January RSC - Done

The first pair of socks for this year's Rockin' Sock Club is finished. I got done at around 10:15 Saturday night and wore them to church on Sunday morning.


They're certainly pretty socks, but I did end up having a problem with them. Well, one problem other than the whole "making this many bobbles makes my hands hurt and bends my size 0 needles" problem. I finished the first sock, tried it on, and found that at fit just right. I finished the second sock, tried it on and found that the cuff is a little on the snug side.



It's snug on me, but that's a photo of my foot double, Daughter, who's feet are about the same size as mine, but who's calves are more slender. It turns out that when I started the second sock I knew what I was doing and ended up knitting it more tightly than I did the first one. The thought of ripping back the entire sock to fix the problem makes me nauseous, so I'll just have to remember to put that sock on my left foot, since it's slightly smaller than the right one. If I ever use this pattern again, I'll be making the cuff on larger needles, then going down a couple of sizes for the leg and foot.

The Saturday List

Today I went to see a play. It was a good play, the Cotton Patch Gospel, but it was in a town about 60 miles away from where I live, so it did eat up quite a bit of my day. Going to see a play brings to mind other things I've done for entertainment, so today's list is:

Movies I've Enjoyed Lately

1. Avatar. This was a family event, and we all sat together in the theater wearing the silly 3D glasses.

2. Eight Legged Freaks. This is not the movie to see if you're looking for a "serious" horror movie. It's silly and it knows it.

3. Inside Man. This is a heist movie, and a really good one. I've recently seen it on TV, so the spicier dialog was edited out. Probably for the best.

4. Gosford Park. This is a British murder mystery, but more of a study of the life of some hoity toitys versus the servants who live "below stairs."

5. The Thirteenth Warrior. This is Michael Crichton's version of Beowulf. Antonio Banderas and a bunch of Norse dudes fighting mysterious bear-men.

6. Citizen X. I saw this one on Showtime when it came out in '95. I have an interest in serial killers, and this is a well done movie about one of the most prolific ones.

7. Aliens. I know I've seen Alien, but it was 20 years ago, and only the one time. I've seen this one several times. I especially enjoy it when Burke gets eaten.

8. Monte Python and the Holy Grail. Daughter had never seen it before, so we watched it together the other day. She enjoyed much of it, though some of the humor went over her head. She understood, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries," though.

9. The Men Who Stare at Goats. I did enjoy this movie, although I had already seen all of the funny parts in the trailers.

10. Lake Placid. Another creature movie that doesn't take itself seriously and is extremely funny.

Bobble, Bobble, Toil and Trobble

I've been working on the Rockin' Sock Club sock from the January kit. There were two patterns, and I chose Flabella. It features a mostly purl base with a couple of lines of knitting with some bobbles thrown in for fun. I chose this pattern because the second pattern was fairly lacey, and lacey socks do me no good in Chicago weather.

You can't really see them very well in the photo, but there are 15 bobbles in the first row of the cuffs. This is the first of 3 repeats of this fan patterns for a sock in size small.

There's two repeats done, and let me tell you my fingers were in some pain at this point. I'm using size 0 needles ( for the non-knitters, that's about the diameter of a round toothpick,) and knitting at firmly as I comfortably can, but I'm still not getting gauge. So I'm making a size small pair of socks to fit my size medium feet.

It's a lovely sock, but I'm going to need to cast on the second sock right away. If I stop now I might not be able to convince myself that it's worth it to pick them back up again in a month or two.

Besides, my fingers are already stained red from the dye that wasn't rinsed out of the yarn.

That, but First, This

Rockin Sock Club members be aware


If I'm counting correctly, I just finished my seventh knitted object for the year. The pair of socks that I showed on Saturday with the knot in the yarn are done and ready for Daughter's feet. To maintain consistency the yarn mill kindly put a knot in the second ball of yarn as well.

I was tempted to put them on Dart's feet, but he really doesn't like it when you play with his feet. He's been known to rend flesh when his feet are messed with. I haven't yet had a knitting related wound this year, and I'd like to keep it that way, so I just put them near his feet. He was OK with that.

I needed to finish up those socks, because yesterday the mail man brought me this:

The first package from the Rockin' Sock Club. There was a skein of STR lightweight in a color called Happy Go Lucky, a bumper sticker, a button, a mini-skein of "emergency" yarn, two different patterns, several pages of dyer's notes, and some handy reference pages.

I just finished winding the ball and there are NO knots! This will be a welcome change from that last pair of socks.

The Saturday List

Because I emcountered not one, but two of these today, I present today's list: Pet Peeves.

1. Walking into the bathroom and discovering that my hairbrush is not sitting next to the sink. That's where I leave it. Always. If it's missing it means that Daughter has absconded with it and who knows where it might be. This has caused me to have a new appreciation for how my Dad felt when Brother "borrowed" his tools and didn't put them back where he got them from.

2. Our kitchen sink has two compartments. They are both the same size, the one on the left has a disposal and the one on the right has the standard drain basket. If there are no dishes in the left side of the sink, there is NO REASON why I should walk into the kitchen and find the right compartment basket full of smelly food bits. There is a disposal 6 inches away people. 6 inches.

3. Getting this far on a sock:

and finding this:


4. People who say, "Whatever." In fact, this is outlawed in our house. If I'm talking and someone says, "Whatever" I get to slap the back of their hand. And vice-versa.

5. On Thursdays I wash all of the clothes for Husband, Daughter, and Myself. There are routinely 4 big loads of laundry for the three of us. It makes me very irritated when I start the sorting and discover that someone has put towels in with the clothing. Almost as annoying is when I find something in Daughter's hamper that I know she hasn't actually worn, it just fell off a shelf in her closet.

6. Sitting down to use my laptop and discovering that both the screen and the keyboard have a coating of something greasy/sticky/slimy. Or finding that the keys make crunching noises because of the crumbs that have fallen in.

7. It is my contention that the person who needs to be most comfortable in any vehicle is the person driving it. It therefore follows that the person who should be in charge of all controls, including but not limited to radio, heating and cooling is the operator of the vehicle. Front seat passengers should not arbitrarily change anything without at least asking first.

8. This one I've seen twice in the last week. I start to pull into the parking space next to the shopping cart corral, and there is a cart in the parking space, causing me to have to back up and find a new space. How lazy does one have to be to leave the cart NEXT TO the cart return?



For your amusement: While we were driving home from lunch today Daughter was talking to Husband about his cell phone. She was asking if there were any new downloads, and he told her that there was a new version of Yahtzee that had 6 dice instead of 5. He told her it would be 20% more fun. Daughter then asked if it was 20% more fun over all, or 20% more fun than the first Nazi?

What I Discovered

First, I need to assert that I like Cat Bordhi and her mind. She has some very creative ways of looking at the knitting world, and has created many fine patterns. I have 3 of her books and admire her greatly. That being said...

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I recently got Cat Bordhi's newest book, Personal Footprints. This is part of what she says on the back cover: "... I set myself the challenge of developing a sock-knitting process that would be as simple as humanly possible without sacrificing anything." Using my current method, I need a ball of yarn, a set of needles, and, if I'm using a new yarn, a tape measure, so to be easier than that is going to be a difficult feat.

Before you try one of the patterns in the book, she instructs you to knit a pair of Discovery Socks so that you can create the aforementioned Personal Footprint (a cardboard replica of your foot used for fitting purposes.) I can sometimes follow directions, so I did indeed make a Discovery Sock. This is what I discovered.

1. Things might be a little strange if you have to trace your footprint onto cardboard. Things are definitely a little strange when you need to have Daughter draw lines on your leg.

Yes, this is really a step in the instructions. If you don't believe me, check out page 22. Something about this doesn't seem to fall into the "simple as humanly possible" category.

2. These socks are built without a leg, at least initially.

That's a tube that's closed completely on the right side, and almost closed on the left side. The part between the white strings will be cut and removed later to put the leg in.

3. Even if it's only one stitch, and necessary for making the sock, I still really hate cutting into perfectly good knitting.

4. This "simple as humanly possible" method leaves a lot of ends to weave in when you're done.

Have I mentioned that finishing is my least favorite part of knitting? Weaving in 6 ends for one sock makes me grumpy.

5. To make the heel of the sock, you need to find the number of toe stitches you started with as well as the number of sole increases you made. These instructions take up 7 pages in the book. Even though I followed all sizing and fitting instructions as written, the heels on these guys are baggy and the leg is too narrow.

6. The finished sock looks good on.

But not so good off.


And finally, I discovered that I don't know that I actually want to make the matching sock. I'm am sorely tempted to make some of my usual socks, using the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe. But then I'd have to pull out all 6 ends and rip out both pieces of this socks. I think I may discover that this decision will be put on that back burner for a while.

The Saturday List

I have done some traveling in my life. Not as much as I would like to, but a pretty good amount for someone who grew up in a pretty remote part of the country. I have a lot of places I'd still like to see, but that can be a list for another Saturday. For today I present:

Places I'm glad I've been

1. The Dead River Basin, Ishpeming & Negaunee, Michigan. Dad built a 2 room cabin on the basin in the mid 60's. Brother and I spent nearly every weekend there every summer while we were growing up. It is, without question, my favorite place on earth.

2. South Dakota. A couple of years ago we went on vacation with my in-laws, including Brother and Sister-In-Law and Nephew. We went to South Dakota in September to watch as the buffalo were brought in from the plains for the winter. We saw a lot of stuff in the week we were there, including Bear Country, Wind Cave, the Reptile Garden, and, of course, Mount Rushmore.

3. Singapore. When I worked for Arthur Andersen (remember when that was a company?) I did a bit of traveling to do training classes. One of the trips was to Singapore, and we spent a couple of days during the trip seeing the sights. I have photos of the trip, but you'll have to come over to the house to see them since they are actual photos, and my scanner doesn't do a good job on real photos. We saw a lot of cool stuff, and ate some really good food, but the coolest part (and most touristy, to be fair) is a place called Sentosa island. There are all kinds of things to do and see. Sort of like Disney without all the rides. The mascot of the place is the Merlion, which is a couple of stories tall, with stairs so that you can climb up and look out of his mouth into Singapore harbor.

4. Courthouse Mountain, Colorado. The in-laws live in Montrose, Colorado. Their house is in town, but town is in the middle of the San Juan mountains, so it's still a pretty nice place to be. One year when we were visiting we went hiking up Courthouse Mountain. It's called that because, well, it looks like a courthouse. In the photo it's the peak on the right. Once you get to the top, it's very flat and offers a very cool view. Again, I have no photos as that trip was pre-digital camera, but I borrowed this one from another website.

5. Any campsite. We've been going camping the last couple of years, and we haven't yet been in a really terrible place. True, there was one year that we had the only campsite in the area with NO shade, but we just hung out at our friends' site next door, which was fully shady. Just the fact that we're sleeping in a tent under the stars makes it great.