One Ugly Sock...

I've gotta say it: This is going to be one ugly sock. And I'm not really sure I care, because most of the time, my feet are in shoes. 

But I'll try my best to make the other one prettier. It doesn't help when you start the gusset the wrong-way 'round... There are rookie-style boo-boos in this sock, but again. I don't particularly care. I'm just happy to be knitting socks again. 

There are purl rows where there ought not to be, and there are some spots where I'm going to have to do some judicious weaving to close up some gaps. Not like me at all. And on top of it, the tension in this sock is SO TIGHT. I mean, it's like I know I've been under stress, and this sock is going to show it. I hope it fits on my leg and foot. It might not. This could be interesting. 

The yarn is Lorna's Laces, and I believe the colorway is St. Charles. I could be wrong, but this is deep-stash yarn, and the original ball band is...somewhere. Probably stuck in a notebook or in a project bag. 

The leg is my own design. I always do a plain foot, and a heel flap. Not sure which toe style I'll do this time. Crap - I may do something on the heel and toe entirely different on the second sock. Live large, right? As long as the legs match. 

I think I can say that I will never do an 8x8 rib again. What a pain in the rear end... Oh well. In the end, I will have another pair of socks, whether I'm in love with them or not. Just so they're wearable. 

The Heel Turn...

Turns out, a "heel turn" is a wrestling term, too!! Kid #2 wore a shirt that said something about "heel turns," and I asked where I could purchase "this knitting shirt." Well, after a few laughs, I Googled it. Apparently, it is a wrestling term as well as a knitting term. 

I find heel turns (the knitting term, I mean) to be magical. Here's a teeny-baby heel turn on this sock, and then a picture a few rows in, where you can definitely see the short rows at work. 

Which is also funny, because when I see a shawl or something that has short rows in it, I freak out. But I do them in socks all the time. 

And yet, there might be a sweater or something that uses short rows, and I just nope on outta that idea. I need to transfer sock knitting skills to other projects. I have a couple sweaters - or more like t-shirt things, not full-blown sweaters. They're in my to-do list, and I need to be courageous and just do them. It's only yarn. 

As you can see here, my technique is a bit rough. That's what I get for setting these aside for over a year. I have to share a pro-tip with you: Do your SSKs (slip slip knit) purlwise. Then you don't have that obnoxious little yarn carry-over. 

I've taken to writing myself notes to do that, because I don't remember, and then I'm half-way through a heel turn and I have a weird looking heel. Again, not that anyone notices, but I do. And it bugs me. 

Baby Knitting...

So the shower went ok. It was weird not having my sister there, since it was for her soon-to-be-born grandchild. They got some nice gifts. Mine, as usual, was the only one that was hand-made, and I'm not saying that to brag. It's just how it turns out. 

Of course, the afghan is to the left. It was with yarn held double. The afghan and the smallest hat were Bernat Baby Softee. The striped hat and the sweater are Cascade 220 Superwash. I biggened up the sweater, so I think it's going to fit by the time the kid will need it. The baby is due in early May, so while it's my "usual" pattern, it only goes up to 6 months and if the kids are bigger, the sweater will stretch a bit (garter stretches nicely) but it would be a one-time wear... 

The pompom maker worked out well. I did tassles on the smallest hat, and the pompoms on the bigger one. It's not my usual device, because, of course, that one is stuck somewhere in a project bag in the depths of the stash closet. I bought a new one, with two sizes, because maybe you might need a bigger pompom, right?

It took me a hot minute to figure out how to use this one, but once it was in process, it was pretty easy. I was probably more anxious about trimming the balls, because I wanted to make sure everything looked perfect. 

There was an aunt of my niece-in-law's who was inspecting VERY closely the stitching on the afghan. Go for it, sweetie. The kids loved the items, and I was glad to get them done. I hope they got the care instructions (everything's washable in cold water and warm dryer), because it's easy to forget when you're a sleep-deprived parent.

Funny story: My nephew said, "We were told that they may want to induce, so we've had this plan, and a date in our head." I looked him in the eye, and said, "You know that the word 'plan' is now irrelevant, right? I mean, you're gonna have no control over anything for the next 18 years, at least." My mom was snickering, he looked a little abashed, but he also laughed. I told him it was my duty as his aunt to tell him straight... 

Sad story: They made a speech at the end about "people who should have been here, but who are no longer with us." That caught all of us. 

I think that's why my sock is so messed up (aside from just all the other crap going on in life right now...) -- going from size 8 needles to 1.5? Yowza. 

Art or Porn...

Oh dear, the State of Flori-DUH is once again in the news. Apparently, art is now porn. Just as books are "woke," Michelangelo's "David" has cost a school prinicipal their job, because one parent (yeah, one parent) complained that their child was "damaged" by viewing a picture of this statue. 

Yeah. It's not 1540, though since this statue was so well-received in the era in which it was created, that's pretty progressive. But wait. In 2023, some poor little flower saw a naked guy carved out of stone and was shocked. Or something. 

Yes. It's a naked man. No, it's not pornography. It's art. It's a magnificent sculpture that was supposed to be in a cathedral (remember David & Goliath? This is THAT David... who was said to be "...ruddy, handsome, and strong." In the bible. 1 Samuel 16:12, if you care to look. It's in a museum. Nuns, children, old people -- tourists of all stripes -- visit and take selfies. 

It's bad enough that Flori-DUH wants to ban books such as the history of Rosa Parks because white kids might be "upset" that racism is an ugly, ugly thing  -- that still exists "loud and proud," if you will, right here and now -- and parents don't want their kids exposed to certain subject matter. 

Well, that's cool. But what YOU want for YOUR kid doesn't mean that it has to apply to MY kids unilaterally. If YOU get to make decisions about YOUR kids, then -- logically (and I know this may come as a shock, so take a deep breath) --- I get to make decisions about MY kid. 

If parents don't like the education system, there's a quick solution to that: homeschool your kid. There is a small (yet noisy) minority which loves to complain that teachers are indoctrinating or grooming our kids. That same minority thinks that, because they went to school, they can teach at school. Um. No. 

So if they're so dissatisfied, they can take their kids out of school and home school them. Oh, that's inconvenient to you because you work? Well. Then you have a decision to make. Get your head out of your keister and realize that teachers give a large part of their lives, and generally suffer economically compared to other professions so that your kids learn things. Learn to think. Learn to communicate. Learn to work together -- you know, all those "adulting" things that one has to do when one works in the grown-up world. 

Don't like the books in the local library? Here's another easy-peasy pro-tip: DON'T CHECK THEM OUT. Nobody is forcing you to read the entire freakin' library. Though I do agree with Stephen King when he says that when folks want to ban books, kids should run to the library to read them ASAP so they know what they're going to be missing... 

The Hip...

Well, PT is going ok. I'm working on loosening up my hip flexor. I'm finally able to go all the way 'round on the recumbent bike, after a few minutes of loosening things up. I can only do 1-2 minutes all the way, but that's ok. It's a work in progress. 

I'm able to have further PRP shots, and I'm hoping that I can rehab this hip back toward normal. It'll never be "back to where it was," just because of age, arthritis, etc. But I would like to ditch the cane, ride a bike, do my yoga practice, and muck out stalls again. Oh, and walk without pain. That would be nice. 

One of my favorite "exercises," if you want to call it that, is lying on the massage table with my feet hanging off (like just toes and tops of feet off the table so they're not extended so far (even though I can do that comfortably), on my stomach. Eventually, I'm supposed to get onto my elbows, which is a classic "Sphinx" pose. I'm not there yet. But I'm getting there. 

Flo...

So the students at the yoga studio named our new (well, inherited) ficus, and her name is Flo. We repotted her, and while you can't tell in this picture, she has blue Christmas lights on. I was going to remove them, but the students want her to keep them. 

I need to rearrange her lights, because as you can see, she's topping up toward my one pendant light. I might have to add another string of lights to her, as her canopy grows. 

She must like it there; she hasn't dropped leaves like she did at first, and she seems to have lots of new growth at the top. 

Soon, it will be warm enough to get two pots of plants replaced: I'm working on a snake plant, which will be in a lovely pot near the corner where its vertical lines will look really nice. And then a spider plant, on top of the cubbies, because even though it's not going to be a hanging plant, it will still look nice on top there. All of the plants in the studio are there for their ability to clean the air. We do have top-of-the-line air filters in our HVAC system, but it's always nice to have some green in the studio.

Random Picture...

Quinnie seems to like cheek skritchies... I caught this photo quickly, because when she sees the camera, she looks away. Stinker. 

I can tell she's slowing down a bit. She still barks like crazy, but at times, we can have someone walk past the house and she doesn't hear them. She sleeps that "old lady sleep" where it's pretty deep. She loves her pets till she's done with you and then she's done. 

Her face was once fully black. She had a classic Elkhound dark face, with "eyeliner" around her eyes. There's a lot of grey on that muzzle now. Her eyes are still that beautiful liquid brown and can be quite expressive. Especially when she's begging for food...which is always an Elkhound trait. 

She has a hot spot on her tail, thus the Cone of Shame. I can only take it off her when I'm in the same room and have my eyes on her.