Saturday, September 13, 2008

Antidote

This week has been one of those weeks. You know the sort. One of those weeks when even though nothing major goes wrong (no serious illness, job loss, financial crisis, etc.) and you've still got a lot going for you (you've got your home, food, clothes, family, friends, etc.), the week still seems awful. All the little things pile up until you think this adulthood kick is one lousy deal, and you really wish that everything would just go away and leave you alone for a little while.

This week, while I felt like I was being smothered by a gajillion little things that refused to go right (for instance, the gallon of milk that went sour more than 10 days before its sell-by date), even my knitting wasn't much help.

I've been working on the second Bayerische sock. It's actually going pretty well, and when considered on its own, I'm quite pleased with it. The problem is in comparing it to its mate:


This shows the problem even better:


They aren't the same size. I think to get a matched pair, I'm going to have to knit 3 socks. Fortunately, I have plenty of yarn for doing so. The real problem is that I'm just not that in love with this pattern. While I think it's absolutely gorgeous, I also find it a little fiddly and hard on my hands.

So as my alternative, easy, mindless sock project, I started some Jaywalkers for Mr. Darcy. I really like the Jaywalker pattern. It's easy and smooth and I can knit it while I'm reading. In less than a week, then, I got the first sock done:


Looks pretty good, no? And it even took less than half the yarn I had. There's only one problem. I'm a little nervous about the size. Are size 11 feet really that big?

(Sock that fits a ladies' 9.5 included for scale.)
So it's on hold until I see Mr. Darcy in a week and a half and can make him try it on. There's no way I'm frogging two socks, if it comes to that.

Given the state of things, what's a woman to do? What antidote can there be for all the unpleasantness and frustration, when even the knitting is involved in the conspiracy? There are, I would think, many options such as hiding under the bed, running away, or setting fire to something, but I chose a different path.

I took some very lovely, recently acquired yarn

(Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 in Blue Lagoon)
and wound it into an equally lovely yarn cake.


And then I cast on while watching Sleepless in Seattle. (I did get further than the picture suggests.)


New sock in pretty yarn while watching delightful chick flick = pretty effective antidote.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I once knitted a baby sweater that had me knitting three sleeves just so that I could get two sleeves that were close to the same size. I feel your pain.

Anonymous said...

Crap. I hate that too. And if you can't remember his foot size too well, try to remember his hand. I seem to remember the Yarn Harlot saying something about how your body is all relative or something, like your hand is right about the length of the foot before you start the toe decreases. Like your height is the same as the distance from fingertip to fingertip with your arms held out wide. Something like that. Hang in there and pet some nice yarn. It'll get better. As a matter of fact, I have some nice alpaca I'll just pet for you. As for chick flick, I'd have to go with Ever After or Princess Bride. Yes, I'm 12.

sharecropper said...

Just visited your site for the first time. You make such beautiful socks! And that yarn is scrumptious.