I started a pair of socks that I mentioned in my last real post for my friend Lily, in Canada. I picked the Hedera socks from Knitty, and I am loving knitting them. As I mentioned, I am just having a blast with the actual knitting of the pattern. I’m using Fortissima sock yarn in a dark blue-gray color, and I just love the lace.

You knew there was a “but” coming from the title of the post didn’t you? I have size 7 feet, and they are narrow. Not really narrow, but relatively so. I have a really high arch, but other than that my feet are pretty average. Lily wears (according to her husband, since she was being difficult and didn’t want to provide me with any info) a size 9-10 shoe, and she is a good six inches taller than I am. Well. The problem is that this sock barely makes into onto my foot. Once I get it on, it’s fine — but getting it on is a hassle. I made the large size, but it still feels pretty tight around my foot. So I was already a little worried about it. Then I made a stupid mistake on one of the lace repeats that I didn’t notice until two repeats later. Not to mention that when I put them on and really looked at them, I decided that the leg was a little bit short — even on me.

Bah.

When I really, really think about it, though — maybe a lace sock wasn’t the best choice anyway. I think probably a textured sock would be better for Lily — I think I picked the lace for selfish reasons (and it makes me a little ashamed to admit it). So rather than continue in the charade that these socks were a good choice for Lily, and working out well, I decided that I was working on my first pair of socks for me, and I will come up with something better (more suited and better executed) for Lily.

So. I have one complete Hedera sock. For me. And that frustrates me (even though it seems like it should be something to celebrate!).

Contortionist modeled shot!

Close up where you can see both my mistake in the lace pattern and my electric blue toenail polish!

The first time around, I tried to do the heel as written, but it really really didn’t work for me. I could not keep my edge stitches tight on one side, so that side grew quite a bit larger than the other side. After the second try, without seeing an obvious solution, I decided to try the sock with just a plain knit heel flap, and I was quite happy with how it turned out — it fits my foot very well. I do have a pretty significant hole where I picked up stitches for the gusset on one side, but I’m choosing not to obsess about that. It doesn’t look horrid, since the pattern has holes in it anyway. I’m trying VERY hard to let go of a few (not many, but a few) of my perfectionist tendencies.

I feel like this sock flat-out FLEW off my needles, and I’m very pleased with that. If I can decide on a pattern and get yarn for Lily’s socks before I finish the second of these, then I will abandon Hedera in favor of doing Lily’s — but if the second sock is completed anywhere near as quickly as the first was, I don’t think that will be an issue.

In other knitting news, I am still plugging away on Mother’s bag a few rows at a time (How can I knit SO much and see SO little progress? Talk about frustrating!) and I also started a pair of Fetching handwarmers for a different friend in Canada. They are fun, and talk about a quick knit! I’m using leftover yarn from Rogue (Kathmandu Aran), and I just love this yarn so it’s really a pleasure to knit these. (I will probably make a pair for myself as well once I’m done with these.) Photos coming soon!

Real posting soon. I keep telling myself. After the kidney stone passes.

From a recent walk around my neighborhood. Click here to see the entire set.

Fair warning: this is going to be a pictureless post. My head and I are engaged in an epic battle, and lest I risk defeat, I’m not going anywhere NEAR the camera.

And it’ll probably be a relatively short post.

But hey! It’s a whole lot better than what was going on most of the summer!

I started a new sock project — I’ve found that I get antsy if I don’t have a pair of socks on the needles, because socks have become my “between” knitting — and most importantly, my “at the computer knitting.” So when I’m reading forums, blogs, or email — I’m usually knitting away on a pair of socks. And I like that. So I started a new pair of socks, for my friend Lily in Canada. I chose the Hedera socks from Knitty, and WOW. So far I am having so much fun knitting them! I’m using a 75% superwash wool/25% acrylic blend (can’t remember exactly what yarn right now) in a dark, dark bluish-charcoalish color, on US 2’s, and I am loving how much fun I’m having on them. I’ve finished four of the leg repeats — the lace pattern is so easy to memorize, so easy to execute — and yet so attractive! I just hope Lily loves them. They are done on four needles instead of five, which is the first time I’ve done socks that way, and I’m definitely liking it. (I talk like I’m some kind of prolific sock knitter. This is my fourth pair of socks. But I see many, many, MANY more in my future. Including, I hope, eventually, a pair for myself!!) So I’m having fun with that, which means . . .

I am neglecting Mother’s bag. I know, I know. Bad child. But I can only work on it so long at a time before my brain goes numb. It will be finished before Christmas — and that’s the only commitement I’m making about that bag. I’d LIKE to finish it before I start on the shrug for MT’s wedding — but. We’ll see.

I have picked out a yarn I would LOVE to knit the shrug for MT’s wedding in — LL Lion and Lamb, in the solid charcoal color. Yeah. That’ll be one hell of an expensive shrug. I’m going into negotiations with my sister little and my mother to see if they’ll subsidize the cost, since it IS for her wedding, as a member of the wedding party. We’ll see how that works out. But it would be such a great yarn for the purpose . . . still, I’m going to keep looking and see if anything else strikes my fancy.

Okay. My head is telling me this is about as long as it’s willing to spend at the computer. Hopefully I’ll be back soon, with pictures. I’m also working on getting a “finished” page put together for Rogue, and some stuff to add to the permanent structure of the blog. We’ll see how that comes along.

First of all, before anything else, I want to say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to Carrie. Lucky girl to have an August birthday — August is the BEST month for birthdays (not that I’m biased or anything)!

And secondly — I have a finished object to show off! Go me!

I finished Nate’s socks, so now he and Daddy have “matching” socks. (This is where the awwwwwwwwww, how cute part comes in — I mean, how precious can you get? Matching socks for father and son? If I weren’t so proud of myself, I might gag myself.)

But really — don’t they look like an adorable set?

And can I just say — WOW, 3-year-old boy feet are so TINY compared to 30-year-old boy feet? It’s quite refreshing, really! Click here to see a closer view of just Nate’s pair.

Nate is IN LOVE. I finished the first sock on Friday, and he spent most of Friday night playing on his dad’s computer, sweating his little rear end off (he’s one of those children who sweats really easily and all the time), wearing one 100% wool sock — because he refused to take it off after I had him try it on. I had to negotiate pretty hard to get it off long enough to weave in the ends!

So when after I wove in the ends on the second sock this morning, I had him try the pair on for a photo shoot — and needless to say, they didn’t come off again. He even wore them out to the grocery store (with his navy blue Crocs, so cute!) — in the middle of August. In Houston. After the trip, he decided maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to take them off.

I’m going to apologize for the poor quality of the photos — I STILL have not found the “sweet spots” in our new house for taking natural light photos (so much time doing other things!) and I’m currently suffering from a migraine, which always makes the quality of my photos suffer. In addition, I have had a BITCH of a time capturing the color of these socks accurately. The modeled pictures are probably closer to the true color than the others, but they are still not quite right. (Sigh. Every time I think I’m getting a handle on this photography thing . . . )

Details, details, details . . .

• Pattern: None really. Basic 2x2 rib on leg and down the top of the foot (this is where the socks vary from Daddy’s; I did NOT carry the ribbing onto the foot in sww’s socks), and I refered to the Yarn Harlot’s sock “recipe” in Knitting Rules to figure out how to actually make it a sock.
• Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in the Blackwatch colorway. I LOVED working with this.
• Needles: US size 4 Bryspun DPNs
• Notes: Only as noted above — it is NICE to make socks for a teeny 3-year-old foot!

As far as other knitting — not so much. Still plugging along on Mom’s bag; I’m going to kick into high gear on that, so that I can get it DONE before I start either Christmas/Solstice knitting and/or the shrug for my sister’s wedding. There has been no appreciable progress, so no photos — it still looks like a candy cane.

In other crafting news, I finally got my sewing machine and sewing “corner” set up. Unfortunately, the only spot for it in our new house is in our bedroom, but the bedroom is big and I can live with that. I also threw out the bag that I’d started — I finally decided I just couldn’t live with it’s sloppiness; I couldn’t find the instructions for the pattern to finish; and the damn handles with their cording were driving me to tears. I’d been avoiding even thinking about tackling any sewing because the bag was causing me so much stress. So I tossed it. It was only about three dollars worth of material (though HOURS of time), so I didn’t feel too bad about it — and the emotional relief makes it well worth it! I think pretty shortly I’m going to fire up the machine and tackle some knitting needle cases. I’m sure I’ll be talking about how it goes!

Idea courtesy of Purly Whites.

Back with real blog content soon.

I turned 31 on Tuesday.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. I was a little lonely, as my hubby was gone on a business trip, and my sisters didn’t make it to see me, but it wasn’t too bad — I’d already had my “party” and I had my son with me. Plus I had some really good friends (one in particular) that worked hard to make sure I had a very happy birthday even if there weren’t people physically with me to share it with — there were many people sharing it with me in spirit. But at the same time — it was kind of melancholy. Birthdays are . . . contemplative for me. There’s so much I wanted to do by the time I was thirty, and now — I can’t fool myself into believing that “if I just do it WHILE I’m thirty, it’s the same thing!” But. There’s so much I’ve done that I never thought I’d do, and I think, in the end — it balances out.

So what is the “old lady” doing with knitting these days?

I’m making progress on Mother’s bag. I don’t have another photo, because it would just look exactly the same as the last photo, only a little bigger — it’s about 8.5 inches long now. Still going pretty easily. While I was knitting on it at the hospital, I got to the point where I am confident not looking at the pattern at all. (I probably could have ditched the pattern much sooner, but I didn’t trust myself.) That is making this a truly comforting, mindless, easy knit — I’m needing a lot of that right now. (Speaking of hospitals — Daddy is out, and doing very well now. He even has gone back to work, a little at a time. I’m also just about over my pneumonia. It’s great for everyone to be feeling better. Makes me happy.)

I have some modeled photos of sww’s socks:

He couldn’t take them off fast enough after I took the photos — 100% wool socks are just not a good thing in the weather that we’ve all been experiencing.

I am still working on my son’s matching socks. I just turned the heel on the first sock:

I think the child thought I’d lost my mind, putting those socks on him with the needles still attached, particularly since I was blabbering at him about being very still and careful so the stitches didn’t come off the needles. But he put up with me anyway, and I got to breathe a sigh of relief that they do in fact fit. (Hooray for math!) He’s really excited about getting socks — he keeps telling me “Mama, just knit! Knit my socks! I just want you to knit!” It makes me laugh.

In upcoming knitting news — my baby sister is getting married in February. She’s been riding my ass about choosing a bridesmaid’s dress (everyone’s FAVORITE pastime, right?). She’s being lovely and letting us all choose the dresses within given parameters (she picked the fabric and the length, but we get to choose the design), and we’re having them made. So since I wouldn’t get off my ass and decide, she hauled me to the mall to try on dresses to find a prototype — which was good; I like spending time with her, and she was able to find something that will a) look flattering and b) be easy to alter should I either get pregnant or continue to lose weight. (Woohoo, what a sentence!) The only problem is it’s not a dress style that’s conducive to sleeves — we’ll be going with spaghetti straps.

Um, NO. I dont’ show my arms and shoulders in public — I look way too much like a linebacker. So I have to find something that will cover my shoulders/arms, work with the dress, AND not make me look pregnant if I’m not. We looked around — found nothing of the sort. So my idea, which I really didn’t think she’d go for — “Hey, let me knit something!”

So. I showed her I Do from Knitty. And she said “Oh yeah.” Hooray! But, at the same time, ack! Now I’ve got deadline knitting! And I have to pick out a black yarn that will work with the pattern and look good with a black satin dress.

So if anyone’s got yarn suggestions, I’m all ears!