50%

Well. Given enough time on my butt and enough "Bar Rescue" (don't judge...), the first sock is done. I can now move my ticker to 50% and I've started on Sock #2. I panicked for a moment, because for some reason, I thought I had less yarn to work with, being as I made such a rookie boo-boo on sock #1, but I'm pretty sure that I'll have enough. There may be less "left-over," which is fine with me. I feel like I have quite a good haul of left-overs for at least 2 pairs of scrappy socks. 

I will point out a few things; take them as a learning experience or leave them - if you've been a knitter for any length of time, I'm sure some sort of "knitting screw-up" has happened to you. 

As you can see at the heel flap and across the ankle, there's a line of purl stitches. That would be because, after an intense spate of baby knitting (see prior blogs), I picked this sock up after a long, long, long, LONG time. The yarn is easily 10 years old, Lorna's Laces, and I think the colorway is St. Charles. I remember because I had hopes of getting a job where St. Charles was concerned. And - as I recally, these were going to be a set of 4x4 rib socks, but I frogged them when I dropped a load of stitches (like an entire needle's worth) and got frustrated. 

Ahem. I digress. What I did here to create that lovely purl ridge, which goes all the way around, mind you, was to ... knit backward. I literally knitted from left-to-right somehow, not quite knowing what I was doing. 

Do I know why I did that? I do not. Why didn't I just frog it? I do not know that either. I think it was me being in a mood and saying something like "screw it, it's just a sock..." 

So I corrected course and started the gusset. And as you can see by the little raised spots, I totally grabbed too many stitches on the heel flap. Now, mind you, the heel flap is a whole 3" because I needed more than the 2" originally in the pattern. I find that somewhere between 2.5" and 3" is better for my heel. Anyway. The gusset went on. And on. And on. And on. I ended up taking k2tog several times as I did the sole, just to tighten it up a bit. 

Again - truly. No disrespect, but it's just a sock. Most of the stuff I screwed up will be in a shoe. 

But then there's the toe. The toe is, totally and completely, a thing of beauty. I believe I've finally found a star toe that I like. It's just perfect. I prefer the star toe mostly because it fits one's foot better. The rounded toe and the traditional "paired decrease" toe can tend, when I'm knitting them, to have "ears" at the sides, and I don't like that. To avoid it? Star toe. 

I have to say, I love the colorway. I love the even stitches. And the only odd thing to me is the really long gusset. I attribute that to the mess-up as noted above. As you see, I don't carry the pattern down the top of the foot. I don't like how it feels. Never have. My own preference. You do you. 

That's the beauty of socks. You can make them yours. 

I think that next time, I'll grab TWO sets of DPNs, and try knitting two at a time. How bad can that be? I mean, at least I'll get a pair finished by the time I'm 70. 

I did start Sock #2 right away. No sense faffing about. Get it going, deal with it ASAP. And hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes twice. I don't need these to match. Though I did play a bit of yarn chicken on the cast on. Gotta have some fun, I suppose. 

End of an Era...

Hubby has been on a cleaning kick. Not just "housework" cleaning, but Swedish Death Cleaning. The city is putting new water meters into the houses, and ours is in our basement. He got a bug in his butt to clean the basement. 

I've been nagging suggesting that he and I tackle that project for....years. We have stuff that's just archaeological by this time. 

So the basement is now 99% organized. There are boxes I need to go through, and holiday decorations to sort. But all in all, it's a done deal. 

Let's just say we'll have a lot of stuff for the upcoming church rummage sale!

Then he moved on to the kitchen. And we finally decided to put Tippi's crate out on the curb. She's been gone 2 years now. I still feel the hole in my heart, but it was truly time. I now have a small shelf there, with the dog treats, various kitchen supplies and a spot where I can stash my purse when I come in. 

Her crate was picked up rather quickly. I'm trying to be ok with it, and it may sound weird, but when you have a dog who's been a part of your life for so long, there's still an absence there. 

Realistically, we won't have another dog. Maybe we might foster, but that's not a decision we can make right now. But I have many good memories. 

Mother Nature...

Mother Nature is having a hissy fit of massive proportions. Yesterday, Hubby went over to mow the church. I texted, "Hey, it's bucketing rain here." Then I texted, "Hey, it's snowing." And then I texted, "Hey, the sun is shining."

All in about 4 hours. My friend in Alaska asked if Illinois got "break-up" and apparently, we do now. 

This was what I had on my radio a week ago. Today, I'm sitting here in a sweatshirt. 

I had actually put on the AC in the studio for class one day, because it was in the 80s in the practice area. Too hot for us!

Today, it's sunny, with a slight breeze, but still - in the low 50s. And next week, it's May. 

I have the sad suspicion that we had spring, about 10 minutes of it, and we'll whomp right into summer. I hate when that happens. 

It's going to be another week of freeze warnings here. And next week is May. In the midwest, we're being told that this is going to be the norm now. Joy. 

Random Picture...

One of the things that many people comment on in our church is our beautiful stained glass. It's in a really different style from many churches, where the figures are clearly depicted in medallions within the entire pane of glass. 

Behind our altar are the angels: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and one more, who I can't remember! I really love the colors of these windows, when the sun shines through - literally jewel-toned light bouncing around the sanctuary. 

The church itself is black walnut on the bottom of the walls (about halfway down) and plaster up toward the vaulted roof. There's a pipe organ. The church has "homely" creaks and noises. Some say it's haunted, and that's cool. When I go in there, I always mentally say, "Good morning, God and all the ghosts!" 

One organist friend of mine said she felt "someone" come up behind her when she was practicing. She hoped it was a friendly spirit, since she was new at the organ and "I know I was making mistakes!" 

You'd think the colors would be jarring. They look like they absolutely don't go together. But they just ... do. I can't explain it. It just works!

The Club Nobody Wants to Belong To...

Do you know what I'd want for my birthday? What would be the absolute best gift? It would be for the doctors to say to my sister, "This is treatable, and you'll be fine."

I'm not sure that's going to happen. We were supposed to get together last weekend, and we were told, "Nope." She hasn't answered a single text of mine. 

Don't they look pretty? Pretty evil...cancer cells under an electron microscope. Makes them look almost like works of art. I'm not sure if these are what's in my sister's body. 

All we know right now is that her cancer is "rare" and "aggressive." BIL wants to take her for a second opinion. A relative has offered to fly them to Mayo Clinic (about a 45-minute flight as opposed to a 10-hour drive). My sister is said to be considering it, and I would agree, if she was asking me. Even if the news is the same, a second opinion in this kind of situation is something that I think is valid. 

The plan is to visit at some point, but I'm not sure when. She's scuttled a few visits already, and what's troubling is that I'm not sure we have a lot of time. 

It's not a situation I've ever wanted to manage, but in several instances in my adulthood, I've had to be the "Angel of Death" and tell people the absolute worst news. I don't like being in that situation, and I'm hoping that I don't have to. I just don't know. 

The Kitchen...

So, one of the best tools to have in your kitchen? A ruler. A standard, plastic ruler. I've used it when I've made Japanese Milk Bread. I've used it time and again to re-measure a pan. I've used it for tons of things. It's so helpful, and we don't often think of it. 

I've seen fancy measuring devices like silicone sheets you roll dough on, the board scrapers (only about 6" of length there, and I don't often feel like adding!), those strips you put on either side of our rolling pin... Nothing beats a 50-cent plastic ruler. 

Easy to clean, easy to use. Comes in lots of colors! So technically, you could have a green one for pastries, and a red one for meats? Why not? 

Made chicken soup the other night; and I added some dried seaweed to it. Aside from the mineral benefits and a bit of salt, it added a nice crunch to the top of the soup. It also adds a nice green bit to a soup that can be kind of "beige." 

I used a standard recipe: dice up a chicken breast and saute till lightly browned, and remove it from the pan. Then saute some chopped carrot, stir around on med-hi heat for about 5 minutes, add chopped celery, stir another 5 minutes. Cover your pan and lower your heat. Stir occasionally for another 6-7 minutes. Then, remove lid, add chopped leeks and a couple cloves of garlic (diced) and stir that around for a few minutes, just so the garlic gets golden. (NOTE: Nothing worse than burned garlic!).

In the meantime, have a soup pot ready, with about 6 cups of water in it. Add a Knorr Veggie cube for every 2 cups of water, and start it boiling. Add your meat & veg. Add some fresh ground pepper, add a bit of thyme, maybe some marjoram if you have it. Parsley, for sure, either fresh or dried. Let it come to a gentle boil, then add half a package of No-Yolks egg noodles, bring back to a boil and let it cook for however long the noodle bag says - about 6-9 minutes. 

There you go. Easy soup. 

The Knitting...

Still working on the blue striped sock. Told my yoga class that I had to rip the other one, and there was one student who said, "Wow, that would fit MY foot!" We all laughed. I think she might've been serious. 

I guess if I was ambitious enough, I'd have them all trace their feet and measure their shins. But I'm not that ambitious. Washcloths, maybe. Not socks. 

As you can see from the picture here, I'm using a silicone blister bandage. It lasts for about 3-4 days, and keeps me from puncturing my index finger, which is my "pusher" finger. It works better than just about anything I've found. And it's not obnoxious-looking! So I can wear it for a few days, and it doesn't get grimy. 

And as I pulled out my knitting to settle in with episodes of "A Place to Call Home," I did...just about what I do every couple times I knit socks. I pulled out the WRONG needle. 

No picture of the ACTUAL incident -- I was busy stuffing the live stitches back on the needle. Thankfully, the wool was "grippy" enough to not drop down a bunch of rows! It happens regularly enough that I don't freak out (as much) but I still react kind of quickly so as to not lose the stitches. 

As you can see, the top needle was the one I planned to pull out to start knitting. But...I pulled out the bottom one. 

I can tell you the first time it happened. I was working on a sock in a gorgeous fall-like colorway, from Lorna's Laces. That yarn? Stunningly smooth. Not grippy. And thus the downfall. As the NEEDLE slipped out of the stitches (this time, I didn't pull the needle out - it FELL out!), the little buggers droped as I was watching them. PLINK, PLINK, PLINK...(at least that's the sound that they make in my head, rather a gleeful sound, as as my heart makes a sound like THUNK, THUNK, THUNK...while it drops faster than those stitches do) By the way, I frogged that entire sock, stuffed the yarn into a bag and put it in time-out for a while. 

Funny thing happened at the oral surgeon's office. I had to go get some paperwork to drop off to my dentist, and it was a bit of a wait. Apparently, they couldn't find something...so I sat there knitting. After a while, one of the techs said, "Oh, look, knitting!" and I commented that I was also wearing hand-knitted socks. This tech literally lifted my pant leg (I was in the chair already), and petted my sock... I was a tad taken aback. Nobody has ever asked to pet my socks. 

All the girls at the front desk then wanted to see the socks I was wearing, as well as the ones I was knitting. That was probably the most fun trip to the oral surgeon ever!  The picture to the right is the pair I was wearing and the ones I'm knitting. 

Incidentally, the pair I'm wearing in this picture to the right? They're about 5 - 7 years old. Opal yarn. Wears like iron. Now, I just wish they'd come out with some variegated, like they used to. I love the self-patterning, but I'd like to get back to the variegated like these pink + green ones. Sometimes, you don't want a lot going on. You just want a plain sock that's sort of mindless. I mean, obviously, the blue stripe is mindless - I'm just knitting and letting the yarn do the work. But with a variegated yarn that changes colors every so often, it just seems simpler. 

I bought myself a birthday gift... Yarn. Of course. I bought Expression Fiber Arts North DK and I'm making the Gofleidio shrug/sweater/cardigan pattern. I'm not sure what you'd call it, but I know that I can knit it, and that I'll enjoy wearing it. It's been years since I've knit a sweater. 

So I changed up the colorway a bit. I kept the grey tones: Penguin, Midnight Snowfall, Peaceful Hush... But I changed out the pinks. Instead, I did Enchanted North (dark blue), Wintering North (medium blue) and Solstice North (yellow). Yeah, I don't normally wear yellow, but that as a "pop" with the greys and blues? I thought it would spark it a bit. I've always liked grey with yellow, and blue with yellow. So hopefully, that will work out in this garment. 

Random Picture...

Well, it's January. And strangely enough, we've had an insane amount of ice. Including sub-zero temperatures, so that the icy-melt stuff doesn't work. 

We live where there are alleys. You drive up the alley to get to your respective parking area and then you drive down the alley to get out to the street. Very few houses have front-loaded driveways in our neighborhood. It's older, the streets are narrower, and there's just not a lot of front-yard space. The houses are long, rather than wide. 

So it was pretty nasty getting into and out of the alleys for a few days. Mind you, the sparkly layer of ice on the snow, the glassy finish on the sidewalks -- beautiful. And so incredibly dangerous. Even trying to use Yak-Trax, people were sliding all funny. Folks walking their dogs cut straight through yards, because it was safer than trying to walk on either the sidewalk or the road. Nobody minded; it's easier to pick someone up off your lawn than off a sidewalk so slick that you'd never gain footing. 

Finally, after almost a week, it began to melt. Thankfully. I'm a big fan of winter, but ice? I don't bounce like I used to. 

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