Standing on One Leg...

Well, I used to joke that "I can stand on one leg an awfully long time..." 

And I realized now, that, yes, I actually have been standing on one leg an awfully long time. From what I can figure, about 18 months. 

As I get closer to my surgery date (it's 10 days from today), I am feeling the injury more and more. Sleep is a little harder to come by. I ended up one day on my recliner, which was a good idea, but wasn't, since Hubby gets up before the roosters. 

I actually have 3 yoga blocks next to the bed (it's a Sleep-Number, so it's a bit higher than a normal bed), and I use those to step up so I can actually get into it. I put my "good" foot on the block, then the injured one, put the "good" knee on the mattress and swing my rear end around, with my "good" leg supporting the injured one. It's a 9 out of 10 usually! 

Anyway, I'm both looking forward to the surgery and having generally an attack of nerves, as one does when one contemplates a major operation. My overall facade is calm, but my stomach has other ideas. Oh well, I guess a couple more pounds lost before surgery is a good idea. 

I miss my sister. I want her here to talk to and be my back-up. 

The Knitting...

I finished The World's Ugliest Socks. I measured, but my tension on the second sock is almost totally different. It's looking a bit smaller, but I'm going with it. It should be fine, and I'm not too worried. Nobody is looking at my feet anyway. 

What I like: I like the star toe. I think I've finally found a pattern that will work easily, and while it's on 64 stitches, I will play with it to see if it's workable for other stitch amounts. I usually do 68 stitches, but if these fit ok, then I might be able to stick with 64, which is where I see a lot of women's sock patterns written. 

I like the colorway overall, but for me, I don't wear a lot of orange and it's still strange that this will be the 3rd(?) pair with green and orange. I think it was probably the name of the sock yarn that grabbed me, which I believe was St. Charles. Long story, for another blog. 

I still like my Eye of Partridge with Selvedge heel. It's sturdy and it looks good. I think I picked up too many stitches for the gusset, though (see next paragraph). 

What I don't like: I don't think I'll be doing a 3" heel flap again. It's a bit too big. I think I'm somewhere around 2.5" and I need to stick with that. With the 3" heel flap, there's a CRAP-TON a lot of stitches to pick up and then that makes the gusset wonky. It makes an odd gap-y thing from the heel to the first bit of the gusset, which you can kind of see in the top sock. The top sock is on top because it's the one with the least mistakes. 

I don't really like the texture of the yarn. It's scratchy. Now granted, this project was from 2017. (Yes. 2017) But wool is wool. It's more scratchy than Opal, which - while it's my go-to - IS scratchy till you wear/wash a few times. 

I have a few more hanks of Lorna's Laces; not sure if I'll use them for a shawl or a pair of socks. I will have to see what's in the stash. I did ask Hubby to pull up a bag from a stash tote we have in one of the closets. But eventually, I just looked at what was tucked into project bags alongside my knitting chair. 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I have this sock -- and I can't find the pattern. Not only that, but I'm not sure which yarn it is. I'm almost sure it's Opal, because that's what 90% of my sock yarn in balls is. 

All I know is that it has a Strong Heel and a square-ish toe. I've looked through my clipboard and two notebooks, but I can't find it. What I might do is take advantage of the current "sort of matched socks" trend and do maybe a 6x2 rib or something close. Who knows? Maybe that's what I did anyway. I can't seem to get a good count on the pattern itself on the sock that's done. And I have absolutely NO idea where the pattern is. Of course, I know I will find it it will magically appear after the second sock is done. But that's coming later. 

For now, I've picked up Petty Harbour (yes, UK spelling, that's how the pattern references it). I'm loving the Cascade Superwash Merino sock yarn. It's sooooooooo squishy. And I like the khaki color because it really shows the pattern. What I don't really like is the 5" leg - it's a bit on the short side for me, but I'm so far along (on the foot now) that I'm absolutely not going to frog. When I look in my sock box, I note that my first few pairs were with a 5" leg. As I got better at it, I got better at customizing the parts. 

And honestly, it's beautiful. I'll live with it and when I do this pattern again - which I will, in a different solid color - I can do the 7" leg I want. 

The only concern I have is that it's so squishy that it won't wear well. This is the only pair I will have which is made from Cascade sock yarn. I remember the Robin's Egg Madelaine Tosh yarn. I was so happy with its squishy-ness, and that pair of socks has pilled like crazy. I don't wear them often because of how pill-y they are. They also have a 5" leg. Just sayin'... 

That being said, my experience with the Cascade has led me to the idea to use it for a shawl. It would be lovely as a cowl, too. So if by chance there's a hank or two in my stash (and I honestly don't know. I don't think so, but you never know...), I could use it for something like that rather than socks. This would be gorgeous as the Sally Melville "Wingspan" neck wrap. 

And, I'm going FROGGING. The Long Sands Tee? Well. I've lost about 20 pounds. The pattern has a little over 13" of positive ease (which means it's "flowy" in the first place). The size I was knitting was for my previous weight. I'm afraid that with this weight loss, it won't look "flowy," but will look like, "she didn't know how to knit the right size" and I'll be swimming in it. No picture for now; what I last posted was the last time I worked on it. 

Lucky for me, I've only done about 6" of it, so I may as well frog and do it over. And it'll allow me to fix some of the mistakes I had in the original one. This is the one main reason I stick to socks and shawls. My weight fluctuates too much. 

Long Sands is meant to be worn over a camisole or tank top, as it's in linen and knitted on larger needles. But even if I gain some of it back, there's enough ease in there for me to have some room. I'm hopeful, of course, that I won't gain it back, with the new hip and being able to actually, you know, WALK and stuff like that. 

The Indictment...

It is my fervent hope that TeflonDon has something stick to him. We were all happy about Merrick Garland, who seems to have misplaced not only his sense of justice, but his spine as well. I don't see anything coming out of him, except that he had sense enough to appoint Jack Smith. Who has his own checkered past as far as conviction rates, but for the love of Justice? Merrick, dude. You're playing wayyyyyyy too safe by allowing Mango Mussolini to get away with all that he's gotten away with. Is it reverence to the cult or a perceived loyalty to the Federalist Society? He's billed as a "moderate liberal" who is "pro-prosecution," but in this case? He seems to be running away from any hint of prosecution. 

And the grift continues. Mango Mussolini pled not-guilty. I'm sorry, I know it's part of the process, but there's ample evidence that he did indeed not only take the documents, but showed them off, and had no intention of giving them back. 

I want to know what's buried with Ivana. 

Social media is awash (in parts where, honestly, I don't go) with conspiracy theorists who are this very day protesting the indictment. What is it about this guy? What makes him such a cult figure? Whatever it is, it is that which makes him so dangerous for this country and this political system. 

We weren't founded on the premise of a demi-god or a king. We walked away from that when the tea was dumped in the harbor and we stayed away. 

As we watch rights being stripped from women, the Black community, the LGBTQIA+ community - as we watch the Supreme Court - our last, best hope for justice - become just one more vessel of governmental corruption; as we watch our children and grandchildren act as literal and actual sacrifices to the gun lobby and the politicians they've purchased? The last thing we need is a cult leader who's only in it to grift and sell our nation to the highest bidder. Which might be Saudi Arabia, North Korea, or China. Russia, while it would be the ultimate coup, is in no position. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we've already been sold to Putin by his puppet. 

I don't know about you, but I'm so overwhelmed. It's been a battle since that trip down the golden staircase. Outrage after outrage. Dumping of norms. Incivility on a massive scale. A pandemic that killed millions. Almost total destruction of what was a once-honorable profession of journalism for the more "palatable" concept of "info-tainment" where there's more entertainment and less "info" to be had. Lying with absolute impunity. Long-established rights stripped with glee. And more of that to come, kids. 

It's exhausting. Technically, we outnumber the rabid voices. But we need to be committed to doing the work. We need to turn out. We need, overall, to be a lot less "nice" and start calling out the lying liars and turning their tactics back on them. This isn't how I expected to spend my time. But if I want my nieces and nephews, and my GRAND-nieces & nephews, to have a world fit to live in? I've gotta keep going. 

Are you in with me? This is an all-hands-on-deck situation, folks. We're fighting for the lives of those who will come after us. 

Random Picture...

Peeps. You either love them or hate them. I personally love them. Stale, if possible, because they're better that way. 

So my oldest friend, knowing I wasn't out and about, got me a package. And yes, I ate them. Not all at once, but I didn't let them go as stale as I usually would. 

I'm a traditionalist. Just give me the birdies. No bunnies. No funky colors. No flavor changes. Just the marshmallow goodness and the sugar rush. It's a thing. I believe I'm the only one in my family who eats them. 

It's good to be an individual!