Matching socks

Because even 16-year-old girls have occasions for which their socks really ought to match, I also made my sister a pair of matching socks. Not quite so matching as to be identical twins, but these are at least the same yarn, in the same colorway, in the same pattern and the same size. And yes, the left sock is inside-out. That was on purpose, too.


Pattern: Hypnosis by Janel Laidman
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug, in Lapis, about 240 yds used
Needles: 24" Addi turbos in US size 1.5
Size: to fit a woman's 8


I modified the pattern a little bit, to change how the pattern interacted with the heel, and I think I worked a different heel (I don't actually remember now). Jitterbug is a fun yarn (also a fun dance, by the way), although a little thicker/heavier than a lot of the sock yarns I use.

Let's do the time warp again*

I've written previously about warping spacetime. Last time, it was a week. This time, an afternoon. I'm pretty sure that I accomplish an impossibly large number of things this afternoon, especially since I started late. In about 5 hours:

• I took out the trash.
• I took care of the recycling.
• I did two loads of laundry (in the machine).
• I cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes.
• I cleaned out (and actually cleaned!) the refrigerator.
  
• I vacuumed everything (to be fair, my place is small).
• I cleaned the bathroom (sink, toilet, and tub).
• I mopped the kitchen, bathroom, and dining room.
• I hand washed my bathmat and kitchen area rug (they don't readily fit in the washer).
• I updated the anti-virus software and otherwise got my desktop fully working again.
• I hand washed all my running clothes.
• I hand washed several sweaters.
• I ate dinner.
• I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica (I came late to the party, I'm only in season 1).
  

Now, how is that all possible? Surely getting that much done in a Sunday afternoon requires some sort of warping of the spacetime continuum. Or Mary Poppins-like abilities to make things take care of themselves, but I'm sure I don't have that, since I remember doing all of those things I said, and I'm sure if things could put themselves away, my place would be even neater.

Anyway, you didn't come here to read about my mind-bogglingly productive afternoon. You came to read about knitting. Which I really have been doing, despite what recent posts might lead you to believe. As usual, I have several (four, to be precise) things on which I'm actively working, and I don't have good (or bad, for that matter) pictures of them all. So I'll just tell you about my favorite WIP of the moment.


It's the Arabesque stole in Jojoland Harmony (ravlinks). I'm making it for a friend who got married last summer. She picked out the pattern and the yarn, and I was originally intending for it to be a wedding gift. Now, my goal is to have it done by her first anniversary. I've got a month and a half; I think I can make it. Especially if I can transfer this time warp stuff from housework to knitting.

*Since you all liked the last earworm so well, I thought I'd give you another. :-)

From the ashes of disaster...

Continuing my quest to take care of bloggage, today I bring you one of the things I made for my sister for her 16th birthday (which was in February): Dobby socks!

Dobbytomus: a rare subspecies of Pomatomus

To be completely honest, I only made one of these for her for her birthday. The other one I rescued from what was nearly a sock tragedy.

You may recall that a while back, I knit myself a pair of blue Pomatomus (ravlink) socks. I rather liked these and wore them on occasional (my life has sadly few opportunities for wearing handknit wool socks). One day, back about November, I pulled them out of my sock drawer to put them on, and to my horror discovered that the heel of one was moth eaten! You can imagine my dismay. I immediately cleaned and quarantined all my wool socks (fortunately kept nowhere near the yarn) and bought a couple dozen lavendar-scented cedar blocks for all my wool storage places. I can happily report that I have found no other damage or evidence of a beastly invasion.

But that still left the question of what to do with the one perfectly good sock. I didn't have the yarn to make a second one to match, and I don't wear mismatched socks (except on accident). But then it occurred to me: I have a younger sister who's obsessed with Harry Potter and would love to wear mismatched socks. So I found some yarn (Koigu) for the not-quite-matching mate, and knitted away. My sister assures me she likes the result.


So there you have it: further evidence that the roses of success can grow from the ashes of disaster!

Bloggage

You know how you go through life and things happen to you and you either deal with them or they turn into baggage? It turns out there's a similar thing for blogging. You go through life knitting, and things either get blogged about or they turn into bloggage. This can be minimized by regular blogging, which as we all know, is not my strength. However, I am determined to do something about my bloggage, one project at a time. At the rate I go, I'll probably get caught up in about 2017, but I'm still going to give it a shot.

First up, Patrol Socks.


These are just John Doe socks with a twisted rib/cable thing down the sides. They're knit from Regia sock yarn in the Kaffe Fassett colorway Fog with mirage patterning. I think I used just a smidge over two balls for socks that fit a man's size 10.


They're called Patrol Socks because I started (and finished) them for Mr. Willoughby while he was on patrol. Then Willoughby revealed himself to be a blackguard and undeserving of wooly, knitted love. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who was particularly helpful to me in getting through Willoughby's revealing his true colors. He offered me a unique perspective (all my other close friends are women) and a reminder that all men are not cads. And fortunately for my friend, his feet are the same size as Willoughby's, or at least close enough that the socks fit him. So he got the socks instead.


You know, I think it's possible that the only thing better than knowing that your handknits are worn and appreciated is knowing that you're cared about. Don't you think?

100 - from the road

This is my 100th post. That means over the almost 2 and 1/2 years that I've been blogging, I've written about 0.8 posts/week. When I started this, I had grand visions of blogging multiple times a week. I don't think my grand visions accounted for such things as work, school, and the need to buy groceries and do laundry. Still, 100. I think that's something.

I feel like I should have something profound to go with such a neat number, but since I'm traveling, I've got to rely on a post I wrote and added pictures to (the really important part) a while ago. So while I'm all out of profound and insightful, I give you bright and cheerful!


Baby bibs! In bright cotton yarn, photographed on a bright sunny day. I made these as a way to use up some of the ball ends from my dishcloth making. My favorite part? The buttons.


How can you not love the cute little girl buttons? I think I like the butterfly the best...

More regularish blogging to return when I'm back on my usual continent.