knitted sock still on the needles

A finished sock

Some moms nearly had apoplectic fits as their children messed with the needles of the sock-in-progress. I quickly reassured them that it had been knit for demo only, and was not an actual project I was working on. (How crazy are they to think that I would actually let 3 year olds unravel an actual sock sock? Silly non-knitters!)

Happy New Year!

I rang in the New Year with all my friends from church. We threw a big party at the house. (And by "we," I really mean "they." With "they" being my foster family.)

I spent the evening doing all the things I love the most:
-Laughing and playing games with my friends. (We played Risk.)
-Getting hugs from the small folk.
-Snacking
-Knitting.

Yes, that is correct. It is quite possible to play Risk while working on a 2 row striped Noro scarf.

Was I mocked? Yes. Did I care? No.

Two last things:

1. It is astonishing to note how quickly people can become acclimated to your knitting in their presence. The guys: Broseph, Matador, and JoNo didn't even blink when I pulled out my needles.

2. Ark crawled into my lap part way through the evening and asked me if I was knitting a sock. Now, I realize that a 16 inch length of striped Noro scarf looks NOTHING like a sock...but every time I babysit Ark and his little brother Fish I bring a sock to work on. (They love watching me try it on, and giggle when my toes peep out the ends.) So, in Ark's little 4 year old mind needles and yarn=socks in progress...no matter what the project looks like!