A Minor Setback

There's been a minor setback on the sock. When I got to the heel flap things did not turn out the way they did on sock #1. There was a different number of stitches when I got done turning the heel, and there were fewer stitches to pick up on the instep. I continued gamely on, but this morning I couldn't face the offending sock, and ripped back.

It occurs to me that I am having a houseful of people starting Friday afternoon, two of whom are allergic to anything dairy, and I have not done any shopping yet. Procrastination anyone?

Heat, Yes, Bugs, No

The socks have grown a bit since yesterday. They would have grown further, had it not been for my darling daughter.

You would think that with the outside conditions being 90 F with 65% humidity I wouldn't have been willing to go outside. Normally you'd be right, but you have to take into account the 8 year old who *needs* to go to the park across the street with her friends. It seems that a mother who won't let her daughter play with her friends whenever they appear on the doorstep is guilty of negligence and abuse of the worst sort. So we trooped over to the park twice yesterday. I didn't even bother taking the sock since the mixture of humidity and perspiration would certainly glue the stitches to the needles and make it impossible for me to slide them from one needle to the next.


On the plus side we still have not seen, or more importantly heard, any sign of cicadas yet. We're thinking that since our subdivision was only built about 20 years ago, there won't be many around here. Since Anna is a bugophobic, this is good news. We were sort of surprised Sunday when we went for a walk in the forest preserve because there were none to be heard there either. With my luck, however, they'll becoming out in full force Saturday morning, just in time for my son's graduation party.

Welcome

Hello all and welcome to my knitting blog. First let me say that because I am a newcomer to the whole blogging thing, you'll have to excuse me for any screw-ups. I will do my best to learn quickly so as to not bore everyone to death. And please try to excuse my overuse of commas. I know that I use them when I shouldn't, but I am unable to help myself. Whenever I take a mental pause, I put one in.

My name is Kathy, and I'm a knitaholic. I took up knitting 7 years ago when my daughter was 1 year old. I can't recall why I decided to try knitting, but I do know that I learned using materials from Wal-Mart and books on loan from the library. My first knitting was a pink swatch which I think I had some vague notion of turning into a scarf for my daughter. After I "got the hang of it" I abandoned that idea with about 12 inches of knitting to show for my first go round. My next project was a baby sweater. "Holy cow," you say, "a sweater isn't a beginner project! Are you crazy?" Perhaps I was but I was blessedly unaware of my faux pas. It turns out that a baby sweater is an excellent second project. I learned ribbing, increases, decreases, picking up stitches, and a cute little fake cable. It knit up fast, so I didn't get bored, and it left me with a desire to learn more.

Since then I have knit like a mad woman. My husband is sure that there is a 12 step program out there for people like me. I don't want to burst his bubble, but even if there were, we'd all be sitting there knitting while waiting for the meeting to start, knitting while people are talking about losing control of their housework, knitting and nodding along when someone stands up and tells the group that they just couldn't buy the sweater for their husband at the store because "There's no love in that sweater!"

But enough about me for now. On to the good stuff. I currently have a pair of socks on the needles (along with about 6 other projects, but I'll get to those later.) My patriotic socks are on US size1 needles (or 2.5mm for the metric fans) and are made using Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Colori/Socka Color yarn, color #1776. Do you suppose that they gave the color that name on purpose? I can't imagine that it was an accident. Anyway, I hope to have a pair for myself and a pair for my daughter finished by Independence Day.