Knitting in the Shadows

Cheating on My Needles

When my beloved Darn Pretty needle died, I put the entire project in the time out basket.

I vowed to wait until I got a replacement Darn Pretty dpn to work on those socks.

Then the knitting bag with the Hopeful Socks went AWOL.  That left me without any socks to knit on. 

I can live without socks to knit on.  But my ability to survive with no portable knitting is limited.  Woman to Woman has gotten far to big to be portable.  And hauling a full cone of yarn around is not exactly easy -- so Dwarrodelf isn't portable either.

Today, I caved.

I dug into the dpn case, and found a spare 2.75 mm needle.  It clearly doesn't match (the points are dreadful), but it's good enough for now.... and this

went to a meeting with me, and became this

I feel a little guilty about cheating on the Darn Pretties with another needle... but a girl cannot live with only giant projects.

Farewell My Friend

Yesterday, was a busy day, full of joyous interactions with several groups of people.

I had a lovely visit with my Physical Therapist.  Even if I don't actually enjoy some of those exercises, I'm always glad to have been there. 

After working on my body, I joined my classmates at the Senior Resources Center, where we gave chair massages to the folks who work there.  There's nothing quite as delighftul as seeing stressed out people relax.  We gave massages to people who had never gotten a massage before, and saw faces go from tight and drawn to open and relaxed.  Chair massages are more tiring for me than table massages, but they have the advantage of letting me see four or even six different people experience a positive change in their day because of something I did in the same amount of time.

When I bid my fellow massage therapists in training adieu, I headed over to a friend's house to join my fellow "Crafty Ladies" for a late lunch (truly delicious home made soup)and some birthday cake (one of them celebrated her birthday this week, and another of them has mad cake decorating skills).  It was there that my loss occurred.

After amazing food, we took up our various needles and hooks, and I resumed knitting these socks.

Well, to be honest, I was working on the toe of the other sock, but whose counting.  That picture isn't nearly as fun.

Anyway, I was using my much beloved Darn Pretty Needles ... the Purple Passion ones... (swoon).  I picked up this needle:

And then, I knit about half way across one needle (note, at the toe, we're not yet into any exciting stuff, like cables -- I was just working stockinette toes!) and suddenly, there was a snap! and one needle tip went flying.  Now I have this:

I'm sad on several levels.  I fear that Tom might no longer be making these particular needles. 

The socks are in mourning. 

Me too.

I went home, and went to bed.  (Oddly, though I am rarely able to fall asleep during the day, I fell asleep in mere seconds).

My evening ended surrounded by knitting friends. working on an afghan that must wait until daylight to have it's picture taken.

I'll miss my lovely DP DPN (Darn Pretty Double Pointed Needle). I'm hoping its cousin will come stay with us.  Other needles aren't quite the same.

Music, and the Magic of the Body

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending another wonderful concert at our local performing arts center.

We heard the Tchaikovsky  St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra perform music by three composers; two of whom are among my very favorites, and one of whom is on my general favorites list.  The last piece they played is one of my favorite pieces in the world.

They started of with Wagner.  But not the demanding, imposing, Wagner who fires you up with The Ride of the Valkyries.  Nay, the lush, heart-string pulling Wagner who wrote a Prelude to his opera that so beautifully meshes with the final piece from that opera that orchestras now play them together -- as one piece. 

Prelude and Love Death from Tristan & Isolde

(You can listen to it -- it's 15 minutes long, and this version has the tell tale scratchiness underlying it that shows it was recorded from an LP, but it's still lovely).

Oddly, I found that there were places in this piece that foreshadowed the final piece of the night. 

The second piece was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 (which evidently was written, and even performed, before Piano Concerto No. 1).  The pianist, Alexandre Pirojenko, was amazing. 

 

 

The Washington Post says of him, "has the technical skills to do anything he wants with a piano; better yet, what he wants to do is sensitive, original, and brilliant."  If the performance I saw was typical, I think they're right. I couldn't track down a you tube of the Beethoven piece, but here he is playing a bit of Rachmaninov.

 

 

Okay, SAW isn't exactly right. We sat in the choral balcony, behind the stage.  It's a great place to HEAR the performance, but not so good to see -- especially (oddly) in the front row.  Occasionally I'd lean forward across the sort of aisle between the front row and the rail, and peer over the rail, but even then you couldn't see much of the orchestra.  That's okay, I wasn't there to see as much as to hear.

And not seeing meant that I could sit with my eyes closed, without feeling guilty about not watching raptly.  Sometimes, I even do that ... just sit, raptly listening.  But most of the time, my hands are busy.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I take knitting with me to hear live music.  Currently, I've been toting along this pair of simple plain socks to most events.  They're just simple stockinette (well, so far, we know about my capacity for endless stockinette), and that means that I can sit and knit, eyes closed, listening, while my fingers do their thing.  Golf Pro likes it, because it means that my hands aren't trying to conduct, which evidently they do unelss they're otherwise occupied.  I think it's pretty magical that my body can go on doing something as complex as knitting socks without watching.  I'm working two socks at a time using the "magic loop" method, which means I have to change yarns mid "row" (before moving the loop).  Even so, my fingers can do this without visual guidance.

The final piece is one of my most favorite in the world.  Rimsy Korsakov's Sheherezade.  I'm not sure, but I think I may owe a debt of gratitude to one Goeffrey Thursby (I know he shared Lt. Kije with me; I think he may also have introduced me to Scheherazade).  The concert notes say that Rimsy Korsakov considers this peice to be free from Wagner's influence, but I know that I heard things in Prelude and Love Death that were echoed in passages from Scheherazade.

This passage isn't one of them, but I figured if I was sharing music, I may as well keep it up  :-)

 

Last night, while knitting in the balcony, I was working on a pair of socks for Golf Pro. 

At the end of the evening, I had him try on the toes, just to double check how much further I had to go before starting the next phase in their shaping.  One would think that by now, I'd just know... but these socks are in a much finer gauge than previous pairs, and I've long since learned that when you change the gauge, you change not only horizontal stretchiness, but vertical stretchiness, so I checked before shaping. I learned that my husbands feet are just the right length that my forearm is a perfect measure for how long the foot should be before I start increasing for the gusset/heel dance.  (I think that's pretty magical).

30 Days of Thanks - Day Fourteen and an FO

Once upon a time, I wrote a knitting blog.  I took pictures of my knitting in progress, and pictures of my finished knitted objects, and posted them for all to see.

In theory, this is still a knitting blog.  But alas, my camera's battery charger is still in hiding (something that I must fix within the next week, since the camera kind of has to go to Disney with us).  With no camera battery, there can be no good pictures.  And today, I've actually got something worth taking pictures of.

Today..... (being thankful for the camera in my phone)

I finished a pair of socks!

I am thankful that yarn does not spoil, and that stitches do not just fall off of needles when they've been there too long. This pair of socks has taken a truly frightening length of time to finish. 

No seriously. 

I cast on over a year ago! (okay, only, like, for days over a year ago, but still over a year ago).  At first, I thought I was going to make some fancy socks (Leyburn's), but in the end, I decided that I didn't much like the yarn in that pattern, so I frogged the sock and started over.  And then, I fussed over a toe up pattern, and made mistakes, and had to reknit the plain simple sock heels about five times...  And finally, FINALLY, I finished them.

I am also thankful that this yummy yarn (Merino & Tencel sock yarn  from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm) withstood all that frogging, and still looks lovely.

And I'm really thankful to be done knitting this particular pair of socks.

And..... I'm thankful for the new addition to my winter sock collection, expecially since one or two pair are dying beyond my ability to darn them.

Kitting! Oh yeah!!

Once upon a time, I started a blog about knitting.  I blogged for years about knitting, and suddenly started going off track and blathering about books and customer service and make up....

But today I'm actually going back to knitting...

Well, I've BEEN knitting... a lot.  But I haven't been posting about it as much.

I've been making a little progress on Catkin...

 

What you see there at the bottom of the picture is an anamoly in my knitting.  There are three stitch markers there... three... in a picture that is close up enough to count the stitches!  I'm queen of minimalism when it comes to stitch marker use, but this pattern is hard enough to see at it's beginning that I'm finding having a marker for every stitch repeat really helpful.  So, what you see there is one repeat marker, and a pair of section markers (one on each side of a "centerline" stitch - though there are several of those).  I'm guessing that once it's established, and thus more visible, I may find that I don't need them anymore, but for now... I'm happy to have a stitch marker stash.

That's the newest project, and thus, inevitably, the most alluring.  But I'm still enjoying Fairy Stars ...

It's getting big enough that it's hard to photograph on the needles.  As it turns out, this is not going to be a small shall, it's going to be somewhere near the huge department.  And I'm changing the shape from triangular to something else whose name I'm not sure of.  I like to think I'm closing in on the place where I will split it in the middle....

...but really, there are two more sections to go.

In the mean time, my best buddy the Roomba..

has been being naughty lately.  It's been hunting string like things.  It bumps the wee side table next to my chair until things fall off it's bottom shelf, and then it gets tangled up in them.  This morning, I had to rescue a sock....

Just look at that mess!   Luckily, I caught it early.  Sometimes it winds up the yarn until it can't move.  Then it complains!  how rude.

On Socks and Gloves and Dithering

I was merrily reading my blog-friends' blogs this weekend, when I enjoyed some secretive pictures of a glove in progress.  She's totally up front about knitting the glove, but wasn't all that informative about the name of the pattern... so I asked her.

That led me to the designer (Julia Mueller of Laris Deisgns).  I spent a few minutes prowling around Julia's page on Ravelry, drooling at the gorgeous gloves -- the gorgeous BEADED, cabled gloves.  And suddenly I thought of some yarn I've got in the stash -- yummy deep plummy burgundy koigu -- already paired up with the perfect beads.  The yarn was going to be for an absolutely gorgeous pair of beaded socks (yes, I know, but they're GORGEOUS).  I've not abandoned the thought of knitting those socks.  But I came to an epiphany about the yarn.

My koigu will no longer be used for socks.

There, I've said it.  I love love loved my first pair of koigu socks. But I was heart broken when they blew out beyond repair.  Worse yet, I could never find the color again.

And now another pair of 100% wool socks has bitten the dust.

The sock yarn with nylon seems to make socks that lasts.  I have at least two pair that I knit over ten years ago, and wear regularly, that is still alive and well, thankyouverymuch.  Nylon content. Or at least non-wool (I'm guessing that bamboo or tencel will have the same benefits).

Which means that all that delicious koigu meant for socks -- will be not-socks.  Gloves maybe.... lovely Laris Designed gloves.... I could spend weeks dithering over which one to knit!

perhaps? Or maybe

Entangled Stitches ...... or what about .....

Gordian ... or .... ooh the Glittens... and ... or....

And that's just HER gloves.  My brain may implode before I cast on a single stitch!

Well...maybe...

I may indulge myself with one pair of koigu socks -- I do love the way they feel, even if they don't last forever.  I wonder if that wooly-nylon binder thread would be sufficient to prevent blowouts?

Hmmm.

Better to test my lovely lovely new Merino/Bamboo blend from Lost City Knits!

(it was a pressie!)  Pics asap. I promise.

 

 

 

 

 

Sock Disaster... and large lace

Not so very long ago, I knit a lovely sock out of Fleece Artist Merino ...

I finished them some time in 2008.

Today, one of the heels looks like this:

This would be just barely in time ... In theory, I could do a major darning job, and save these socks.  Except that before I realized this wee problem was here, the other heel did this:

Here's the "glamour shot"

And now, while we're all scared..... here's Inebriate of Air, somewhere past half-way done (I hope)

Yes, the bottom of one panel does goe all the way across my chair, unblocked.

Countdown ... T minus 4 Days....

So.. now that I've found my camera (it was sulking, having been put away for much of WindyCon because I wanted to enjoy the con, not just photograph it), I can show you progress on Golf Pro's sock.

Here's where I am as of 5:00 Wednesday --

Last night, I started just before the decreases and cable crossings began,

The dpn marks where I quit last night, having figured out the cable etc. (It included some frogging, and reknitting).

This afternoon, I snuck in a viewing of the movie 3-Iron.  Very strange flick, but compelling.  The two main characters don't speak.  I'm serious.  She has one line -- very near the end -- and he has none.  For most of the movie, only people who are themselves violent, or who have witnessed violence have any lines at all.

Anyway, despite the subtitles (it's a Japanese film), I managed to finish off that cable, and knit on into the leg.  Then the Mom-Bus was on duty, so I had to stop. The dpn in the next picture shows that spot...

Once the driving duties were over, I snuck in a bit more knitting while watching the first half hour or so of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (who? us preparing for the opening of the Deathly Hallow's Part I? nahhh... couldn't be) (and no, Bookworm isn't reading through them all at a prodigious rate either).

Then, Golf Pro and I managed to go out for a moderate dinner just us two! (Bookworm went to a friend's to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - part two of their Movie Marathon this week, and Kitty went to a French Club dinner, and suddenly we were all alone!).  I snuck in some knitting while waiting for food to arrive -- Golf Pro didn't even notice <evil wicked grin>.

After dinner, there was more driving, but I did get in a few more rounds, leaving me here:

Which felt like real progress until I laid it down to pose with the finished sock.

Suddenly, I feel doomed.  See that cable coming up?  yeah, I have to "read" that one too, and figure out what I did, because the notes are still hiding.  I seem to recall doing something fancy about the heel too.  I hope not :-)

Ahh well, there are two doctors' appointments today, which will give me waiting room time to knit in. We finally get to see Kitty's "Primary Care Physician" for a follow up after her little "incident" last Wednesday.  She really needs to hear from someone other than me that it's actually normal for her brain not to work as well following a concussion -- and that it really truly will get better, but that it will take time.

It's not making things easier for her that she appears to have post-concussive syndrome -- a condition whose symptoms include:

• Changes in your ability to think, concentrate, or remember.
• Headaches or blurry vision.
• Changes in your sleep patterns, such as not being able to sleep or sleeping all the time.
• Changes in your personality such as becoming angry or anxious for no clear reason.*

According to Mayo, these symptoms can last for weeks or months... or even up to a year or more. This will not make Kitty happy.  She's a mentally oriented person, and having her brain act like it's not receiving her radio signals is frustrating and scary.  I'm really hoping that the docs today can at least set her mind at ease, even if we don't get promises of a rapid fix.

*WebMd Concussion Overview

Countdown....T Minus 5 Days

So, while I wasn't watching, the calendar pages have been flying off, and suddenly, Golf Pro's birthday is right around the corner.

I have this wee delusion that I'll be able to knit up the second sock in this pair by next Monday... (evening).

This evening I managed to finish off the ribbing, and knit most (well, okay, 2/3) of the cable that hides the calf shaping.  That did involve reading the first sock pretty closely though, as I've managed to mislay the notes I took while creating it.  I tried charting for a while, but would have had to teach myself how to create symbols for the charting software (I keep using things like sl2 to cn, hold in front, p1, k1 from cn, ssk using rem stitch on cable needle and next st on left needle).  Sure wish someone would create standard symbols for stuff like THAT.

So, I gave up on the charting, and just knit.  I'll regret that later, as I think this sock will play well, and would love to finish writing up the pattern to sell it.

I've got my priorities though -- and having a decent birthday surprise for Golf Pro trumps writing up the pattern this week.

Maybe.

After all, I still have five full days, plus some time on Monday... right?

More than their share

I seem to have given our local hospital/clinic more of their fair share of my time this week.

You know that Tuesday was colonoscopy day.

I figured that would be the end of it.... but no....

Kitty had a rather unfortunate interaction with a chain fence on Wednesday. You know the kind.... like this...

Only more of a permanent installation.

She was trying to jump the chain -- a thing she does almost every day in PE.  Wednesday, however, the result was... not good.

She caught a foot, and fell....  she blacked out, and woke up hurting.

That meant that this afternoon, we went to "Convenient Care" -- and they sent us across town to the ER, where spent the afternoon.  They x-rayed her scapula, which is very sore, but not broken (yay). They did a CT scan on her head, and learned that she is concussed, but we need no neruological specialists to intervene (yay again).

While there, I knit quite a bit of the former Leyburn sock.  I'd past the heel and was well up the cuff when

I finally admitted that I didn't like it.  And about ten days ago, I frogged it back to the toe.

And now.... it looks like this:

THAT's what I expected to be doing while waiting for MY medical procedures... instead, I did it while waiting for X-rays and CAT scans...

I'm debating on doing something more exciting on the cuff... but the yarn is making a pretty design all on its own.

 

 

Progress Photos, as promised

Yesterday I promised to show you the finished, but restarted, Lovlund sweater.

I'm also going to show you some sock progress.  But only if you promise not to tease me about color-coordination between projects.  I swear it wasn't planned!

Here is the sweater. 

I was going to take a picture of it on, just to prove that re-starting was necessary, but I decided that I didn't want to be seen on the internets wearing a crop sweater.  (okay, I don't want to be seen anywhere at all wearing a crop sweater). Let's just say it wasn't nearly as pretty as it should have been.

Now, I admit, when I first finished the sweater, its total length was fine, but I made a newbie mistake in following directions.  I listened when it told me that the armscye space was going to be nine inches.  I presumed that the nine inches on the bias would equal the right number of vertical inches, and that thus, the sweater would fit.

Dumb move.  In order to get the under arm to be anywhere near where it would look good (or be comfortable), I had to rip back a good two inches of knitting from the top of the back and the two front pieces.  Good thing, too, because those two inches also made the difference between a sweater whose v-neck came down more than low enough to require a camisole or other garment underneath it, and one that can be worn all on its lonesome (well, okay, with appropriate "foundation garments"). That meant that it was at least two inches too short at the ... well, waist.  I like my sweaters to come down to my hips.

And here, you can see where I picked up from the cast on edge and began knitting back down.  The cast on was in the teal blue.

 

I'm thinking it's un-obvious enough that no one will notice once I'm done.  Which should be pretty soon, as I'm running out of yarn.

Meanwhile, I've also been plinking away on the Leyburn Socks.

I'm still dithering.  Part of me sees twee smocking, suitable for twee baby dresses.  Part of me sees scales (dragon scales?).  I don't do twee.  I neither love it nor hate it, so I keep on knitting hoping that I'll feel strongly enough one way or the other to make a decision about finishing the whole pair.  I do, however, like the way they feel. So far.

On the health front, today I got up at a reasonable hour, went out for some meetings with Golf Pro, had lunch, and am home for a break before doing the kid-fetch dance.  I'm tired, but not overwhelmed with the need to nap NOW.  This is a massive improvement.  I fear that I may be pushing things a bit too far by not taking that nap, but I'm actually accomplishing something, and it's hard to stop just to sleep.

Soon, I'll return to my loom and to the long suffering Irtfa'a.

Gearing up for Flight

Ugh.

I'm packing for our trip to Maine.  This should be a lovely wonderful thing -- and it is -- but it has all sorts of not-so-fun new challenges.

Challenge 1: For reasons that have not been revealed to me, the Universe has bestowed upon me an extra eight or so pounds -- within the past month.  This means that my clothes do not fit.  While I can fake it around the house, I discovered that I can't fake it with anything other than elastic waisted pants.  The only ones of those that I own, are clearly intended for a work-out and not for, oh, say, going out to dinner.

But it's AUGUST you say.  Who needs long pants?

People going to Mid-Coast Maine, that's who. 

I checked the 10-day weather outlook.  

Tomorrow, when we'll be arriving by PLANE late in the evening, the high will have been about 85.  That's the hottest they think it will get the whole time we're there (happy dance -- yay to no 90+ degree days).  The next day it'll get to 81, and cooler thereafter.  But, around there, that means that it will be more like 60 at night.  For me, that means long pants are in order.

And that meant a bit of shopping today.

Now, I'm not trying to replace my wardrobe, far from it -- I intend to give BACK these extra pounds as soon as I can.  But, I did need a pair of jeans and a pair of .... better than jeans pants to wear.  And I did need a pair of shorts or two. 'Cause pretty much everything is suddenly too small.

Shopping means trying on pants.  Lots of pants. 

It also meant rediscovering the madness that is sizing when it comes to women's clothes.  In my youth, back when I was sleek as a seal, and had scandalously low body fat, I went to a store to try on dresses.  That day, I found that the two that fit me best were a size 2 and a size 12.  Today, I tried on many pairs of pants.  I found a 14 that would not go over my thighs, and a 14 that would not have stayed up had I let them go... there was room for a pillow or two in there with me.  Eventually, I found a pair of jeans, a pair of black pants, a pair of capris and a pair of shorts on o-my-god sale, and came home with them all. No, they are not all the same size.  Not even close. Sigh.

Challenge 2: Did I mention the plane?  Planes mean a couple of things:

We cannot simply find ten books apiece and chuck them into the back of the car because weight is not an issue.  Likewise, if we insist on bringing a TV series season with us, we can bring only one, because, well, weight is an issue. 

Also, we have to be aware that putting things in a suitcase that goes under the plane costs something obscene, so we want to avoid it. On the other hand, you can't actually carry your full toiletries kit in a bag on board the plane with you unless you don't actually intend to wash your hair more than about twice over the course of the week, and you intend to forgo moisturizer etc. for the duration, so you need to put something under the belly of the plane.

Then there's the knitting thing.  I'll "only" be gone for a week.  But since I don't have to spend any of that time actually DRIVING across the country, I'll have time to knit -- like say, on the plane!  That means I'll need to take knitting.  Which (as always) means I have to choose.  But this time, I can't just chuck four knitting bags crammed full of yummy yarn, and my whole Options set  into the back of the car (yep, a lovely blend of the weight thing, and the only so much room in the bag with all the shampoo (three girls -- three kinds of shampoo) that's going under the plane.  This time I have to be sane about it all.

Oh yeah, and the laptops.  The laptops aren't so bad by themselves, but DANG those chargers are heavy!  Do we carry them on board (and thus, haul them through whichever airport it is we're changing planes in)? Or do we trust the airlines not to break them if we put them in the suitcase under the belly of the plane?  There will be .... liquids in there you know.  And yarn of course.  And books (even with a reduced count, I don't want to haul that much reading material around an airport).

Challenge 3:  Shopping was delayed today while we stopped over at "Convenient Care".  I have this... bump just under my eye.  It was small and so subtle that I didn't even notice it for it's first couple of WEEKS living there (the kids did, but I never actually saw it).  But today, it suddenly decided to grow. So... I thought I'd stop in to make sure it wasn't something truly evil.

Guess what they've decided to do at Convenient Care?  They've decided to let all the folks who can't plan ahead for obvious stuff that happens every fall bring their kids in for sports physicals. Convenient Care is for folks who have gotten sick, like TODAY, and can't get a doctor's appointment today or tomorrow.  It's not supposed to be for folks who just couldn't get their acts in gear to make appointments for sports physicals.

That meant that those of us with actual problems (not that mine was a big problem -- I'd have waited a few days for a regular appointment had we not been boarding a plane tomorrow), had to wait an hour in the waiting room, and then a good half hour in the little exam rooms. It felt like going to the Health Center when I was in College.  Ordinarily, Convenient Care has you out the door, prescription in hand, in half an hour unless you're REALLY sick.

Sigh.

Diagnosis: I have a sty in my eye. (I find it interesting to note that sties can be brought about by increased stress.)  I get to pick up antibiotics drops in the morning. And I get to put warm compresses on my eye as often as possible. That should be fun on the plan, don't'cha think?  (No, I did not attempt warm compresses in the stores).

Challenge 4:Actually CHOOSING knitting that will keep me entertained for a week without clogging up the suitcase.

So, today, while dithering, I decided that Emily was going to be too small the way she was started, so I frogged her.  And then remembered that I hadn't photographed her.  Sorry.

I'll be starting again with some Zephyr in a similar but darker color. Frankly, I'd rather use the silk, but I won't have nearly enough to make the shawl as big as I like them (note to self: quit trying shawl patterns that want under 800 yards of yarn) I'll be casting on LOTS more stitches.... perhaps even on the plane.

I also decided that I want to knit the Leyburn socks, and pulled some sock yarn out of the stash.

I'll likely still be knitting them at Stitches... with yarn I bought at Stitches two years ago.

Currently, the pile o' yarn also includes Irtfa'a (so I can show my Dad the crochet hook holder in use), the socks I'm knitting for DH, the Lovlund sweater (I hope to wear it on the trip) and a shawl I'm designing out of some yummy Piece of Vermont Yarn.  I may have to cut that down... we'll see.

But through it all, I keep in mind:

1) I DO get to visit Mom this year!! yay

2) I don't have to drive a thousand miles there, or a thousand miles back.

Faithfully Faithless ... Interminably

I have been ..... unfaithful...... and yet, in my unfaith, faithful.

Despite my keen desire to finish Irtfa'a, the interminable nature of the edging has weakened my resolve.  I've knit and beaded and knit, and knit and beaded and knit, and still, despite two diligent weeks of effort, I've yet to hit the center panel.  I've not even made it to the 58 repeats that would have gotten me to the center of the shawl had I not added to it.

And so, I've allowed myself to be distracted ...

... by being faithful to the members of Seasons of Lace, whose season changed on Monday. Season changes mean lots of work for me.  Plenty to do keeps me distracted from lace edging that won't end. Here's a basic list of the major tasks involved in season changes (each, of course, has many steps):

1. Running the raffles for prizes that are awarded to those who posted in various categories based on size or other attributes of the projects (beaded, self designed, handspun), including adding up how many entries each person has earned.

2. Determining winners for the judged categories (including, of course, rounding up the nominees), and building posts that reveal who all the nominees are. (While I know this part isn't interminable, it seems that way -- every day I've got another whole swack of nominations (okay I do ask for them), so sort and, where appropriate, add links and images to the posts I'm building, and sometimes to the poll I'm building).

3. Setting things up so that the members can vote for the Viewers' Choice award.

4. Building new Prize and Sponsor pages for the upcoming seasons; and of course, updating the Prize and sponsor pages for the now past season, announcing who won which prize.

5. Registering all the new users. (More daily efforts that never seem to end).

By being faithful to my family.  Secretly, quietly, I've been knitting along on a sock. Yes. It's true, there's a sock. It's for Golf Pro.  And now that it's gotten to the foot part, it's easy knitting in line.

Funny thing about this sock.  It was looking all... skinny, what with the elastic in the yarn pulling things in.  So I fretted that it would have wound up too small for Golf Pro's full sized man feet.  So I had Bookworm try on the sock, since green is her favorite color.  It fit her.  She wants it.  But... it  also fits the Golf Pro. So it's his sock.

I'm also being faithful to the folks who are knitting a sock of my design.  Evidently there's an error or something in the instructions for the Illinois Corn Prairie Sock.  I'm tickled to death that it's one of the sock of the month KAL's in the 50 Socks 50 States book's Ravelry group.  I'm not so tickled that this problem, which caused one knitter fits, got past both of my testers.  This means that I'm re-knitting the heel of the sock.

 

I've  found part of the problem --- a wee typo.  I so hate wee typos.

And, I've even figured out a way to let casting on for something entirely new be "being faithful"!  you see, Seasons of Lace often runs a KAL (or two) each season.  And this season we're going to be knitting Emily Dickinson.  So, I'm joining in.

And there, were have just under half of the stitches cast on.  I do so hate patterns that start with cast on an interminable number of stitches. Well, okay, 545, but still. There are 275 stitches on that needle.  I took a rest and went back to working on the sock heel.

Better still, Kitty will be knitting one too!  We'll be Emilying all over the house in lace-ly solidarity.

Meanwhile, I may need to go back to the labyrinth --

Even during that part in the middle where you begin to wonder whether the path you're walking on ends, you know that the center is there to reach.  And once you've enjoyed the peace at the center the journey out is just as long, but you know it ends.  Though it begins to seem as though everything  I'm knitting has no end, just like the labyrinth, I know there's a center, and I know there's an end.

Happy Solstice -- still no flight.

As of Saturday morning, I had 38 repeats of Irtfa'a's edging done.

I thought to myself, "Clearly, finishing this shawl by Monday night is right out of the realm of possibilities."  and that wasn't even counting the fact that I had a party to throw that evening.

I did try to make it a party where knitting wasn't insane --The Divine Though Blogless Elizabeth was there.  CGirl, whom those of you who read Seasons of Lace might recognize, was there.  I even imported knitters - Janna came all the way from Iowa!  But ya know, a party where more than half of the people are non-knitters is not a place to work on beaded wonders.  Especially when you're the hostess.

The Golf Pro contributed lovely flowers to the decorations:

I don't think he remembers that these were prevalent at our wedding, but he brings them to me every so often anyway.  I love it!  Three stems are plenty to make the house smell lovely!

So... there was Sunday.  Ordinarily, Sunday would be a good day to make progress -- maybe to get to, say the half way point of that edging?  But THIS Sunday was Father's day, so we did what Golf Pro wanted to do.  That did leave knitting time while he watched golf, but it also involved grocery shopping to get the ingredients to make a new recipe.  Here is the stuffed flank steak before it hit the oven:

Notice the odd shape?  That meant that though I was able to roll it up and cook it, and it did taste lovely, it did not come out looking like anything that you want to take pictures of, much less take pictures and show them to the world on your blog.  It was well received by one and all, so I may yet do it again.  If I do, I'll work on the shaping thing, and will take a picture if I ever get one that looks as good as it tastes

Today was all about the appointments and the driving to and fro.  PT was a good thing, but those new exercises, and the intensity of the deep tissue work meant that this afternoon -- mostly I iced my shoulder (not a knitting friendly activity).

So, as the sun starts sinking on this, the longest day of the year, I've finished a whopping 42 repeats of the ending.  At least I'm "off book" as it were, and no longer need to read the chart for every row.  I've got about a good two dozen repeats left to get to the center section (note, that does not say the middle point).

This evening, we're headed out to do a labyrinth walk to celebrate the solstice (There WAS an official knitters' Solstice Walk that started about an hour ago, but it was over 90 degrees when they started, and the walk is through an open sunny prairie -- I'm too wimpy.  We're bailing and doing a shorter more solitary labyrinth walk instead.  I will likely take the Golf Pro's sock to work on, as I'm at that lovely section of the foot where you just knit and knit and knit.....spiraling along just like the labyrinth's path.

Seasons of Lace 'sSpring season ends at midnight.  Tomorrow --- SUMMER of Lace begins!

I actually finished something!

Yes, it's true.

After months of knitting socks two rows at a time, and knitting and frogging lace things, and re-working charts for projects that I hadn't intend to knit at all... I've finished, bound off, woven in, bathed, dried and given away a pair of socks!

I've even gotten the pattern for this particular pair of socks 80% written!

And... I'm back on track with Wings of Bambu.

It's good to know that at least somewhere things are on track.

Ahhhhh.......

What a glorious weekend.

On Thursday, I loaded these things into my car:

a bag full of this:

(well, there was more, but I spun it),

and bags filled with this

and yes, that black blob is Irtfa'a

which has now reached the shiny black blob stage,

and this

which you may not recognize as the lace cowl.  That's because once I finished it,  I discovered that it was far to big around, so I frogged it, re-did it's chart, and am starting again.

Then I stuffed another bag in the car in which I had put the Wolf Hoodie, and two different sock projects.  A girl has to have options.

Once all this stuff was loaded (oh, yeah, and a bag of clothes and such), I ran away from home ... to Whichy's house.

I picked her up at work, took her to her parents' house, where we enjoyed  a lovely dinner, and then headed toward "home" via the grocery store where we bought some sinfully good ice cream.  In the morning, I got to sleep in.  I was treated to a very tasty smoothie for breakfast, and introduced to a new temptation that I almost wish I didn't know about.  Okay, that's not fair... others have introduced me to this temptation before, but somehow having so many samples to try pushed me right over the edge. That consumed lots of time as I browsed the myriad options for exquisite smells.  I sniffed "Imps" and made lists and joined the Ravelry of Scents, and even wound up with a winning bid on e-bay.

It did not, however, stop me from employing my wheel.  First thing I did was Navajo Ply some stuff I'd spun up the last time I spent a weekend with Whichy spinning.  I got this wee thing from the very last bit I'd spun

 

and this from singles that had been waiting patiently on its bobbin

 

(which now looks like this).

We watched a great video by Abby Franqumont on drafting (during which I learned a lot), and I started to spin something else in an attempt to use what I'd just learned.

My wheel was not cooperative.  Sure, it would let me ply some stuff, but when I started spinning -- well -- lets just say I wound up fighting my wheel every step of the way.  Whichy, generous soul that she is, took a break from her own spinning to let me try her wheel...

And I grabbed up some fiber I'd gotten from DyakCraft's (formerly Grafton Fiber Arts) ColorWays Club last year, and spun up two full bobbins of this

And then plied it up

 

Until it looked a lot like this

 

Which ultimately looks like this:

We also made this:

 

That, my friends is some seriously yummy mushroom soup.  We started mushrooms, and leeks, and mushrooms, and scallions, and mushrooms, and garlic, and mushrooms, and onions, and cream, and thyme and butter, and oh, yeah, mushrooms. There was cleaning and chopping and sauteing and stirring.... and then savoring.

I drove home today, and when I started this post, I was ensconced in my knitting chair surrounded by family I stayed away from long enough to miss, watching Castle......

Finishing... despite the starting....

Just for the record, weaving in ends is not my favorite thing to do.

And these mitts..... dang do they have ends!

I'd forgotten how many ends tip down gloves generate.  And then, well, with the two-color thing going on, there are, some how, more than twice as many.

Dang.

I was all psyched to say Done! and DONE... but was beginning to think it'd be a couple of days before that happens.  Something about burning out on end weaving (not to mention finger grafting).  This meant that I'd weave, and kitchener, until I want to throw it across the room, then set the thing down and do anything else for awhile.

And the anything else is so distracting!

There's the man-lace socks...  Well, they were gonna be man-lace socks, but the man-lace pattern is doing nothing for me in this yarn.

Nada...

Again... far too fussy for what you get out of it at this gauge.  Froggity froggity.

And then this morning I was attacked by a ball of Sirdar Snuggly Bamboo Baby, which would not relent until I'd cast on for a cowl.

And of course, the ever beloved Irtfa'a, who is declining further photography for the time being.

But none-the-less... we have gloves

Whining prevention: knit progress

If I were going to talk about today, I'd be whining all day about hip pain.  I THINK I'm glad that I've got this new physical therapist... but today, it hurts.

So... instead, it's time to reveal the sweater that has me in this tizzy.

So, here are legs.  Soon, there will be a wolf body --

And yes, there are pockets

See, multiple circs, many strands of yarn... It's a mess.  But it'll be wonderful in the end. 

And... my socks... seem wonderful to me already

Why was it I tried so hard to make this sock complicated?  it's so much happier as a simple rib.

Oh -- and one more  thing. I've received no comments since TypePad converted me to the "new" typepad.  If you've tried, I didn't get it.  So... even if you've nothing much to say, can you just drop a comment in so I know that it still works??

Blogging distractions and the pervasiveness of plastic

Wow.  I logged in to blog today, and was completely lost.  They've  converted me to the "new TypePad".  So far, I'm not happy.  We'll see if I adapt after I get past the shock of the unfamiliar, or if I stay unhappy enough to move.  I do not yet know how this will affect my blogging behavior.  I'll try not to let it dissuade me too much.

I do know that a couple of things lately have conspired to slow down the blogging.  Some are fun, some are not.

Not Fun: spending what feels like a gazillion hours over the past week playing with spreadsheets and financial programs.  I'm almost caught up.  When I'm done for the day, the last thing I want to do is spend more time with the computer.

A blend of fun and not fun: Working slavishly for Seasons of Lace.  It does involve more spreadsheets (not fun), but it also involves e-mailing with yarn dyers and vendors (FUN) and lots of little Feelings of Accomplishment  (more fun) when I get to add a new prize to the spread sheets (and the Prize and Sponsor pages)(less fun but still fun to see it grow).

Fun: writing all the posts to the Seasons of Lace blog about the fun new prizes we've got to award this year and the wonderful discounts I'm rounding up for participants

Another Blend:  Knitting Kitty's Wolf Hoodie.  Knitting is generally fun.  This knitting is ... more complicated than I generally like, but it's all my own damned fault.  So it's fun and frustrating all at once.  I think I'll write this pattern up to be simpler to work.  Right now I've got a blend of regular knitting, double knitting, intarsia, and stranded knitting all going on at once.  If nothing else, this means that I have about 9 yarns and two circular needles happily getting tangled together.  That second circ is because, in addition to double knitting the pockets, I got this stupid idea to hem the pocket and front edges..... don't ask.  It's even big enough to get a decent picture now -- but I can't take one today because BookWorm borrowed my camera yesterday and took so many pictures she drained the battery.

Not Fun:  I frogged the Socks of the ever changing patterns.  Though two inches of the pattern I'd come up with looked great -- five did not.  At least not in this yarn.  I've given up and ripped  it back ... again.

Fun: the simple ease of knitting 4x2 seeded ribbing.  That sock WILL get finished... I actually like this three inches in. (Again, no pic b/c BookWorm used up the camera battery).

Fun: I've been indoctrinated into a new game.  Ages ago -- longer than almost any of my readers have known me, I played Dungeons and Dragons.  I enjoyed it immensely.  I've not played a Role Playing Game (RPG) in nigh onto twenty years.  But I've just joined a group of my friends in a game of Champions.  It's another RPG, but this time, instead of playing characters that belong in a medieval fantasy world, we're in a world much like today's world except that there are superheroes in it.  My character is a superhero who just got her powers a couple of months ago.  She/I can do things like cause minor earthquakes, make it rain, cause fog....  And I have a weakness (just like Superman).  I have, what is in effect, a type of allergy to petrochemicals.  In theory, it's an uncommon thing that will affect me about as often as Superman's kryptonite gets to him.  But the more that I thought about it... the more I realized that without some modification it could be crippling 90% of the time.  It's basically not possible to get through your day without handling a LOT of plastic.

My alarm clock has a plastic case.  To shut off the sound, I hit a plastic button.

My shower door looks like glass.  I'm going to pretend it's glass, but I'm pretty sure the handle isn't actually metal.  In the shower, my shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel all come in plastic containers.  I'm not sure you can actually get any of those things in glass containers -- but if you can, the lids are sure to be plastic.  My razor's handle is plastic.My face wash is also in a plastic container, as is the toning spray and lotion I use.  My toothbrush is plastic, as are it's bristles.  And the toothpaste, of course, is also in a plastic container.

Getting dressed, I note that even if I have 100% cotton shirts, if there are buttons, they're likely to be plastic.  That 100% silk dress -- has a plastic zipper.  Those of us who wear bras realize, if we think about it, that the "rubber" in the elastic that makes them work well -- is really man-made and thus plastic.  My socks, of course, are wool -- or wool and nylon -- but if I wear stockings -- well, they're not made of silk anymore.

I'm fairly certain that the carpet I walk on is not 100% wool. Thus, my bare feet tread on -- plastic.  When I put shoes on, most of the parts on most shoes are plastic.  I do own one pair that is all leather... but they're a rare find.

In the kitchen: the knobs on the stove are plastic.  The lid for the coffee can is plastic.  The container in which the dish soap comes and lives is plastic.  The refrigerator is a plastic zone... And very little of the food that comes in from anywhere but the produce aisle is not encased in some sort of plastic -- even if the box is cardboard.

If I go somewhere beyond my neighborhood, I'm likely to take the car.  My character in this game would have to have, for example, leather seats in her car so she doesn't sit on plastic ('cause cloth seats are generally NOT made of natural fibers).  But look more closely.  The body of your car is unlikely to be metal anymore.  Certainly the handle you use to open the door is as likely to be plastic as not.  And the key -- like most there's a remote opener made of ... plastic.  The steering wheel can have a leather wrap, and the gear shift could be fitted, but the dash is plastic, the knobs are plastic, the windshield wiper knob is plastic.... etc.

If I stay home...The keyboard of the computer on which I type are plastic (as is the computer case). Should I choose to write by hand, the chance that I'll get my hands on a pen that's not made of plastic is slim.  And the mechanical pencils I so prefer -- also plastic.

My knitting needles tend to be metal or wood -- but I use circulars which have -- yes, you guessed it -- plastic cables.  Though I do own a metal needle sizer, most are plastic.  The beads for my shawl are glass, but their container is plastic.  My stitch markers live in a plastic container.  My measuring tape is plastic.... even the patterns are tucked safely into plastic sleeves.

The television I watch while doing my less challenging is plastic, as are the remotes that let me sit instead of walking across the room.  The chair in which I sit is covered in a fabric that is at least partly acrylic (plastic).  The glasses that I wear so that I can see across the room have both plastic frames and plastic lenses (and let's not even discuss contacts).

My character in the game is a jeweler.  Sure, she works with metal and gems, but the tools -- those needle nose pliers are very likely to have "rubber" (meaning man-made plastic) coatings on the handles.  The thread one uses to string beads is plastic as often as it is anything else.

I wonder... is it possible any more to live a life without plastic?

Win/Fail

I've got good news and bad news, knitterly speaking. 

On the good news front, I've finally settled on a "pattern" for that Fleece Artist yarn I've been fussing with.  I went through at least four permutations...starting with this one...

and going through a number of others.  But now... I've gotten into the groove and have actually knit several inches of sock!

On the bad news front, I'm merrily knitting away on Must Have's button band.  We have, of course, hit the moment during which one makes button holes.  I'm fine with button holes, but I do like to check the button hole against the buttons -- before making 7 of them.  I mean seriously, if the button can't fit through the button hole, it's nothing more than a decorative addition (and keeps the sweater from being quite as warm as it might be).

I have excellent buttons for this sweater.  Totally excellent buttons.

And they're hiding.

So... I won't be finishing this row until I find the buttons.  And thus, I won't be finishing that button band tonight.

A Sock ... or at least a Start

A while ago, I started a sock with some yummy yarn that I found in Maine (where the sheep from which sprung grew, and where it was dyed...). As much as I love the patterning of this yarn I find that I'm just not thrilled with the color.

And every time I start to knit, I find myself grumbling about the  base color. It's too... salmony perhaps?

 

Now this may be because this is ball two of the French Twist yarn, and ball one was a richer red,

and evidently that's what I really want. This ball of yarn may well have to wait until I'm over my first love, and am prepared to deal with this ball on its own merits.

So... I'm moving on in another direction completely. I've plucked the French Twist cuff from the needles, and set it aside.

And I've cast on anew with completely different yarn.

Well, okay, not COMPLETELY different. There's still a bit of a red thing going on, though this is more burgundy. And, in fact, as it knits up, it looks more brown than red. Anyway, this is Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in what I believe to be the color Vintage -- but they don't like to actually put the colorway information on their labels, so I can't be sure.

I've not made a lot of progress, but I'd much rather blog about socks than contemplate this afternoon's drive to St. Louis, or the scarier prospects of tomorrow's visit to Children's Hospital with Bookworm. Even though its only for tests, and none of them are invasive, I still don't like to spend time pondering.

Back to the sock. Or, more particularly, casting on for the sock and getting started. I use the German Twisted Cast On. (That page has a nice step by step pictorial)

This is one video of it, though the last step is a bit hard to follow.

There's another, much better, that I can't embed (evidently, there's a way to request that your video is not embeddable). It's here.

In searching out those, I found Lucy Neatby's video on the same thing.  And I realized that she does it ever so slightly differently than I do.  I'll have to investigate whether there's a real difference in the end. This may actually cause me to finally do a video, and then figure out how to upload it here.

Anyway, when I cast on for socks (or anything on dpns for that matter), I use a little trick that I find makes the whole joining without twisting part much easier.  I mean it's hard enough on a circular needle without the various dpns spinning about putting invisible twists in your cast on before you get them tamed.  So.  I cast all the stitches onto one needle, if at all possible.  At most, I cast them onto two.

Then, I slip 1/2 of the stitches onto a second needle and set them out as if they're still on one:

So far, not so tricky.  Then I fold this pair as though they were pages in a book, with the yarn coming from the back needle, and line up the stitches.

It's very easy to detect twistiness if you do this carefully.  Next, I'll knit half of the stitches off the front needle (or work them in whatever pattern is required) onto a third dpn.  The second half of those front needle stitches belong to the fourth dpn. 

Now, often, at this stage, I find that I've an hellaciously long tail.  I get that long tail because I live in fear of running out of tail yarn before I finish casting on.  The German Twisted Cast On really does use up more yarn than a regular long tail (Lucy says it's four times the width instead of the familiar three times the width), butit's so worth it, because it's noticeably stretchier.  I hate wasting that yarn.  Especially if I'm not really sure I'll have enough to make longer cuffs. So here's where I get a little strange.

Once I've knit (or otherwise worked) half of my first round of knitting, I'll go back to the 'beginning of the round', and without turning the needles, work what ought to have been the last stitches of the round from the 'wrong side' using the tail!  Usually, I don't actually get past one needle's worth (i.e half of the stitches that were on the back needle), but sometimes I'll knit that whole back needle!  Then I turn things around so I'm going forwards again with the real working yarn,

and work the remaining stitches from the cast on row onto the fifth needle (or where ever it was that I stopped using the tail).  At the end of these shenanigans, I'll have worked one round, and I'll have moved the "end of round" point to where-ever it was that I had used up enough of the tail yarn to leave me a nice bit to weave in, but not so much that I'm wasting yarn.

In this case, I started out with a random 2x2 rib because I'd not chosen a pattern.  After a bit of fussing, I ripped that back, and set forth with a 4x2 rib.  I'm pretty sure I'll be knitting the 9 to 5 socks (Ravelry Link) from All Buttoned Up.  I like them. (Who cares if I was gonna be designing... I have hospital tests to sit through! I want a bit of blind following dammit).

See, brown.  Whatever.  I'm enjoying the yarn anyway.  And even though I don't really want brown, I'm much more comfortable with this color than I was with the French Twist ...  I'm curious as to how the single rows of bright stitches will play in the twisted stitchery in the 9 to 5 socks.  But now, I must pack these in the travel bag, and prepare to drive....

A Look at Vermont

Deep Breath.

First, I'm home.  It was a long road home, and I arrived exhausted.  But now that I've slept a couple of times, I'm ready to review the last few days of our trip.

On our first full day in Vermont, we went to the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum (Ethan Allen's last home).  These black locust trees are a couple hundred years old.

This is the "kitchen garden".  It's lovely and huge, and full of all sorts of interesting things.  Even so, it's much smaller than it was in Ethan's time.  (Ethan, for those not in the know, captured Fort Ticonderoga at the start of the Revolutionary War, and was the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, a paramilitary group that was integral to the formation of Vermont as a state).

And this, is the view from Ethan's home.  That river you see is the Winooski River.

One final shot -- Ethan Allen's bed.  I love hangings around beds.  I know they were there to keep the bed warm at night, and are not really intended to be lovely.  But I still think they're pretty.

It was an interesting museum, I suppose.  Especially if you're interested in American History surrounding the Revolutionary War and/or the formation of Vermont as a separate state (the land used to be controlled by New York and/or New Hampshire).  My father .was very interested in it all.  The girls, not so much.

To counteract the history hit, we went to see G-Force on our second day.  Very silly movie.  Lots of fun.  The phrase "poop in his hand" will cause laughter for weeks to come.

There was also knitting.. of course.  

While I was knitting, Kitty was learning to whittle.

 

On the knitting front, I finished a sweater for Bookworm, and came to a decision point in Natalia. I'm not following the exact color patterning from the design, because, well, they don't make a nice DARK teal to work with the main color of the sweater.  Here are the two options I considered for the corrugated ribs on the sleeves.

Option A

 

Naturally, having knit this one, I second guessed myself, and knit a different version.

 

Then I sat there looking at the two sleeves for a while before deciding on the final version.  Since I'm a snotty blogger, I'm going to let you guess which one I chose.

However, since I'm not a completely nasty blogger, I'm going to fess up to which yarn I bought in Brunswick:

 

I chose the Tomato.  I might have chosen differently, had I not really wanted a deep red when I bought the French Twist.  The second skein is not nearly as deep a red as the original.  The new one now looks a bit like this:

 

Tomorrow... kids on bikes, finished sweaters, and the sleeve choice revealed.

(Comments Closed due to spammers)

A Tutorial -- Stretchy Sock Cuffs

I've been telling you for days that I'm only a few rows from finishing the Jitterbug Socks.  Well, this morning, I sat myself down with the socks and the camera and finished them off.  Since I did a new-to-me, slightly funky bind off for this toe up sock, I thought I'd share.

Now, I was doing a 2x1 rib for the cuff, but I'd decided that I wanted a tubular bind off for the top.  A tubular bind off works really well with a 1x1 rib, but not so much with the 2x1.  What's a girl to do??

I'm sure there are any number of options, but here's what I did.

On the second to last row of the sock, instead of my happy 2 x 1 rib, I worked bar increases into the first knit of every pair.  In other words, kfb (knit into the front and back of the first knit stitch), k1, p1.   It looks something like this:

You can see the little bars between the two knit stitches.

Then, I slid all of the stitches on the first needle of the round onto the second needle, so that I had two empty dpns to work with.  I could as easily have grabbed another needle (or a nice circ), but I'm away from my home needle collection.  Having gotten two needles available, I then slipped the knit stitches on to one needle (and held it toward the front) and all the purl stitches onto another (and held it toward the back).  This was a bit fiddly, as it was slip one to front needle, slip one to back needle, repeat.

Thus, from the front, it looks like this:

From the top, it looks like this:

This puts me exactly in place to start the grafting part of the tubular bind off.  I started a bit oddly, in an effort to avoid the end-of-round jog.  I failed to photograph this fiddly bit, but I did take pictures of every step in the regular grafting process.  (See below).

1) I inserted my yarn needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to purl, and pulled the yarn through,
2) then inserted my yarn needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit, and pulled the yarn through,
3) then I inserted my needle into the first stitch on the front needle again -- though this time as if to knit and pulled the yarn through.  Instead of pulling the  stitch wholly off the needle, as one would normally do while grafting (or working the Kitchener stitch, whichever name you prefer), I slipped that stitch onto the end of the neighboring dpn before slipping the yarn needle through the next stitch on the front needle as if to purl and pulling the yarn through.
4) then, I slipped the yarn needle through the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl, and pulled the yarn through.  Again, instead of sliding the stitch off the needle and letting it fall, I slipped it onto the neighboring dpn.  Then, I insterted my yarn needle into the next stitch on the back needle as if to knit and pulled the yarn through.

This set me up for standard grafting procedure.

1:  Slip yarn needle into the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit:

2)  Slide that first stitch off the needle, and slip the yarn needle into the next stitch as if to purl

3:  Pull the yarn through, and snug it up gently.

4:  Slip the needle into the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl:

5:  Slip that stitch off the needle, and insert the yarn needle into the next stitch as if to knit:

6: Pull the yarn through and snug it up gently. 

Repeat steps 1 to 6 until you're done!

Here is the cuff after the first half of the stitches have been bound off:

Ahhh... nice, smooth and stretchy!

Soon, I'll even have pics of the socks themselves.  For now, here's the heel.

A Mellow Day to say goodbye...

A mellow day -- let's start it with some  amazing music (thanks to the Thriller who shared this).

I particularly like the opening sequence -- humans sound just like a thunderstorm!

After sleeping in for a long time, Golf Pro and I took a leisurely walk around my folks' new neighborhood.  There are some pretty nice views ... even right along the side of the main road.

There are small ponds...

Fascinating rock formations

I love the shiny white quartz with the shiny black -- the rock just came that way!

We also walked a bit onto the golf course he played while the girls and I were riding

After our walk, my folks took us to lunch, and then I drove the Golf Pro into Portland to drop him off at the airport.  I miss him already.

On my way home from the airport (cough), I nipped into an old part of Portland to visit Tess' Designer Yarns shop there.  Getting there was quite the challenge.  First, as I was trying to navigate through Portland, my directions kept telling me to make turns onto Congress Street.  But Portland doesn't seem to want to put signs up on Congress Street, so I was never sure I was actually ON Congress Street.  Then, Google had told me it was at 4 City Center, not 1 Spring Street, which is where it actually is.  Eventually, however, with the help of the wonderful man at the bookstore, I found the shop. 

Though I'm sad to have missed Melinda, I'm glad to have seen Tess.  I'm also glad to have snagged some more sock yarn (what with being about to bind off the only socks I have to knit this trip).

I  also bought this little bit of silk lace weight.  It took a long time to decide on it, and though it seems sacrilegious  to get a solid from Tess' , it's one of few solid yarns I've got.

Now... I've got to go cook dinner.  It's my mom's day off.

A Day at the Beach

Mondays are better beach days than, say, Sundays.  On Mondays, some of the folk who would otherwise go to the beach are at work.  So... Monday came, and it was sunny still, so we went to the beach!

Now that Mom lives in Topsham instead of Bremen, we're much closer to Popham Beach than to any other.  Mind you, that's not that close.  Because in Midcoast Maine, no matter where you intend to go, it's very likely that you have to drive down to the end of some peninsula.  Popham Beach (this link goes to a web cam) is like that.  But it's a wonderful beach.

When we arrived, the tide was mostly still out.  That meant that the sandbar was fully exposed, and folks could walk out to That little island.

Alll the beach you see in this shot is covered during high tide.

See the folks walking out?

We walked up and down the beach.  In some areas, behind that island for example, the water was pretty warm.  Out of the lee of the island and the sand bars, the water was pretty chilly.  While there, we met our friends the Jordans (the father of that family is a wonderful cellist, about whom you've heard before and will again).  Finding the other kids renewed the girls' interest in being wet, and allowed us grown ups to chat amiably in our beach chairs.

Eventually, the tide started coming in.  The life guards wandered by and warned us that within an hour, the place we were happily ensconced would be under water.  We nodded, and smiled, and kept chatting.  Then Golf Pro returned to his book.  Five pages later the water looked like this:

Not the absence of nice uncovered sand bar?  Yeah, we packed up our blanket and moved.

Among the visitors to the beach was .....

The Jitterbug socks!  Yes, they're still on the needles... but then again, I did have to frog and reknit them after we had some yarn issues.  At the time of this posting, I'm binding off sock one, and have ten rows to knit before binding off sock two.  I'll tell you more about that when I've photographed it.

All in all, it was a pleasant, if slightly chilly and very windy beach day.  We were about ready to pack it in for good anyway, when the rain finally showed up.  That made it easier to persuade the girls to come away.

(Amusing to me:  when we got "home" to Topsham, we learned that it had POURED there.  The sun gods liked me Monday).

Tuesday -- more athleticism and some music.